A Japanese Story

Top; printed nature, along with the real stuff.
Bottom; newspapers in the garbage room.
One of the women in my class brought me persimmons and satsumas today. Persimmons are called 'Kaki', for those of you who want to know. I had been complaining about the price of fruit, and she must've felt sorry for me. Funny thing was the other night on tv, I saw an hour long game show all about persimmons, featuring guests eating various pieces! They grow here big time.
Today I saw the smoking police wandering through Takadanobaba, keeping an eye out for smokers, they spotted a smoker crouching, enjoying his fag, and one guy went over and crouched next to him, with a portable ashtray extended for him to put his fag out in. No words were exchanged.
There are a lot of officials here, with badges and caps and braiding, armbands all sorts of insignia. Outside one department store I saw 4 fellows, managing the driveway entrance, with great ceremony, they were waving their sticks, ushering both human and vehicular traffic. One guy did it with a special flourish, he reminded me of an acrobat.
On the way to work, in Shinjuku station, every week there is a different set of markets. Last week it was foodstuffs, the week before, potted plants. This week was lacquerware, and bamboo objects. I was overjoyed by the delicacy of the bamboo work. I had only seen a few things before, and here was this exacting craft, celebrating the flexibility, elegance and simplicity of such a wonderful natural material.
To contrast that, after class I headed to Shibuya, the heaviest pedestrian traffic area in the world. Crikey! Met up with Owen and went to Tokyo Wonder Site there, and got slag in my shoes and socks from walking on the art work. We had a tea, then he presented me with my first Japanese glue gun. We went to Tokyo Hands, and I won't tell you how much I spent on glue. On my way to the station I lingered and watched hundreds of tourists passing on the crossing with their video cameras on, the sight is so tremendous. Do I really want to capture such an oft captured sight?
I have been stumbling across some Ikebana displays that've made my toes curl. I am gathering together images, and think, I would like to do an Ikebana dance.
Just got home, had a tea, made some beautiful mushrooms with garlic and soy, buckwheat noodles, tofu and broccoli.