18 November 2018
Greasers
Yoyogi park on a Sunday
I keep hearing about how on a Sunday afternoon, Yoyogi park is the place to go to see every kind of weird freak in the world trying to start a new trend in Tokyo. I have heard this for ten years now. I think eleven years ago that may have been a true story. Each time I have been to Yoyogi park, the same 6 greasers have been out the front half-assing dancing to an Elvis song. And thats all there is to see unless you think the next weird trend is kids riding bikes, kicking a soccer ball or flying a kite?
My journey to Yoyogi park was of course completely made on foot. And now Tokyo has become small to me. It is not even 10,000 steps from Kanda to Shinjuku if you go the most direct route! Thats not far enough at all. So I then paced around Shinjuku for a while looking in stores at things I dont actually want before heading to the park via the enormous shrine complex, where I again managed to crash another Japanese wedding. There were guards trying to prevent the 10,000 tourists from taking a photo of the bride... yeah right. If you dont want a photo taken then why get married on a Sunday afternoon in the busiest tourist location anywhere in Tokyo?
Anyway, I forgot to talk about the weather. Today was forecast to maybe have rain, maybe be grey, it was a bit grey, but no rain. Thats why I didnt head into the mountains to peer at stuff. I probably should have.
Tomorrow is actually forecast to have real rain, but after that, should be back to sunshine.
Why am I mentioning all this? To set my own expectations for what to do with my 3 remaining full days in or near Tokyo. I fly home on Thursday. I will probably get the 3 day all Tokyo wide train pass again for the next 3 days, which means a lot of time sitting on trains to make sure I get my moneys worth. This takes some elaborate weather based planning to maximise my time spent ascending a cliff. So there you go.
Todays photos are not a patch on yesterdays.
I took this same photo last year. This years is better. Last years was fully grey sky. I talk about the sky a lot.
Here is another one of the moat around the castle. Notice the terrible lense flare at the left? I dont care. Maybe attaching my lense hood would fix that, but I doubt it. Maybe I should stop taking photos pointing my camera at the sun.
Over the road from the imperial palace area is another shrine area. This one has a new ancient torii gate under construction, a red one! I peered through the scaffolding to see the metal wrapped concrete core.
I dont know the name of this shrine, but you can see its getting re-built.
Out the back you can feed the fish for a while. There were no cats near by being mesmerised by the fish. Tokyo has a lot less cats than the rest of Japan.
The little garden here is kind of bland, but its free!
OK, here is something no website has ever shown before. It is Shinjuku neon sign street, in the daylight, sans neon glow!
Who is sand dog and does he like umbrellas? Also why is this sticker all over Shinjuku?
I found this interesting. In a camera shop they have these little photo books showing about 10 photos for every lense they have for sale. I am not sure it would help anyone decide what lense they need, but you get to stand in a store and look at someones photo albums, thats always fun.
This is my old Neighbourhood of Yoyogi. The first 2 times I came to Tokyo I stayed right about here. It has not changed. There is a level railway crossing here that always takes ages to cross, you often have to wait for 5 trains to pass.
After spending an hour or so in Shinjuku and Yoyogi not finding my lunch, I decided to stay hungry and head to Meiji Jingu. The main path is wide and completely covered by an awesome tree canopy. Every tourist in the world was here today.
Unfortunately this photo did not turn out as well as I hoped. There is a big building behind the gate in the distance, you can barely see it.
'No photo!' guy was no match for my elbows. I was easily able to get to the front to gawk at these people playing fancy dress. Apparently the bride wears that hat to disguise her devils horns? No really, heres what the Internet says, "the headdress is big and bulky and is said to hide the brides 'horns' as a symbol of submission".
People everywhere. I am taller than most of them.
It is very common to dress up your kids and make them walk great distances in wooden clogs. Some people ask to take their photo, I just wait for someone to do that and also take a photo.
Its the greasers. I will have to do a comparison to an old photo but I think its the exact same people.
Inside the park there are a number of fountains, and dead looking trees.
Here is a bit more fountain and tree death.
Where are all the freaks? It is mostly western tourists having a picnic. Where did the freaks all go to instead?
I walked 3 laps of the park until I found some actual leaf color (momji) so here it is, enjoy!