yoyogi koen, adventures

having had no plans for activities today
i consulted the renowned metropolis, a free english weekly magazine for foreigners with dates and stories. i do actually appreciate this magazin once in a while despite it's relatively wide target audience, because reading the usual japanese magazines is a bitch (mostly because reading japanese in general is a bitch).
eventually, this lead to a trip to yoyogi park, where a celebration of another cool (japanese) magazine was held, more like a clubdance festival. it appeared that i was not the only foreign fellow who had read the info. in fact, i was quite schocked how influencial metropolis had become, seeing that nearly half of the people were foreigners. why complain, you ask? living in japan has one interesting point: it's the admiration by japanese for foreigners. obviously admiration wears out with a greater number of them in the same spot... ; )

yoyogi park features the 1964 olympic stadium complex by kenzo tange, which you can see on one of the pictures. this is a cheer to tokyo's application for 2016 olympics.

another picture shows an impression of the dance festival which attracted a bunch of esotherical japanese, neo-hippies you could say, and they wouldn't be complete without the original vw bus, would they.

lastly one should get aware that except for high-class and very cheap restaurants, all depictthe offered goods in some realistic way. often western people are amazed by the very realistic plastic imitates that can be found in front displays of restaurants. this determination to show beforehands what customers will get for their hard earned money goes to some extremes. at the festival a small stand of a homeless guy offered american style ice (crushed ice with a sweet syrup on top). at first i didn't get the exact meaning of the intention behind depicting different ice flavours by putting differently coloured balls into glasses, since the ice itself is neither spherical nor does it get served in glasses. than, i realized how cleverly one aspect of this particular type of ice is articulated: difference between the types is not due to taste, but colour... amazing stuff.