27April 08

It was a fine day so we headed over to Yoyogi park. I wanted to show Nick the part where I'd been for a picnic on Tuesday as he hadn't been there yet, and I felt sure that he'd like the trees and big open spaces. When we hit Harajuku station we found ourselves in a seething mass of humanity. There were the usual freaks camped out on the bridge over the railway, but there was much more to come.

How different it was on a busy, sunny Sunday than our peaceful picnic earlier in the week. A total assault on the senses - well, sight and sound anyway. At the entrance to the park crowds were gathered around a gang of rockers, clad in leathers, with motorbikes lined up for appreciation. Music was blaring and some of them were dancing, seemingly oblivious to the groups of onlookers. One ultra-cool character with lots of tattoos was grooming his slicked-back hair a la Travolta in Grease.


Moving on into the park, we just had to ask for a photo of two rather scary girls decked out in sugar pink like Little Bo Peep. They must expect to have their pictures taken, in get up like that, but seemed to submit to the photo quite sullenly. This sort of garb is actually found fairly often around Tokyo; grown women seem to enjoy dressing up like dolls. All part of the infantalisation culture.



We found a tree-shaded spot and spread out our picnic sheet then laid Emily down with us, where she lay grinning up at the canopy of leaves overhead and kicking her bare legs happily. Near our pitch there was plenty of interest: badminton players, a group of jugglers, some women practising Bollywood dancing to a bongo accompaniment, a guy producing giant bubbles using a rope dipped in a bucket of soap.


After a while we took a walk on into the park and encountered more activities: a group of martial artists practising staff patterns, some sort of ceilidh, students playing a tag game among the trees. Throughout Yoyogi there were countless dogs of all shapes and sizes being walked or carried about. Most of them were wearing clothing of some kind, in varying degrees of ridiculousness.

We came across an enclosed area where they were allowed to go off the lead, and it was clearly a place where owners took their pets to be admired. At the entrance you could be forgiven for thinking it was a child's nursery due to the row of prams parked outside, but these were all for pooches not kiddies.


Stopping at a cafe to feed Emily we tried a black sesame ice cream. I love sesame anyway and this was delicious, though an unappetising grey colour. On our way back to Harajuku we heard the throb of techno music and spotted a sort of mini-rave going on in the trees of about 50 people. Nearby some women were hula-hooping to the bassline. Back near the exit we found another group of hula-hoopers swinging their hips, this time gaily-dressed westerners. The rockers' music had been cranked up so loud that I feared for Emily's eardrums, so we hurried by as hastily as the crowds allowed and made for home.