toe shoes and stage 4 clingers….

Desiray in her little white junior bridesmaid dress- trying to make her feel how much a part of this she is-I remember her smile as she put it on in the mirror with me -as I put on mine, with my mom and Nicole helping me step in.

Codi in his little tiny tux-looking just like his dad on a 30 year delay.

I was marrying them too. They didn’t realize it, but I fell in love with them first- babysitting them on and off for the past 4 years- long before I ever even gave thought to this.  

Codi says-“Now that your going to live with us we can have Mario tournaments every day ok Kaaaarennnnnn?”.  He had the cutest way of saying my name.  I told them to call me Karen.  I could tell this was a relief to Desiray.  They had a mom- and I wasn’t here to make that relationship difficult, but I’ve waffled on that decision over the years.  I would have given anything to have those two as my own- always calling myself their mom in my head. 

“Do you Chris…..”

“I do…”  a little shaky and I can tell unsteady on his feet.

“Do you Karen…..”

“I do…” with tears-looking straight in his eyes, and then glancing over at Codi just behind him. Reaching back to hold Desiray’s hand. 

  Nicole right behind me looking more beautiful then I’ve ever seen her…even if she looked more sad then happy. She put more work into this then I did- the planning and the decoration. Distracting herself from a bad situation that would end shortly after our honeymoon was over. 

It was the night of our lives. Newfoundland weddings are a whole thing. And everyone- from 5-95 danced until long after we had left-feet pounding the floor to Cotton Eyed Joe, Codi so wound up he ended up sleeping for a solid 12 hours afterward, while we were taking our first flight as husband and wife- flight one of the hundreds since.

The prologue of our 25 year novel was written, the table of contents still blank…….

 

JAPAN DAY THREE:

Toe shoes.  You know the ones? That hug each toe? I’m finding it very hard to concentrate on the days events due to the toe shoes our guide is wearing. I’m hoping this is just a phase and she forgot to put on human shoes this morning. Opting for toe hoofs.  Its like her feet have wedgies.  Like some school yard bullies have pulled her socks up to her ears at recess in the bathroom and now she has to walk around with all that cotton in her toe cleavage.

And we have a stage 4 clinger- a woman who came here to make friends. We will need to wolf pack this tour- me in the middle please. Nicole and her “I don’t’ do people” scowl at the front. Gary and his “I can’t hear people” ears at the back.  Chris in the middle because he’s a chat risk.  Listen, I know. I sound awful. But, we just want the convenience of having someone who knows what they are doing- a guide- but we are also basically house cats- every now and then deciding we love someone we just met (I’m looking at you South Africa Ericka and Bart), but more times then not swiping and hissing at people if they get too close (that’s this particular clinger…).

We leave the hotel for the subway (another thing this house cat doesn’t do happily- the thought of all that concrete on top of us as we jet around under the ground in an earthquake prone island….dear god I’m sweating just writing it.) Haku (our guide) tells us that there are up to 27 meters of earth above us at some points on the subway, and my knees get weak.

We are off to the Buddhist temple this morning in the Sensoji Temple District. As we arrive, 2 train changes and about a 15 minute walk later, we are greeted with a little more people then we’ve seen so far in Japan.  We are given the history of the temple- its perhaps the most famous and photographed of Tokyo’s temples, and it’s the oldest temple in the capital.  The five story pagoda and trails of incense take you instantly back to a Tokyo of days gone by, the traditional garb on many visitors adding to the illusion that you’ve stepped back to 645 AD when it was founded. It was destroyed in World War II during the firebombing air raid.  But with donations from all over Japan it was rebuilt using as much original materials as possible.

And now you can hear the past and present collide. People come here from all over the world, let alone the Buddhists that come from the city every day to get luck.  There is a process where you shake a canister of sticks until one falls out. There is a number on that stick and a series of drawers in front of you. You take the number from the stick that you randomly get, and find the corresponding number on a drawer, open it and get your fortune printed neatly on a piece of rice paper in many languages including english.  1 third of the fortunes are bad, and the rest are a mixture of regular fortunes and rarely, excellent fortunes. I get number 47- a little shook by the fact that this number is my age, and was uniquely prevalent to just these four Muppets during our trip to India in 2019 at every Buddhist temple we stopped at in a way I can’t explain here- maybe someday I’ll write that story.  And I am given a regular fortune. So not bad.  Nicole and Chris get the same….and the we look over at Gary.  He looks like he’s been sentenced to death- ears pulled back like Henry when I tell him he’s a bad boy.  He’s the 1/3rd (shocker).  And the bad fortune is very detailed-“stop traveling. Stop marriage. Stop building things. Stop spending money. Stop breathing so much”….etc.  we all step back a little…..give room for the bad luck to waft off of him.  And then remember we’re the muppets. If one goes down we all go down. Still…..you can’t be too careful…..perhaps we need to cleanse him with sake or something? Scrub him clean later with bleach?  Leave an annoying tour member here for eternity as a trade (fingers crossed….)? Make him wear toe shoes??   We’re really coming up with every muppet solution we can think of while he just stands there- 20 feet away, bottom muppet lip quivering…..Haku has an easier solution and directs him to tie the paper to a clothes line of sorts and walk through the smoke of the blessing fire.  Well that de-escalated quickly. I mean we are obviously not practicing Buddhists…but it’s entertaining.

