the wacky wombat weblog

I like parks. It’s one of the few public spaces that aren’t crowded, unlike shopping malls.

Parks are also a nice place to just go for walk, clear out your mind. Or you could do plenty other things: jog, read a book, picnic, take photos, people-watch and secretly laugh at the weird people.

Ueno Park is one of the bigger parks in Tokyo. It isn’t very beautiful — maybe it was the wrong season when I was there. Although it is the place to avoid/go to (depending on how you look at it) during the crowded cherry blossom season, it is pretty tranquil on a summer weekday.

I finally sorted through my stash of photos, and uploaded an assortment from Ueno Park. Go to the navigation bar on top, hit <photo gallery>, or click here.

The thing I remember most about Ueno Park is the stray cats. They’re huge and fat, totally unlike the scrawny ones back home.

And they are unfriendly. They hardly mew at anyone, and they all have a haughty look on their face that says “I don’t give a shit about you” when you mew at them.

I also saw a few cats balanced at the edge of a pond with plenty of fish that were as big as the cats. But they weren’t going after the fish. They were stealing fish food.

The homeless folks would feed the fish little bread pieces, and the cats would slip their paws into the pond and grab the ones that fall at the edge of the pond. Maybe that’s why they’re so fat.

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Sometimes we also went to Yoyogi Park. On weekends, it’s filled with people. People enjoying picnics, playing frisbee. There were also jugglers, unicyclists, tap dancers and girls practicing some cheerleading/dance routine.

And musicians. OK, some of them are good, can’t deny that. But with freedom of expression, comes freedom of sohai*-ness. (*slang word in KL for “total idiot”.) There are some disillusioned people who’d go to the park, display their non-talent, and annoy the hell out of everyone.

There was one guy, braying at the top of his voice, something out of tune and horribly painful to the ears.

Another group of washed-out wannabe rockers were “dancing” to some music. Except it’s not really dancing. It’s stoned expression with arms flailing in every direction.

What they’re experiencing in their extreme disillusioned condition, can only be best described in yet another KL slang word: “shiok sendiri” (i.e.: reveling in pointless stupid fun that only they themselves can appreciate and are oblivious to the real world).

And because it was Japan, everyone is too polite. I almost wanted to look up the word “shut up” in my Japanese phrase book but I can’t be bothered. We simply moved to a quieter and less annoying section of the park.