Mary-Ellen 👑

Writer and digital artist.
Shortlisted for the 2015 Times/Chicken House children's fiction competition.

[Mary-Ellen 👑 @MaryEHopewell]

Decided to do a digital painting for my kendo instructors to express my thanks...

[Groudons Cave @GroudonKing]

Collecting ash on Route 113 in Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire 🌋

Always had to make the perfect path through the grass so you didn’t step on the same patch twice 😂

The volcanic ash from Mt. Chimney could be collected and traded at the Glass Workshop for flutes and Secret Base decorations 🎶

[Mary-Ellen 👑 @MaryEHopewell]

I became a Pokémon card. My students in Japan make the best gifts!!

[Pokemon Posts @PkmnPosts]

Pokémon Snap (1999)

[Boluwatife @TEEPHTREND]

Women are literally finding self healing methods for PCOS on their own. They're trying to treat themselves. No healing methods are offered other than birth control pills. In an era where technology has advanced this much, they can't find a cure for PCOS.

[DaVinci @BiancoDavinci]

WW1 Memorial in Vácrátót, Hungary

[6ɪx✦ @ok6ixx]

I was waiting at a crosswalk in Tokyo. The traffic light was red but no cars were coming. A bunch of people were waiting anyway.

The tourist next to me said to his friend "why is everyone waiting? There's no cars."

He started to cross. An old woman said something to him in Japanese. He didn't understand and ignored her.

She stepped in front of him, blocking his path. Said more firmly in Japanese, pointing at the light.

A Japanese guy nearby translated for the tourist: "She says you must wait for the green light. Even if there are no cars. That is the rule."

Tourists got annoyed. "That's a stupid rule. There's literally no cars."

The translator told the old woman what he said. She responded in Japanese.

The translator said: "She says rules are not about cars. Rules are about respect for order. If everyone follows rules only when convenient, society breaks down. You wait for the green light because that is what civilized people do. Not because of cars. Because of civilization."

The tourist kind of scoffed but stopped trying to cross.

The light turned green. The old woman smiled at him, gestured for him to go ahead of her.

As we all crossed, the translator said to me quietly "she is right, you know. We follow small rules so we can trust each other with big rules."

That stuck with me. The idea that waiting at an empty crosswalk isn't about traffic. It's about proving to each other that we're all willing to follow rules even when no one would know if we didn't.

[Karun Pal @karunpal]

The older I get, the more I believe happiness lives in the ordinary. Pets. Plants. A quiet morning coffee. Blue sky. Cotton clouds. Birds singing. The gentle breeze through the trees. A clean, cosy house. Good food. Good hearted simple poeple. So much of life’s beauty is quiet, gentle, and already here. And somehow, one of the sweetest feelings is knowing I get to wake up and meet it all again tomorrow.

[G. F. Allen @AuthorGFAllen]

Nothing beats starting a book and instantly knowing, within the first page, that it’s going to be your kind of book, and then having every page after that prove you right.

[Mary-Ellen 👑 @MaryEHopewell]

Happy St George's Day!
Here's some Tensho calligraphy for 'England'~

[Hiroshi Suzuki @AmbJapanUK]

Happy St George's Day!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🌹

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

I’m getting married at seventy-five, and my daughter told me I was wasting money on a wedding dress.

She stood there with her arms crossed, her voice carrying that careful, “practical” tone people use when they think you’ve lost perspective. “Mom, really,” she said, “You’re seventy-five. No one expects a big dress. Why not just wear something you already own?” To her, it was simple. At my age, things should be modest, sensible, quiet. She saw my years as a reason to step back, not step forward.

But what she couldn’t see was that my past is exactly why I needed this dress. She wasn’t there when I was nineteen, standing at an altar, pregnant and scared, wearing my mother’s thick, borrowed gown that smelled like storage and dust. That dress never felt like mine. It felt like something I had to carry, not something I chose.

For most of my life, I wore what life handed me. Clothes for raising children, for working long days, for getting through without drawing attention. I dressed for survival, not for joy.

This time is different.

I am not getting married because I have to, or because I’m afraid of being alone. I’m getting married because I still believe in love—after everything. I found a simple secondhand white dress for a hundred dollars. Nothing extravagant. But when I put it on and stood in front of the mirror, I didn’t focus on my wrinkles or the weight I’ve carried over the years.

I saw a woman who made it through.

A woman who raised three children on her own. Who lived through two divorces. Who kept going when it would have been easier to close her heart for good.

I sat for hours at my kitchen table, my reading glasses slipping down my nose, carefully stitching small details by hand. Each thread felt like a quiet promise to myself—that I still mattered, that I was still worth the effort.

I wasn’t just fixing a dress.

I was honoring the life I’ve lived.

Yesterday, I tried it on again. My daughter walked in and stopped. This time, she didn’t talk about practicality. She just looked at me—and started crying. She said I looked beautiful. She said she was sorry.

I held her hand and told her something I’ve learned the hard way: everyone deserves to feel beautiful at least once.

But truthfully, I think we deserve it most when we’re older—when we carry the proof of everything we’ve survived.

Because we are the ones who stayed.

The ones who endured, who loved again after heartbreak, who kept our hearts open when it hurt the most.

We’ve earned every bit of the light we choose to wear.

Credit - caylus

[宮崎神社の宮司はる＠神主YouTuber @haru71_1]

親愛なるキリスト教の隣人たち

私は神道の神主ですが、

尊き隣人が祝っているのなら

私も心から一緒に喜びます🌸

（画像は、私の気持ちそのものです）

#イースター #神道 #多文化共生

[Fanatics Collect @Collect]

A Stanford study found that people who played Pokémon heavily as kids developed a small region of the brain that responds specifically to Pokémon characters.

Researchers scanned adults who grew up playing on Game Boy and showed them images of Pokémon like Pikachu and Bulbasaur.

Their brains lit up in the same exact spot, a consistent area in the visual cortex tied to recognizing specific categories of objects.

The reason comes down to childhood. When you’re young, your brain is more flexible, and spending hours memorizing hundreds of similar-looking Pokémon essentially trained it to carve out space just for them.

(via @Stanford)

[🌙Alice🇻🇳🏳️‍⚧️ @Bega092205]

The more you learn Japanese the more you realize Kanji is actually your friend. The true enemy is Katakana.

[TRAFON(s Backup Account) @RiseFallNickBck]

A wide piece of advice

[Classic arts & Wallpapers 🥷 @Classisco123]

Pokémon

[🤠 @heavensbvnny]

People who speak multiple languages, have you noticed you have a different voice and personality for each language?