Ickle Tayto

I love it here. Tokyo is one of the most amazing cities. It has everything a person might want. even if they didn't know they wanted it...or indeed, what it is they actually want..

But I've been here for a while now..I've been here long enough to get homesick.

I was out on Tuesday night and it suddenly hit me that what I wanted more than anything else in the world was to be on a night out with my friends from home.. and not this random birthday party crowd that I happened to have been invited to because I work with a friend of a friend of the birthday girl. So I went home sad and woke up early and miserable on my day off.. not helped by the fact that the building site next to my apartment building operates from 8am even on a bank holiday (I mean WTF?).

Tired, grumpy and generally disheartened by life I headed out into Tokyo in search of breakfast.. I wanted pancakes and I had been told that Bill's in Harajuku was the place for pancakes.. So I went and queued (queuing is a thing here.. it's an artform) and I waited and after a half hour I was on the balcony of Bill's looking out on to a clear blue sky. (Score 1 for Tokyo - There is so much sky here.. and the colour is the most brilliant shade of blue). Coffee and pancakes were procured and soon all was well.

I had decided earlier that I would head to the Meiji Jingu Shrine as it would most likely be peaceful and relaxing and I could wallow in my sad feelings. But no.. Tokyo had other ideas for me.. It turns out that the Meiji Jingu shrine is where it's at on Foundation Day. As I walked towards it, I noticed marching bands.. and flag twirlers and drumming.. lots of drumming..

And all of a sudden I was happy. I hadn't realised that what I needed was drums and marching bands and chaos and crowds of people just out enjoying themselves. There were other drummers, and people carrying portable shrines and just the most amazing atmosphere of utter joy.

And did I mention the drumming?

I really want there to be teen movies about rival drumming gangs where too groups face off and there's a heist or a big show down concert where there's a drum off and the evil drumming gang loses their drums in a bet, you know, kind of like Step Up or The Fast and the Furious.