DAY 3

Beautiful hot and sunny day today. Got up early and did yoga and got going. Harajuku district was having a parade today, some link with Korea. Made it there effortlessly and was greeted by amazingness. So many people, and queues of girls, I was curious at it all. I followed a swad of people into a department store; Laforet. I cannot describe the scene, but it was like being on some super trippy trip...everyone has told me that the shopping is insane, and it is. Wild stuff! And today was Hello Kitty's 35th Birthday, and this store was having some BIG celebrations. The stairs throughout the center were lined with excited Hello Kitty lovers, and their garb was unbelievable. Porno Hello Kitty, Goth Hello Kitty, Harajuku madness. The shop stalls were packed, there were so many people, the police were managing the crowds. I just walked around trying not to stare too hard, but OH MY GOD. At one stage I just cracked up and couldn't stop laughing, it was so ridiculous. I got outside.
Had some lunch at a sushi conveyor belt place, and because it was in such a touristy district, there were many tourists there like me. I was sitted next to an American group who were tucking into their beer and getting louder and more obnoxious every second. I heard one say "what's the use of tofu except as a toilet cleaner"(!), and then I heard them discussing Japan and it's greatest bits. One of them mentioned the beauty of Hiroshima, and I heard him say "we bombed the shit out it". What a fucker. I avoid whiteys wherever possible, I just don't want to know them. I saw a white guy eyeing this beautiful sexy Japanese woman, and I had been eyeing her as well! But then he saw me see him, and I just walked on. I don't know how to act.
Anyway, straight after lunch I stepped outside and the parade had begun, full on fantasticness, with drumming and all sorts of performances. I stood behind the official's tent, where the performers made their most audacious moves, and was enthralled by the diversity and committment to culture and costume, and ceremony and theater. It was so exciting, I was crying with joy. Live music just goes through you and massages your soul.
Then I went nearby to the Meiji shrine and walk through the gardens. Spirited away! Thousands of people had the same idea, and we marched up this gravel path to the enormity of wood. Such wood, such a place. I felt so humble and bumbling in the face of such ancient austerity. These big black birds with fat beaks were everywhere in the woods. I sat down at one path and was entirely on my own for 5 minutes, it was heavenly. I saw the lanterns come on, and an announcement was transmitted through the park, basically saying to keep to the paths and not to take anything from the forest. I had just been looking at some sweet pine branches that I wanted to take home with me, but decided against it. I looked down on the ground was a giant dead moth, so beautiful and perfect. I placed it on a leaf, and felt my blessings. This world is astounding if you look around you. I didn't take many photos, it was all about experience.