did i mention the pictures?

No sooner had I stepped outside today than I was bombarded with opportunities! I turned the corner and there before me was a man walking his wee dog - ordinary you say - except the dog was decked out in it's very own bright red button down raincoat!

Wonders will never cease I tell you, though I spose it could have done with it's own personal doggie umbrella as well. Sometimes I wonder about the Japanese - maybe it's my advantage of having growing up in the countryside that i have innate practical sensibilities about life, because I wonder if people who've grown up and lived in Tokyo all their life don't have quite such a grasp on reality....I mean what do they think the fur on a dog is for for goodness sakes????? Fashion maybe?

In any case although I have a love/hate relationship with Tokyo as a city I must say one of the attributes of living here is that I am quite often astounded every single day :)

I only wish I could have taken a picture for you, of the beautiful little wooden italian restaurant with quaint courtyard next to the row of neon vending machines. Or the guy riding his bike holding an umbrella, cigarette and cellphone all in one!

Or of the little girl in the seat on the back of her mothers bike who did a 360 degree turn to smile at me as she passed, so I waved, smiled back and said "bye bye" as she passed and she almost leapt out of her seat with excitement as she did the same to me. So Kawaii.

That's what I love about children. How curious they are about life, how unafraid they are and how keen to explore and experience new things. Their minds are so fresh and uncynical that they haven't yet learnt to make assumptions or immediately put things in boxes. The world is exciting and new to them every. single. day.

Of course it's not always so fun sticking out like a sore thumb over here. Sometimes I get really tired of being stared at, especially when I'm running! And it makes me sympathise with hollywood celebrities on some level coz it's bad enough having people gawp despite having them take pictures as well! I don't know how they do it, but I spose I could for 40 million or so hey :)

Most of the time I just try to ignore it and stay in my own little world, but on days when I'm not feeling on top of things it can really get to me because when they look at you it's not a quick glance, it's always a steady stare out the side of their eyes which are already slanty anyway and well it just makes for feeling that I am the object suspiscion really!

Some days it really annoys me and others it doesn't, but I guess it's just part and parcel of living here and I do wonder sometimes if I might suffer celebrity withdrawl symptoms if I lived somewhere annoymous like London or what have you, which i hear makes you feel about the size of an ant for how invisible you feel in such a multi-cultural city...except recently if you looked middle eastern of course.

People here say living in a country where you don't speak the language is great coz it's so peaceful, but when you go home you get really annoyed because all of a sudden you can understand everything that people are saying whereas here it's just background noise. Wait and see I guess, but I seem to have a funny knack of being able to just tune out people around me if I want to concentrate on something else - I thought it was a skill only parents had, but I seem to have picked it up somewhere along the way - only sometimes it gets me in trouble coz people think I've heard them when I haven't!

What I'm most looking forward to when I come home though is the scenery and having nature at your fingertips so readily - it's something I really took for granted at home, but which is so precious here.

At the park I stopped to peer into the pond and made friends with a giant goldfish. He swam up and down looking at me and playing with the raindrops and I wondered if he was lonely as I didn't see any other fish.

I thought we made a funny pair the two of us, he alone in the deep dark pool and me alone in this big dark city, but both of us with raindrops falling on our heads and enjoying the company :)

Being there in that moment reminded me of all the summers I've spent camping and snorkelling up at Goat Island near Leigh and reminds me once again that I'm so glad to have grown up in New Zealand and had so many opportunities for a great lifestyle when some grow up never seeing the beach or snow let alone a paddock!

That's why you never see National Geographic photographers taking pictures in the city I think, because nature makes the best photographs, because it has the best creativity and that's because it's alive...and it reminds us that we are too.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll definitely try and get some pictures so I can share a little of my present world with you.

Till next time,
Fernleaf