May 14th, 2002. Sitting lost, somewhere in Ueno Park.

Gotta leave in a few days. *sigh*

Tokyo never ceases to amaze me. In the depths of the urban chaos, a significant patch of prime real estate is given over to Mother Nature. Most cities would develop this land and push the greenery out, in favour of a different kind of green. Or at least, they'd build something like this out in the 'burbs where the land is a hell of a lot cheaper. But not here. I've found that though, to me, the way of thinking in Japan is as counter-intuitive as the universal constant (that's the speed of light, Einstien), it often yields pleasant surprises.

What's more interesting is the manifestation within these little patches of nature. I'm sitting in a cafe area, quaintly dubbed "Take Out Corner". It's your typical back-alley, tacky snack bar, filled with tourists and bored locals. This place is littered with folding furniture, vending machines, fearless pigeons and ugly red, white and blue lanterns.

The girl behind the counter is pretty - I could spend all day here, watching her dole out the soft serve. I've got the system down now: put cone under the nozzle. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times around then pass it to the customer. Wonder if they would sponser my work visa?

The pond in the distance is virtually the size of a lake. I'm not sure if it's natural or man made, but it's fucking huge.

Japan's got this thing with human contact. They don't like it, but they are obsessed with face-to-face customer service. The result is this rather bizzare system of purchasing food.

Look at this: they've got these ticket vending machines just outside the counter window. You have to buy the ticket which corresponds to the food item you want, then you hand it to the girl behind the counter.

Couldn't they just as easily put the food in the vending machine? I don't get it, this doesn't eliminate any human contact, since you still have to give it over to a person, but I suppose it comes in handy when you're unlucky enough to get stuck behind an indecisive person at the counter.