Killing Time

Today was the Autumn Equinox, a holiday in Japan.  Because work is slow, I was able to enjoy the free day.  I woke up around 6am--the happy result of some effort I've put into adjusting my sleep schedule.  This gave me time to do a cardio kickboxing DVD, wash some dishes and straighten up before housekeeping arrived.  I took my Kindle down to the courtyard and read for a couple of hours and then took off for a walk around town.

I started by walking through Roppongi to Tokyo Midtown.  This is a walk I used to take every weekend so that I could visit a pet store that has poodle and chihuahua puppies that remind me of C&B.  A few months ago, the store closed down and I stopped making the walk.  Today, I wanted to see what had become of the space and found that the store hadn't closed down after all; it had been remodeled!

Tokyo Midtown

Next, I hopped on the train to Ginza, where the main road is roped off and pedestrians can walk through the middle of the streets.  I passed the Apple store, which wasn't as crowded as I would have thought given the recent iPhone 5c/5s release.  It turns out that this is because the crowd was at Softbank instead.  (Softbank is a Japanese telecommunications company that you may have heard of as a result of their recent acquisition of Sprint.)

Apple Store in Ginza

I walked all the way up and down the main street.  Some stores were running Silver Week promotions.  There were a fair number of tourists out and about--mostly Chinese.

There were also a lot of folks shopping with their dogs.  I saw a Shibu Inu and many Yorkies and Poodles.  The Shibu Inu's dignity remained intact, but the Yorkies and Poodles were wearing an array of outfits--t-shirts, dresses, hats and even a pair of pajamas.  I also noticed a litter of kittens wearing scarves and perched on top of a street sign.  It's not clear how they had gotten there, but they had attracted a huge crowd--everyone was jostling to take a picture of them.

Diorama-syle map of the Yamaha building

Even after a year in Tokyo, I find it a bit sad to be surrounded by people all day without having a single interaction with another human being.  Some of you may have noticed that I deleted a recent post that I wrote when I was feeling particularly low.  (In retrospect, that post was better suited to a personal journal than a blog, so I've removed it.)  Of the numerous concerns I had in mind when I wrote that entry, I think the post at this link provides a composed expression of the one that's actually worth noting in a public space.