Metro Bus Show The twenty panel series of images inside the Metro Bus consist of photographs of Floating Carps and Cherry Blossom Petals/Flowers on pavement with corresponding texts. The purpose of this installation is to surround the viewer in a metaphorical space of cultural ambiguity. In other words, the combination of text/image would allow viewers to situate themselves in a place of 'cultural in-betweeness' which, I hope, would allow them to begin questioning not only their own cultural baggage and positions but also allow for the investigation of an 'others' position. The underlying implication is to raise questions about the notions of belonging/homeland and wherein those definitions are based. I chose to shoot images of fallen Cherry Blossom Petals/Flowers on pavement and floating carps to signify a reference to the Japanese notion of Wabi Sabi. The concept of wabi and sabi, is defined by the author of Zen and Japanese Culture, D.T. Suzuki, "as an active, aesthetical appreciation of poverty; when it is used as a constituent of the tea, it is the creating or remodeling of an environment in such a way as to awaken the feeling of wabi or sabi." The word sabi is defined as sadness or longing. In Western cultures such terms imply the ultimate desire for the paradigmatic reality of longing for a monotheistic anthropomorphic God; however, in the Japanese culture, there is no such central focus for one's longing, so the word for longing has to do with a naturalistic desire for the leaf that falls in autumn, or the cherry blossom that blows away in a spring breeze. In light of this background, the word sabi, as it informs my conceptual reality, can be understood as we quietly contemplate the passing of days on a quiet summer's afternoon when the only sound to be heard is the rustling of leaves in the breeze and the voice of a crow fading out to the autumn sky. The word wabi means poverty, wretchedness or living a wretched life. These concepts inform the photographic work I have produced for this installation. Generally, ambiguity in English or lack of clarity/description is perceived with negative connotations. I often find myself in a troublesome situation when I try to translate Japanese into English or vice versa. The shift of connotations and cultural differences sometimes frustrates the meaning of the words as the two worlds attempt to merge. I chose English text that intentionally functioned on a level of wabi sabi to attempt to bridge these differences between two cultures and Western and Eastern viewers.   -Osamu James Nakagawa