Bridges

Walking through Harajuku.. it seems like everyone is dancing. A man in black lipsyncs all the words to a Sting song, his face estatic, his body swaying... he looks a little ridiculous at the mouth of Yoyogi park with no other dancers to fill in the curvy spaces his body makes in the air. I admire him. Teen youths with black raccoon eyes, red velvet, and laces beg to be pictured but I refuse.. partly out of stubborness (I refuse to do what I am expected to do) and partly because the effort of digging through my purse for my camera seems colossal at the moment. It's me, the Linzer Cookie, my beer and a half, and pepper chips that concern me at the moment. Linzer and I pass through the gates of Yoyogi.. the Japanese greasers are there as usual but today they seem more animated, more drunk, and younger! Their hair has reached new altitudes and their numbers have grown but the song remains the same. They twist and shake drunkenly, I'm not so impressed as I was a year ago but the strange schoolgirl dancing off in the distance has caught my eye. She dances alone but is unconcerned... upon closer inspection Lindsay and I decide that she is, in fact, not a school girl but a middle aged man. Nice legs. As we reach the fountain a feeling of deja vu occurs to me. Lindsay's eyes meet mine and I know she feels the same thing. We sit by the stagnant water, drinking our "disappointment remedies" and take in our surroundings. The drum circle has become smaller and tighter, a little boy/girl in a pink shirt waves at us, some sweet little children point at us and smile, and a young woman drags her boyfriend from flower to flower admiring each petal... we imagine what people are thinking and imagine that we'll be doing the same thing when we are old cronies. "It's amazing how many akward and strange looking foreign men wind up with beautiful young Japanese girlfriends."

Slightly beyond the fountain there is a bridge. Upon crossing it, the innocent techno sounds of dance music vibrate beneath us and we dance our way across... I feel exhilerated and free!