Flowers everywhere! I’m usually not one to care about or focus on flowers, but even I can’t help but notice Toyohashi’s overwhelming flower population. I think there may be more to this than meets the eye.

**NOTE: This post is from 2012 when I was living in Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan. I guess it’s a glimpse into some of my first photos with a DSLR and trying to tell a story through photos. Enjoy**

You can’t go far without seeing a group of these colorful explosions. Someone spent a lot of time planting these. They almost seem to be trying to take over the city.

They’re like an army rising out of the ground.

Maybe they think that if they take over slowly enough, no one will notice until it’s too late.

See how they inch past their boundaries towards the street? I’m beginning to think they weren’t planted at all. Maybe they have always been here. Perhaps the original ruling class?

You see that?! The way they stand at attention like soldiers? I may have just moved into the middle of the slowest, most colorful war that has ever occurred.

Look at them, slowly dismantling our barriers.

They’re taking over our utilities and no one even notices!

 Here, they appear to be gathering for some kind of attack. Notice how they have already taken control of the street in the background.

This is scary. The big question I have is whether the flowers are the victims fighting back after being smothered by the expanding city,

or are they the defeated rulers fighting to regain absolute power over their once fearful subjects: the people of Toyohashi, or, worse yet, the world. You take a look at these hideous things and decide for yourself:

All I know is that they’re incredibly photogenic and not to be messed with.