Park Life

Apart from the general problem of deteriorating weather conditions, I have to say that I quite enjoy my trips to the park to use the internet. Granted that occasionally, as today, it proves difficult to connect, but even so sitting out in the open air on my bench is more refreshing than being stuck inside my dirty house (which I really need to clean). It also gives me a chance to peer over the screen occasionally and see the weird and the wonderful people that frequent the area, things I’d likely miss if I didn’t come here so regularly.

Let’s begin with the folks that would show up on a regular basis in my old park, which was kind of out of the way and not right beside the main road as my new one is. Its secluded nature seemed to make it more hospitable for weirdoes (I mean more weird than people who sit in the park with a laptop for ages, often bringing their own chair), like ‘America numba waaaan’ man, that I mentioned in a previous post. There was also the odd homeless looking chap that came in the mornings and patted the tree for twenty minutes. It was always the same tree, the one that doesn’t grow straight like the others, but at about waist-height bends about 90° for twenty centimetres or so, before resuming with its upward journey. It was always this horizontal section that received his attention. After carefully considering the situation, and conferring with others, it has been decided that there are a choice of two likely conclusions, the first being that he’s a little bit strange and after some searching found this tree with a flat bit that’s nice to pat or, a second, and perhaps more impressive inference, would be that this has been a long term project for many years, beginning with a normal tree, which, through careful and regular patting has developed this strange shape. What the intended outcome of the second option could possibly be, I have yet to find out, but I wonder how he would react if he were to find me patting the underside of the tree one morning…

On one occasion when passing through I saw a girl with a white rabbit on a leash, taking it for a walk. A new concept for me. As all the rabbit does is hop a bit in one direction and stop and do that nose twitching thing that rabbits do so well, and then hop in another direction and stop again, I can’t imagine it being too stimulating for the person walking it…unless a loose dog spots it. Then things might get a little bit interesting.

The new park on the other hand has so far proved to be free from crazies and drunks, at least during normal park hours (morning to about 21:00). It does, however, give me the opportunity to see what the latest fashion is for dogs. Small dogs are quite popular in Japan as they’re easier to keep in the small living environment that is the typical city apartment, and people like to dress them up and take them out for walkies. To be honest most of the ones I’ve seen here have been in functional wear, harnesses that attach to the lead but also have some sort of cartoon character or motif on them. Elsewhere, on the other hand, I have seen canines in rain jackets, pants and t-shirts. Why, I ask you!

The other night, while chatting on Skype, I looked around to look for the source of a trundling sound coming across the park, and my eyes fell upon a dog that had evidently had its spine broken, as its back legs were suspended in a frame and rolled along on wheels behind him as his owner walked him through the park. He was also wearing a nappy (the dog, not the owner as far as I could tell) to prevent making a mess, I suppose. He didn’t look too put out by his condition, although I can’t imagine how they bed him down for the night.

Finally I’ve also seen several miniature varieties of bigger dogs in my travels, including a miniature grey hound, and a miniature collie, both about a foot and a half high, but proportionally the same as their larger counterparts. It can be a bizarre country.