Another bunch of randomness

Last night, after work, I met up with Timourous Beastie and Say It In Finglish bloggers for a bite and a couple of drinks, well, apart from Beastie who was still hungover from the night before! No karaoke though. They both claim to hate it. Yeah, right!

At Harajuku station I saw a cockroach scurrying along the platform. That's nothing, but the sight of four Japanese girls pinned to the spot in absolute horror, was priceless. The roach stopped them from moving any further down the platform and produced very interesting squeals or terror. It was also quite interesting to note they all had sock marks from where their long socks had been earlier, before being taken off or replaced with tights or whatever. I still can't accept long socks as not looking silly. It's a lifetime of seeing them only on pre-teens that's done that for me.

Briefly, on the subject of tights, ALL summer, even on the hottest days, some Japanese women could be seen wearing tights. Utter madness.

Summer though, is on its way out. I'm sad about this, although I know many people are relieved. I mean, it had it's unbearable moments, but they were pretty few and it was nice leaving the house without having to wear 20 layers of clothing, etc. It also wasn't as bad as I'd been led to expect. Yes, autumn is definitely moving in now, days and nights are starting to get colder, falling leaves can be seen and suddenly (or maybe I've just noticed it) it's getting dark at 6pm. Now that IS depressing. Japan has always got dark many hours before the UK, even in peak summer, but 6pm darkness in September is sobworthy. My feet actually felt cold in flipflops yesterday for the first time.

Also in Harajuku I spotted a girl in a plastic see-through skirt. It looked like she'd carefully pleated together a load of the umbrella condom things (oh, you know, the plastic sleeves you get outside supermarkets, etc so your wet umbrella doesn't drip everywhere. 'Umbrella condom' is much shorter and to the point though, no?). It was pretty bizarre though, and worn over a pair of jeans. Thankfully.

Another oddity I saw yesterday was a Japanese male bobbing along with his hair tied into two bunches way up on the top of his head, like six inch bouncy horns. And he did bounce along as well...

When I got home I put the telly on and channel surfed for a bit. I found a channel with Pro-wrestling on and sat watching it in horror. I don't like violence and violent sports go into this. The rules of this game, according to me: Up to two people can attack another person. You can hit, kick, thump, throw yourself on another persons torso, arms or legs, but not genitals. Face punching and slapping are also allowed. Jumping on your opponent, from any distance, seemed particularly popular and especially if launched by someone else. I think the aim was to pin someone down and not have them kick you in the face. *SHUDDER*