31st December 2006
The year's end! What a lot of changes 2006 has brought to our family; we look back with pleasure and forward with excitement.
We choose today to visit one of the largest parks in Tokyo, Yoyogi Koen, not realising that Sunday is THE best day to visit as it's the day everyone comes out to show themselves off. A wealth of fascinating sights greeted us the moment we arrived at Harajuku.
The area around Harajuku Station is swarming with wonderful specimens of high fashion - Japanese style. These young ladies and gentlemen dress to kill in all manner of (to us Westerners) very odd outfits. It appears they are there purely to pose and have their photos taken by random passing folk. Some cameras on display appeared to be press-quality so perhaps some of the pictures will appear in some magazines or books. Who knows?
We saw so many interesting people, with such hard-to-define styles that I couldn't resist photographing a few of them. Some I recognised as the famous Harajuku Lolitas and Gothic Lolitas. Others were harder to label, such as one chap with a silver bandage across his face: but all were beautiful and colourful. Another hopeful young man held up a sign offering "Free Hugs", although I didn't see anyone take up this kind suggestion. Girls dressed as Alice in Wonderland or Little Bo Peep were everywhere mixed with slinky Goths and various characters I've since discovered are known as Cos-Play.
Rhiannon was keen to get away from the bustling crowds so she could try out her new roller blades, so we didn't stop very long in that area.
However, we were distracted by another of the famous Yoyogi sights: the Elvis people! On the walkwayto Yoyogi Park a cordoned off area was utilised by a number of people dressed in 1950's garb and rockin' and rollin' to their hearts content. The guys were dressed in leather, winkle-picker boots and greased black hair with gravity-defying quiffs, while the few girls in attendance had full poodle-skirts and ponytails. While in the UK, this "show" would be put on as a method of asking for money, here it appears to be done purely for pleasure, and it was a pleasure to watch too. A number of souped up and highly decorated vans lined the road, so I can assume these people arrived in suitable style, accompanied by their high-quality, loud sound-systems.
Finally we made it into the park itself, but the sights and sounds didn't diminish at all. Everywhere we looked we saw something unusual going on, from small groups of people practising dance moves to individuals juggling, people going through martial arts moves and others playing instruments. They show no self-consciousness at all, incredible.
The hypnotic beat of bongos floated through the air. Drawn by the haunting sound, I followed my ears and tracked down a gang of people 'losing themselves in the rhythm' with attending dancing girl. Being a great fan of this type of music, I could have stayed for hours, but family were urging me on once again.
A couple of grimy oblong ponds held little interest but in the distance we spotted a dancing fountain in the middle of a larger, more natural looking lake, so we heading in that direction grabbing some vending machine drinks on the way. We sat for a while watching the changing projection of the water spout while Rhiannon wobbled precariously on her new skates.
Then we saw a man walking around balancing a glass ball on his head. As you do!
We decided we'd seen it all now and headed back to the Metro.
As it was New Year's Eve, the most important holiday for the Japanese, numerous stalls had been set up along the roadsides selling all manner of foods, most of which were, as usual, totally unrecognisable. Rhiannon followed her sweet-attuned nose to a stall selling chocolate covered bananas on sticks. How could we refuse? They tasted gorgeous and were far more appetising that some of the octopus kebabs we noticed.
Foot-sore and mind-boggled, we went home to ponder what to do for our New Year's Evening.
