Walking Shibuya
the sun wishes to keep up,
but footsteps cloak much.
Trounce through the MOMAT
light and treasure all around
fall back, in your mind.
Today I ventured out to meet my buddy Tadahiro in Shibuya. Finding the Hachiko gate wasn't too difficult, but as soon as I walked out of the station it was sensory overload. There was some kind of mascot Hello Kitty show going on and I joined the legions snapping photos. Tadahiro tapped me and said hello, and for the second day in a row I had failed to see the person I was meeting before they spotted me. We crossed the everyway junction together with a typical horde and then cruised around Shibuya. There are so many shops, so many people, so many things happening, I'd never seen anything like it before. Tadahiro kep saying things in Shinjuku were bigger, but I couldn't comprehend how that could be. We ate Ramen for lunch, and the efficiency of the restaurant was impressive. We ordered from the machine before sitting down and then I was told that you could pick any size for the same price. It just means you get more noodles, but imagine that. We got one of the staff to that a photo of us, and I'm pretty sure Tadahiro just approved it even though his eyes were closed so we didn't slow anything down.
After a nice couple of hours shopping and walking, I met Yuko and fellow Canadian Jessica Ann. She was happy to hear my Canadian accent. We set off for an afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art Tokyo. I was thoroughly impressed by the exhibits and collections. Some fantastic pieces! On top of the art there is also an interestingly calle "A Room With a View" that offers a great view of parts of the city, and the adjacent Imperial Palace. It was beautifully calm inside sitting and watching traffic go by and people run the 5K loop around the palace walls.
The combo of bustling Shibuya and the viewing room made for the perfect subjects to indulge in two of the common elements of traditional haiku. The evoking of a moment of awe, and the picturing of sudden insight.
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