The past few days.

Well, I'm always terrible at posting regularly, and I guess Japan can't change that. A lot has happened in the past few days, so I'm going to break this post into sections.

Falcon's Intineraries @ Loveless
Last night, we went to the opening of Stephane's exhibit at Loveless, which is a sort of uber-trendy, upscale... boutique. I can't think of a Chicago equivalent. His work is pretty cool. Even cooler was Yuji, this kid we met outside. At first, he was glued to his DS, but later he put it away to work the crowd. Afterwards, Stephane was DJing at a club down the street, which was an aight place. His set was great. I kind of hate dance music (which seems to annoy Ashley & Louis), and earlier had told them that I prefer hip-hop & Canadian Indie-rock. So I was pleasantly surprise when Stephane worked both Kanye West and The Arcade Fire into his set. I got tore up and actually danced. Then we bailed, Louis got Mc D's, and we made it home at 5 am for sunrise.

The Secret Place

Okay. This place was amazing. We met up with Ashley's friend Kyu earlier in the evening, and after taking us through a labyrinth of shops to drop off flyers, he brought us to this parking garage, where we went up a back stairway, and he hit the buzzer at a security door, identified himself, and gave us a reassuring thumbs up. Eventually they let us in, and we were blown away. It was a private loft, with seating for small parties scattered around a ping-pong table. The atmosphere was incredible.
Really, I can't begin to describe it without writing a book here. We had a 6 (or so) course meal of traditional Japanese dishes, & the waitress, a friend of Kyu's, gave us a very nice bottle of wine. We ate, drank, and played some ping-pong. This was possibly the coolest place I've ever been.

The Park

Ah, the park. The contradictory nature of the Japanese people is well-known, and I can't think of a better illustration than this park, in Harajuku. In the midst of the madness that is Tokyo, this beautiful, ancient forest seems like another world. It's deep enough to completely emliminate the city sounds & sights.The smell of the dead leaves reminded me of northern Michigan. what I loved most about it was that it's obviously an ancient forest-- not the manicured crap we call parks in Chicago. The city was built around this. It was impossibly serene. It's going to be difficult to describe the temple at the park's center without sounding like a cliche zen-loving douche, but standing in it, you can see why the imagery is so pervasive, even in America. It was the first time I've felt an equivalent to standing on the shore of Lake Superior-- The last feeling I would have expected Tokyo to provide.

I think that's enough for now. I've had two Americanos and an Espresso at this cafe, and I'm a bit caffeinated. The cafe will have its own post in the future, because it's great. But for peace for now, and check my Flickr for more pics of everything mentioned above.