Friday, January 13, 2006
New Year
Met up with josh, which is not an easy task, since he refuses to buy a ketai. trapsed around shibuya looking forthe belgian bar. found it. found it closed. went to the 300 yen bar and ate and drunk and waited for Leffe. Jaime shows up, in Burberry. It reminded that I need to pour more of my cash into the equities matching 'luxury', The stockmarket, once more, has an understanding of the world that people simply do not. Thank god. Make a break for the Belgian bar once more. On entrance, there is a free tombola. I take a ticket. I win a Hoegaarden cutlery set. Wonderful, and utterly useless to myself, who never uses cutlery. Then take a train to Harajuku. New Year is a big deal in Japan. In fact, it is the deal. This is the one time of the year when Tokyo empties, and everybody scurries off the the suburbs to be with family.
The Meiji shrine in Harajuku is right next to the station, and is the place that practically all Japanese left in Tokyo will go to for midnight. We queued for hours with the millions and were herded gradually towards the centre of the shrine chuck money whilst making wishes at the shrine. I wish i had taken a broom. On the fences as you are leaving, you can see people have tied their wishes for the New Year to the fences, and I was left wishing that I was literate, so that I could be nosy. But in reality, I am sure they were all leaving love notes for Hello Kitty. Kawaii.
A thought that belongs nowhere: I am struck, quite often, when I see Japanese girls with their Kitty-Chan ketai toys, and kawaii accessories with disbelief that they are of the same stock that gave their sons to the imperial army, the boys of Nanking. It makes no sense. Contrast to Russia - when i see a Russian girl, I dont, not for one minute, hesitate to think that she would send her sons, by the million, to their death against National Socialism, in the name of Mother Russia. After all that queing and general flouncing around, i was too tired to respond to the few text requests coming in for Party in Roppongi... so i headed home.
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