Two thousand and temple

New year, new perspectives...and I should probably have thought about jotting down a resolution or two. Maybe use moisturiser more often.... Thats not as entirely random and slightly off topic as you might think. I had been warned that Japan turns very cold and very dry around this time of the year, and they werent bloody lying. Outside my window (the jungle below has lost all its leaves to reveal that in fact it was more like two massive trees hiding yet another cabbage patch...so apologies for the misinformation) the sun is shining and the skies are clear. Now that I have a heater in my room it is far too easy to trick myself into believing that it is pretty mild outside. I have but to look down at my dry white hands to remember the feeling of standing outside the liquid rooms on new years eve, hardly able to hold the tinny that had been tactically purchased to minimise costs (turned out to be a plaster for a bullet wound)... now they look they might be used for fingerprints during an autopsy on CSI.

New years eve itself was a blast. I have already written about japanese clubbing, and I'm in a lazy mood... so just refer back to that. Usually on new years the Japanese have a tradition of going to one of the larger temples and ringing in the new year, with a very literal bell ringing ceremony. I have already done this once, and to be frank, judging by the reports from some of my friends who opted into it this year.. it hasnt changed much. However, I felt that there deserved to be a cultural element to new years in Japan (when I say 'I'... I really mean, that it was someone elses idea that I have chosen to hijack as my own for the purposes of this blog).

The day after new years day, the Emperor of Japan comes out onto his balcony and greets the nation in four bitesize installments throughout the day. The palace is usally shut off to the public, and so the police presence was massive. Riot vans, jeeps, the ones in suits with curly wires going into their ears that you reckon have definitely killed someone before, bag searches, body searches. You name it, they had it. Although just like everyone in Japan, all the police look totally unthreatening. I can even imagine the mean wire-in-ear CIA style ones totally wankered in an izakaya sporting the asian glow that comes with half a pint and ends with pock marks of vomit down every major street in shibuya come 3am. Never the less, they carried themselves with polite japanese efficiency... even giving me a smart salute after gingerly patting down my trouser leg for fear of some organised gai-jin attack of the royal family.

I hate the way you are forced to walk at major public events. The Queen's Jubilee, Notting Hill Carnival and now this... the awkward shuffle walk of thousands of well wishers to the soundtrack of hundreds of police men trying to keep camera toting tourists from stopping every five seconds to capture more 'moments'. Every single person who entered the palace grounds was given a Japanese flag to wave by some ultra nationalist OAP volunteers. By the time we reached the emperor's, frankly rather bland looking crib, the courtyard beneath his balcony was a sea of Japanese peole....and by some higher power's grace we arrived with only five minutes before the emperors lunch time appearance. An unspoken swelling of tension, like the type you get before they announce theyre bording group A passengers for an easyjet flight, ended with an erruption of calm and collected flag waving signalling the arrival of 'E dogg' himself. More controlled explosions of flag waving follwed his new years message... and the whole courtyard of people calmly shuffled off in the same awkward fatiguing fashion as they had entered.

Every time I see a side of Japan that shows their deeper emotional and spiritual personality, it is juxtaposed almost immediately by something completely incomprehensibly stupid. This time it was the queue of about a hundred people in ginza to get into the new abercrombie shop that had three bouncers on the door and staff who are made to dance all day and promote a party atmosphere. We only went there because we wanted to get a polaroid with the new topless model at the entrance. Robin.