I have the best back figure

After spending my Friday sorting and cleaning and putting things in piles (if not suitcases), I decided to wander the city Saturday. I couldn't get the boxes I needed or ship anything during the weekend after all, as the 郵便局 [yuubinkyoku] (post office) was closed. I left my apartment around 10am, hoping to see the irises as Meiji-jingu and walk down to Aoyama - to see the Spiral building, which a guest lecturer spoke about in Shoji class in the fall, and maybe see if Kotto-dori had scrolls and other "traditional" goods that might make good souvenirs/presents for people.

I hadn't been down to Harajuku in a while, but I still like it a lot, even if I feel a little old for it. This time there were lots of musicians performing on the bridge. Not so many cosplayers, I assume because it's getting a little too warm for the layers of lace and makeup involved. I didn't spend much time lolling around the bridge though.

The iris garden was nice. I'd imagined like fields and fields of irises as far as the eye could see. It was more like a river, which was stilll very cool in its own right. There were a lot of people perched randomly along the pathway painting and sketching the scene. And there were many many more people just there to look, like me. There's also an azalea garden apparently, but only one plant was blooming when I was there. It was kind of neat the way it was all alone. The entire area is quite spectacular though, even if there were fewer flowers than I imagined. Most of it just grows naturally I think and little gravel walkways are carved into it. Very pleasant.

From the garden I decided to visit the shrine itself, to offer 5 yen and maybe a "prayer" for the coming year (and my parents' impending visit). On the way there, I stopped to read the sign along the path about the Meiji emperor. I still can't understand it perfectly, but it made more sense to me than I remember it making the last time I visited. Proof my Japanese has improved? As I was taking pictures of the sign in order to look up words when I got home, I noticed a middle-aged couple looking and smiling at me.

I said, "konnichiwa," and the man began speaking to me in English. His wife meanwhile was very cute and smiley-embarrassed. She would speak to him in Japanese and not directly to me. I made a point to speak directly to her. Ordinarily the way she didn't talk *to* me would have annoyed me, but it seemed more like she was embarrassed and shy, not that she thought I wasn't talk-to-able. Proof that I too have become a sucker for Japanese women? Anyway, they asked me the standard questions - where I was from, what I was doing in Tokyo, if it was my first time to the shrine. The gentleman's English was quite good, and after I told him I was from Texas, he revealed he had been to Dallas-Fort Worth before (business, I guessed), so I suppose it's not surprising.

He also said, gesturing to his wife, "She thinks your back figure is best." His wife grinned and giggled shyly. I was thinking, "what? back figure?" but said, "Oh! Umm, well... I don't know about that, but thank you." And he asked if I did any sports, and I grinned and shook my head no. And *then* he said, "Well, I think, if you were to run a race, you would surely win." ?!

This reminds me of the time, *years* ago, when the Houston kids sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" at the convention, and I was wearing a *gasp* above-the-knee dress, and afterward someone asked me if I played tennis. Okay! I know! I have big thighs. You sit in araimandi for hours at a time for several years, and we'll see how slender your thighs are. Except that Saturday my capris (or whatever they're called) were well below the knee. *shrugs*

At any rate, I'm going to miss random encounters with Japanese people like that. I'm going to miss lots of things. I'll post a more complete list later.