Autumn (Tokyo Studio)

kanro4of15

[click on image to play]

It’s ‘Health and Sports Day’ today – another public holiday. You might think: ‘Ah, any excuse for a day -off’, but as our experience tells us this is not so. The general public really does get into the spirit of these theme days.

We headed to Kichijoji today. It’s about a 15 mins train trip west from Shinjuku. This expedition was inspired by a film we saw (Gou Gou – as mentioned in the post last week), which was shot on location. Having explored some of the eating spots featured in the film (the first 20 minutes of the film has a lot of eating), we headed for the large Inokashira Park. When you have an idea in Tokyo, you can bet at least 1000 people also have the same idea: the park was filled with people taking advantage of the fine weather.

The sports field, in particular, was taken up by enthusiastic holiday-makers all getting in the spirit of ‘health and sports Day’. I would have liked to show image up here but I don’t think anything I have at hand can do justice to the experience. It is much better suited as a large-screen film: If you can image a Jacques Tati scene set on a large expanse of green. No far from the camera are dad and son are playing catch; besides them three young girls are skipping ropes; to the right some children are playing badminton with their mum; then two old women walked across the scene, stopped for a little while to discuss where to sit; in the far background are a young couple playing frisbie, who are then joined by their friends; a number of middle-aged men (who would have been in suits normally, are in t-shirts and shorts) jog by; one stops to stretch before moving on…..

Instead, I will leave you with the music of this man, practising his accordian in the autumn-leaves-filled stretch of the park.