Tokyo this week

Its been a while since I blogged. Just the flow of things - the lovely autumn, my impending Japanese Proficiency Test, upcoming trip home - all keeping my mind ticking. My thoughts as my feet crunch over the bed of fallen leaves in my path...




Autumn. Just cannot resist going ga ga over it - yet again and again and... Autumn should silence all the doubters who think Tokyo is just a grey city full of wires and bridges. In any other season I would be one of them but not now, now today. The icy chill air with the beautiful autumn hues brushing shoulders with yes - the overhead wires and grey buildings - is just that intriguing combination that drives me nuts.













Hats off to Tokyo's beautiful gardens that sit bang in the middle of the big bad city, where you least expect. There is something about urban concrete beauty doing a merry dance with nature that brings the piquant twist in the tale.










This week Tokyo is in 'full bloom'. Suddenly there are dashes of red, yellow and browns in the otherwise black and grey palette. Splashes of colour like an artist dabbed it there. Christmas lights are shining like fireflies. Add to that the beautifully fashionable people of Tokyo and the incredibly energising chill and you no longer feel you are on the same planet as the rest of the world!

Who says Tokyo isnt beautiful.

Jaaapaan...love in Tokyo!!

Strolling down Azabu Juban last weekend, we saw this beauty. It was a normal Tokyo morning with everyone routinely airing class and fashion in a cafe and where the coffee is only incidental.

Remember how I am prone to venting about the ethereal Japanese beauty. That how Tokyo's streets are never short on eye candy and Joy Mukherjee just doesnt stop yoddling in your head "Legayee dil...gudiya Japan ki...pagal mujhe kar diya"! I mean, shouldnt beauty have limits?

Only this time the real show stopper was the sleek black beauty on the side .The giant black Great Dane was breath takingly beautiful. Since 'kawaii' (cute) was too small a word to fit the big creature, people settled for a tamer 'sugoii' (interesting). Which of course didnt do any justice to the hunk....neither does this picture..

I have become some kind of a fashion observer in Tokyo.Typically words that you would never hear from a fashion dummy like me but there it is. There is no other choice in Tokyo where fashion is in the air you breath. Like a 'pollution index' there should be a daily 'fashion index' here. Purple apparently is one of the dictats on Tokyo's fashion calendars this year, which extends even to stockings (purple, yellow...why limit) as are long, knee-ankle length sweaters...sugoii ne..

And then there was this lovely day spent at Mashiko - a potters village, 2 hours away from Tokyo, in neighbouring Tochigi prefecture. This was the annual autumn potters fair where potters from around congregate to diplay their ceramic creations. What joy. Millions of stalls, oodlles of clay tempations...enough to cripple all decision making skills and saddle you with uselss bits and baubles and tons of regret. Anyway Mashiko seemed to have got into the autumn fury thing well ahead of Tokyo..much of its leaves had turned red/yellow. Double joy.