The country mouse and the city mouse

My hood

Does anyone else remember that book from childhood? It's one of the few that stuck in my memory along with Wide Awake Jake, Little Black Sambo (not so PC these days), and A Wrinkle in Time. The Country Mouse and the City Mouse was basically a comparison of pros and cons of living environments. I often quote the story when my Mom comes to visit me from her horse ranch in Georgia. Her awe at city life reminds me of the mouse's reaction when he saw all the food in the city. During a visit a few years ago, my Mom and I and two girlfriends walked out of my front door, hailed a cab and were on our way to see Pretty Alien (best band ever ;-)) at the North Star Bar. On the way there I noticed my Mom was grinning ear to ear. When I asked her why, she replied with unbridled enthusiasm, "This is just like Sex in the City!" Cutest Mom ever.
As silly as I thought that was then, I get that same look on my face every time I go to Tokyo. I'm only 40 minutes away by train, but it might has well be a different country. Allow me to demonstrate with narratives from two sequential cloudy Sundays, one here in Chiba and one in Tokyo. As you've seen before, the urban sprawl end rights about where I live, followed by rivers and fields and beautiful cycling paths as far as the eye can see. I've always enjoyed the edge of a party.
I went for a walk with some Japanese lessons on my ipod and turned around when it started to rain, about an hour from my house. Here's what I found:

The bugs here are freaky.
I was going to put my hand next to it for scale, except that would have required putting my hand next to it.

Some of the best running trails web out across Chiba from very near my house. It happened to be on this very day that I lost my battle with a cold that had been trying to get me for a week, and am still suffering from the stubborn Japanese cough of death, but hopefully soon I can pick the pace back up to a run. For now, I still visit this trail frequently, but at a walk with Pimsleur Japanese lessons in my ears. Luckily, the path is empty most of the time or I would appear nothing short of crazy muttering random Japanese phrases to myself in quick succession.

The Pimsleur method is brilliant for retention. It introduces new material with this odd backwards syllable repetition exercise and constantly quizzes previous material. I use the language I've learned multiple times a day and am often mistaken for much further along on the fluency trip thanks to the good pronunciation. The down side is that I am doomed to wander my town with a pained look on my face reciting "Fill it up please; The child is big; There are many cars; The coffee is expensive here; My husband would like to drink water." Oh well, they already stare at me anyway, now it's justified.

This guy rode past me on a Pee-Wee style pimped out bike with an adorable mutt in the basket. He made me stop in my tracks and smile, so when I saw him on the way back I asked if I could take his picture. He asked me if I liked dogs and I said yes. Then if I'm not mistaken, he told me his dog was Canadian. I am probably mistaken.

My town is filled with characters much like this guy. There is one man who hangs out near the dive yakitori place who has a mullet worthy of a Wall-mart in Arkansas and wears Simpsons t-shirts almost exclusively. Whenever he sees me he says "Herro mamasita!" and then laughs hysterically. I have started to avoid said yakitori place.

Although there are a few strange ducks here in Katsutadai, I must admit that Tokyo lets few of them leave. As I mentioned I was in the Toke last Sunday with some new friends, Glen and Steff. I met them at a "Tokyo new friends" meet-up in Roppongi about a month ago. Roppongi is the little New York of Tokyo where everything is in English, you can find any chain restaurant imaginable, and the beers are 10 dollars. I am not a fan of Roppongi, but we had a decent time at the meet-up and I made some new friends over 5 dollars Budweisers on special, much to my displeasure.

Not happy about the Bud, but loved the sign on the right

Steff, Glen, Me and some dude who I went to college with in Tucson whose name I have forgotten AGAIN. Sorry dude!

Glen and Steff were kind enough to let me crash at their place last Saturday night rather than having to catch the last train home after a night out in Shibuya. I convinced them to meet me for a late night drink at the awesome view bar I mentioned in a previous post. I was proud to show off the swank bar that Keiko showed me, and Glen and Steff were kind enough to act impressed and not bitch about the cover charge. Imagine my chagrin when I saw that the view from their apartment was better than the one from the bar. Sorry guys, next time we can drink on your balcony.


I was too awe struck to remember to take night time shots, but I fell asleep with a floor to ceiling view of twinkling lights and Tokyo Tower nearly at eye level. You can literally watch Tokyo go about its business from their living room. Over coffee and muffins the next morning Glen and Steff gave me the birds eye tour. They pointed out A 10'x10' mesh netting encased driving range on a rooftop a few block away and told me they occasionally see a man decked out in his finest golf attire practicing his drives with no fear of ricochet. We also watched a hydrofoil buzzing around Tokyo Bay and vowed to find out where it docks and take a ride. I live just on the other side of Tokyo Bay, so I may have found an interesting alternative to the train.

After breakfast, they took me to Yoyogi Park which I have now declared officially the best people watching on the planet. Tokyo has got the market cornered on bizarre and Yoyogi Park seems to be the epicenter. I won't blow it for those of you coming to visit soon (Zoe and Ash, YAY!) but here's a taste of the awesome.

First the Rockabilly guys: The gather in the same place every Sunday with their own PA system, blast 50s rock, dance in a circle, smoke cigarettes and sit on old pink Chevrolets practicing their Fonz. Perfection. Also, please check out the level to which these guys have taken the Pompadour. Japanese hair is closer to the thickness of pipe cleaners then to mine, so the sculpting is much more effective.

Next we came across the "touch juggler" above. He was awesome but his moves reminded me of David Bowie in the movie Labrynth. *Shivers* I am still afraid of Bowie because of that movie.
The park is filled with bands of all kinds. Some of them are running very proffesional operations complete with stages, back drops, dancing girls, horn sections and PR reps selling CDs.

Others bands are less organized and consist of three friends, two guitars, and the funniest T-shirt ever. As an English teacher I feel the need to point out that it's missing an article. Depending on where you place the article, it could have two very different meanings. I'm not sure which one they were going for, but it's priceless.

PS, if you can peel your eyes away from the shirt, check it out: I found Waldo.

I owe you a blog, but meanwhile, behold: