Tokyo is strange...

Or rather, Harajuku is strange. You jump out of the subway, and you immediately see a crowd of teenaged girls in funky getups. It's like the Hot Topic kids at school, only in a larger group and people come from everywhere to take photos of them. I was expecting something far more outrageous. A couple had some clever outfits (the rabbits with elaborately painted faces and cigarettes, for instance), but mostly it was just standard issue gothness. After Gwen Stefani's numerous references to them, I was expecting...I don't know...something a little more glam. Anyway, next door to the Hot Topic types and their entourage of tourists, you find the Tokyo Rockabilly Club. They've got loud speakers playing vintage rock'n'roll while they do some rather unusual interpretations of American dance (including the Russian "coffee grinder" thing). They've all got the black skintight pants and the leather jackets and the greaser hairdos, and some of them even have saddle-shod girlfriends. And next to those guys are the would-be Harlem Globetrotters. They're just starting to work on their skills, but they're goin' for it...

But that's what I love about public parks in Asia. Everybody can go there and be who they are. Nobody's judging them. Nobody even notices! People having a barbecue dressed as cows? Whatever. A guy teaching his little dog how to ride a tricycle? How cute, can I pet him? Actors rehearsing? Try not to distract them. People working on the next version of STOMP? Watch out for flying chips of broomsticks! Martial artists honing their craft? Join in! Public aerobics class? Grab your sneakers. Nobody thinks anything of it except me...direct from the Land of the Free and the home of the conformist-minded. If any of this kind of thing happened in American parks, people would make sure the participants knew they were weird. But all over Asia, people use public space like an extension of their own living rooms, and everybody just lets everybody else be themselves. I'm a big fan of that. I've got to learn how to do more of that myself.

After that prime people-watching, I walked through the park, which was lovely. It felt like a fall day today, so the weather was nice for strolling until it started getting dark. Saw another nice garden, but it was more focused on azaleas and iris, which aren't really winter plants, so I could tell I was missing the best of the place. Still, it had some great fish and bird watching. I tried to get a shot of these cute little green birds for my grandmother to identify for me, but they're camera shy little things. Couldn't get the shot. But I did get a shot of an equally cute (although not green) little thing. Japan has some really cool birds. I saw a bright blue one the other day, but again, I was too slow to get a picture. I gotta work on that. Gram - I'm tryin' for you!

I couldn't do Harajuku without shopping, so I hit a couple of the vintage shops in search of a coat to replace my totally shoddy current overgarment. I feel like a bum wearing it in classy fashion-conscious Tokyo. I found so many fantastic coats that I'd love to wear around Boston and think "I got this in Tokyo," but alas, my big gangly Anglo arms stuck out several inches from the end of the sleeve. So no fabulous wool coats for me. Alas.

After that I headed back to the hostel. I wandered around a bit, but I couldn't bring myself to go get dinner, even though I'm really hungry. I am sooo over dining out by myself. Especially since I have atrocious chopstick, which makes me feel like everybody's staring at me. But I'm also over freeze-dried ramen. So I headed back to the hostel to get my trusty dinner companions (my book and a Newsweek). Now I just have to decide where to go. One of the tempura places, or the sushi joint where the plates come passing by on a conveyor belt...both are exciting, but would be so much better with someone to go with. I'm looking forward to getting home to my kitchen, where I don't have to choose between having a decent meal and looking like a loser....

Big day planned tomorrow. Up before sunrise to see the fish market and eat the freshest sushi ever. That's something I'm more than happy to eat alone...even at 7AM. Delicious. Then I will get in line early to try to get sumo tickets. If I can get them, I'll be attending the Sumo Grand Tournament for a few hours, watching big naked dudes try to fling each other out of bounds. After that, I'll grab whatever I can for a fast meal, then try to catch the evening kabuki show. It's a long-haul show. After that, I'll probably go to the onsen...if I don't go tonight...