I can't help but feel alive...

Well here I find myself at the end of a truly good weekend. There is curry split pea soup simmering on the stove and music playing from a CD that a dear friend game me years ago. I've just had one of those days in Tokyo that make me question how I'm ever going to leave this country.

I love this city. It's energy. It's people. I wish you could've all been with me today. It was perfect. I met my friend Keiko, who I hadn't seen in a few months in Ueno and then we jumped on the Ginza-sen to travel two stops to Asakusa. It's a good thing we decided to meet in Ueno because Asakusa station was crowded with people. It took us a good 5 minutes to exit the station. Today was the Sanjya Festival at Sensoji Temple where parade of portable shrines, mikoshi, are carried to the temple to be blessed. What a celebration. I wish I could adequately explain the sensation of being in such a huge crowd of people. The smell, a combination of yakisoba (fried noodles) and incense; the sound of taiko (drums), of hands clapping, of the men and women chanting, "ushya! ushya!" as they carry the mikoshi; the sights: bare butted men in their hapi coats; of the yakuza members proudly displaying their tattooed bodies; the women in kimono; the children in traditional clothing...all of these things, guys, I wish I could share with you because it's simply one of the most amazing things I've seen here in Japan. This country never ceases to amaze me. It never ceases to make me thankful that I've decided to live here.