Patchie!

Apologies for the lack of posts. Patchie is here :)

A week of Chichibu and the festival, then off to Kyoto we went. A small hiccup in the form of being told our rail passes were invalid when we tried to use them - we immediately contacted our travel agent, who contacted the issuer, who pointed out the fine print saying they must be used within 3 months of issue... the result being that we paid for shinkansen tickets to Kyoto, and will get the price of the passes refunded when we get back to Aus. Travel agent was very embarrassed.

Here are a few choice bits of Kyoto.


First up is the Bruce Pee "Ill Store" (Extra Dope Wear Select Store)

Sadly the khaki-camo, puffer-jacketed, baggy-panted, cornrow-dreaded shop attendant was incapable of standing still, so he is a bit blurry. Just extrapolate from the shopfront and you should be ok though.













We discovered that they put some very strange stuff in the air in bike tyres here. either that or it was something in the water we were drinking...

















Someone with great senses of drama and humour designed the signage that is stuck onto the smoker's butt-bins in designated smoking areas.

Theres a whole set of these - more to follow in another post.












Back to Tokyo after 3 nights, for a couple of nights staying with friends in Tokyo. Here's a "Where's Wally" image for you. Patchie on the famous Shibuya crossing...



Some Japanese pink...


We walked from Ebisu, where we were staying, to Harajuku and back, on a rainy Saturday. Yoyogi Park, normally teeming with Japanese and tourists having fun outdoors was completely empty. The rain also knocked a lot of the already ready-to-drop leaves from trees. The yellow in this photo is ginko leaves...


The crazy fashion kids were a bit subdued by the weather in Harajuku, but we did visit a few of the more interesting shops. Favourites was the Punk shop, where despite the Sex Pistols playing on the shop speakers, it was a far cry from tradtional English punk - not a splotch of vomit to be seen, and any rips and creases placed with zen-garden precision. Very amusing.

No photos allowed however. I did manage to sneak off a shot in a crazy costume shop though.