Yoyogi Makes Me Smile

yesterday afternoon, i spent some time out and about in tokyo. after a little sleep to recover from the night before, and a breakfast of fresh fruit a la nari, i hit the town. first stop, lunch. in the basements of many tokyo department stores are huge food courts with such goodness! i opted for a sushi plate and some rice balls. i needed japanese fuel for my journey to Don Quijote's, an everything-under-the-sun discount department store in Shibuya - i needed some essentials for my trip to fuji.

DQ was another major lost in translation experience. i mean, i can figure out what the products are, but no further information than that. luckily, i didn't need anything much more complicated than gloves, a hat, a flashlight and some snack food. then, to yoyogi park.

i mentioned in an earlier post that yoyogi park on sundays gets overtaken tokyo's youth culture. and whoa did it. i had a smile just plastered on my face every moment i was in that park. nearly a mile of food vendors and flea markets (oh yeah, i had the octopus balls - and well worth it - octopus and rice balls, lightly fried, splashed with soy, mayonaise, fish flakes and seaweed), japanese rockabilly punks in leather pants and huge coiffed hair dancing to rock music, goth girls and at least 15 bands. sensory overload in the best possible way. i ate, and drank beer on the street, checked out bands, watched street performers, perused local wares, and just had a grand old time.

honestly, that experience sold me even more on tokyo. it has such vibrance and freshness. it is raw. untempered. free. every week. if nyc had such an event, it would need to be so cleared with city regulations that it probably couldn't even exist, and if it did, it would be sponsored by coca cola. i am not hating on nyc - i love my city. but man, does tokyo have what nyc doesn't. i feel like the nyc-equivalents of the tokyo punks try too hard, and it seems like being cool for the sake of being cool. i am sure that being a foreigner had something to do with it, but i didn't get that sense in tokyo - it was just fun, free, happy and very inclusive. rock on.

further, yoyogi perfectly complemented my day in kamakura. one day, i was surrounded by an old culture, completely non-western, ritualized, ordered, pure. the next, i was surrounded by tokyo's youth, adopting elements of western culture but all the time entirely japanese, freeform, beautifully chaotic, raw. fantastic. i didn't want to leave.

at first, i was planning on going to something called the Oath BBQ, a weekly event with food, drinks and DJs (recommended to me by bartender Marcia). but, i decided to forgo another night in tokyo and head to fuji - the climb is overnight, so it would be in lieu of nari's or a hostel, and move my travels out of tokyo. so, i headed to nari's from yoyogi, packed up, and he drove me to Shinjuku station to catch the bus and get dinner. i had soba with goose meat. he had cold noodles and tempura. i can't express how great a host and friend nari has been. he had another guest this weekend as well, and apparently more coming this week, but as i told him, if he was feeling burdened or irritated, he hid it well. he complimented me, saying many guests need their hand held in the city - being told where they should go, what to go, how to do it - but that i am very self sufficient and able to do my thing without pulling someone else along. a delightfully sincere compliment, followed by his further comment that he is impressed with my ability to meet new people. well, i am not actually that good at it, at least at home. while traveling, however, it is forced and needed socialization, especially easy in japan where the white folk are easy targets for understandable conversation. i noted that joel and i didn't meet too many folks in peru, but the difference when i travel alone is, i stay in dorm rooms at hostels, and i can't rely on joel for my personal contact (something i love doing - joel and aaron time is the best thing ever). so honey, if you are reading this, i love you and i love the chance to be solo aaron in a foreign land.

stay tuned for Fuji. that mountain is fierce.