Yoyogi Park

One of the good things about staying at a foreign country is that you can discover new things almost every single day. Just like today, we went to Yoyogi Park near Harajuku and totally immersed in the Japanese culture and enjoyed a very pleasant Saturday afternoon in a peaceful and yet lively park in central Tokyo.

Lots of pictures as evidence to show how lively and awesome Yoyogi park is!!! People are having family picnics, playing music, dancing, singing, doing bike tricks, playing hackey sacks, practicing juggling, or simply just... wandering and observing (like us)!!



First, before entering the park, you can see lots of food stalls outside the park (near entrance). Smell terrific!!










East (or West?) Entrance to Yoyogi Park. And Yes, I like to point at stuff ;)














Mike in front of a bunch of colorful container-looking things... dunno what they are for, but they seem to be some kind of Japanese traditional culture things... (ha.. u can totally tell I dunno what I am talking about...)





Ball juggling. Actually, many of the jugglers gathered together and just practiced at the same time causally. A very pleasant scene.







Lots of young teenage guys are skateboarding (some of them are actually quite good!!)







Free live music everywhere in Yoyogi Park. I LOVE THIS PARK !!! (The guy who played the guitar looks a bit like Mike's new boss, except younger and more... Japanese, haha... )






We saw some amazing bike tricks too at the park!!







Some seemingly random people just got together to play drums (people sitting on the bench) and a young guy and gal were dancing according to the beats.





We also took some video of people dancing:
Drum dance video 1:
Drum dance video 2:


Ever watched people play hackey sack (some mini footbag thing)? I have seen a Chinese version of it, which is made from a stack of think paper and some feathers on top (called "yin" in Cantonese). It's my first time to watch people playing hackey sack. And they can keep it up in the air for a minute or two with some amazing tricks, SUGOI (great)!!




As you can see, I was not really ready when Mike took the shot. As a result - a rather silly pose and facial expression =] (think I am still searching for the camera at that time)






Beautiful view in Yoyogi Park








Mike and I at Yoyogi park. There was actually a really pretty lake behind us, but we blocked most of it =p







Family picnic. And look, the little baby (on the left) is drinking from his little bottle... so cute!!






I have a really bad hobby - watching cute kids (very intently). It is so bad that I will literally stop doing what I am doing and just stare at the kids and smile really big (regardless if the parents are there or not). Mike said that I am HORRIBLE sometimes and will actually "pull me away" from the spot to avoid frecking out the parents too much!! (but... they ARE so cute!!!)



Oh mine, so CUTEEEEEE!!!! I think Japanese kids are cuter than American kids and other Asian kids in general. My theory is that their body is smaller compared to their head and arms and legs (proportion-wise). So it makes them that much cuter than other kids. If you don't believe me, observe carefully next time when you see a Japanese kid or baby =p

By the way, if anyone knows of any baby or little kids rental service that you can "rent" a baby to "play with" for an hour or two, remember to let me know, heh... =p And DON'T tell me to have one of my own (yes, Simon and Alex, I know exactly what you two were gonna say) --> because I am NOT ready yet !!! ;)