And the sound the canisters make as they are shook, the wooden sticks hitting the metal sides of the container is haunting, mixing with the smell of the incense in the air, the smoke in your eyes from the fire, the sound of Gary crying.

Interesting things are all around us, a feast for our eyes. Men and women dressed in traditional kimonos, some with serious faces as they worship, others bringing babies to get blessed, a couple with a medium sized pot belly pig in a stroller, grown women dressed as children in their anime costumes, our guides toes.  It’s a real mixed bag.

We are asked to look in our change purses and see if we have any 5 YEN coins, these are considered very lucky- kind of like a lucky penny in Canada.  I am the only one in the group that has one…and even better, I have two.  I am told that I should make a wish and throw it in the temple- and my usual wish anytime I’m told to give one is that- us Muppets will always be together, and that I can continue to be of service to those around me…my mantra in life.  And as I think of that, I realize that Gary with his bad fortune needs the coin. It could serve both of my wishes to give it to him. And I do.

From there we are given time to explore or shop or eat. We choose the two latter as usual.  Nicole is on a mission for a Maneki-neko, the Japanese beckoning cat.  The legend starts with a cat born at the Gōtoku-ji temple in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo sometime in the 1600-1800s.  According to temple legend, while hunting with falcons, the daimyo, the lord samurai, was beckoned by a cat at the temple gate. As he came inside he was saved from an unexpected heavy thunderstorm.  Out of gratitude, the samurai decided to provide continuous donations to the temple that had been struggling financially. The cat became the temple’s symbol and brought them continuous good fortune. Today, youd recognize the the cute ceramic cat with his hand bobbing up and down.  And there are thousands of them for sale here.  Two of which will be at their new home in Canada soon 😊

We pick up a few more things- and then head to lunch.  Matching Nicole’s cat mission, I am determined to get Gary and Nicole to understand the draw of Sushi and Sashimi- something they have both been firmly against trying in Canada.  So we find the nicest and busiest sashimi spot in the area and get a table for 4- me ordering anything I see off the electronic menu with raw fish, and them ordering the tempura shrimp.  I convince Gary to try a piece of the shrimp sashimi, carefully pouring the soy sauce and mixing in the wasabi. I’m holding my breath when he says he’ll try it. And when he does, he gives me the head nod – the same head nod the gladiators got from royalty when pleased. And the crowd goes wild. He likes it!!! He really likes it!!  I break 2 nails reaching over to order more. And before we know it there’s a table full of sashimi and soy sauce is flying through the air, wasabi firmly up our noses. Yay!!!! Chris and I of course are gorging ourselves on silky salmon and scallops- convincing Gary (and sometimes even Nicole) to try each piece. Happy happy happy girl.

We leave lunch and have another quick shop. Then meet again for the next leg of the journey. We are heading to Harajuku station to see another shrine. This time a Shinto shrine. Meiji Jingu is just one of the Shinto shrines in Japan, with an impressive forest (173 acres) located in the middle of the megacity.  It has Japanese pagodas all throughout and is a beautiful treed lot – feels like we are on the middle of the countryside – much like Central Park in the heart of NYC but without the noise and buildings at the tree line. So very peaceful- you can hear your every foot fall.

Then we are off to the famed Harajuku street. You’ll remember Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Girls-Perhaps best known as her backup dancers, the term Harajuku Girls is related to the quirky charisma and vibrant trends of the Harajuku district itself. Mostly worn by teens and young women, this style has become an iconic look in Tokyo and something that tourists flock to see – the anime costumes. This street is A LOT. Elbow to elbow people- and the Muppets are definitely out of their element.

You know those scenes in the Muppet movies where they show up, and they are just very very out of place? A rag tag bunch ready to party at a funeral when everyone else is somber, or trying to look fancy in their worn out felt at a movie premiere full of very fancy people while Fozzy tells jokes.

Yup.

Us.

Here.

I have never felt this old or out of place. Or under dressed.

It’s very interesting. And we do purchase some t shirts and a gift for a cooler friend who actually knows what all of this is about.

We are starting to see that Tokyo I had expected. People upon people upon people. But different than other cities. No one is shoving or pushing. No one glaring.  All just respectfully sharing space.

From here- it’s gets what I like to refer to as maggot-y with people. I mean. More people than I’ve seen in one place in my entire life. We are heading to shibuya station- and the “scramble” as it’s known.

Shibuya Crossing is the “world’s busiest pedestrian crossing”, with upwards of 3,000 people at a time.

And we sit in the train station window above the crossing and watch the organized chaos happen a few times before making our way to the crossing ourselves to “attempt” to cross as it says in the printed days briefing. Not sure what happens if we don’t do that successfully. And I laugh as I mention it to the others- like- attempt? I’m an 80’s kid. All I can picture is frogger. I wasn’t particularly good at that game…… But when we do it ourselves I can see what they mean- there is a chance you’d not get to cross in the allotted time before the light turns red and limbs and blood is everywhere. Small exaggeration ….but it IS pandemonium. The light changes to green for just minutes and if you don’t pay attention you’ll get left behind wondering what direction to go in. It’s like someone yelled half price meat at superstore. Intimidating at worst though- again, no pushing or shoving. Although I’d not want to see what would happen if you stumbled or dropped something.  I take a lot of pictures for painting later. The straight white rows of the crosswalk, the people in shadow, curved lines of bodies cutting through the lines at perfect 90 degree angles. I’m near drooling and it’s a good thing I don’t have a sketch book with me because my stupid artist butt would be stopping in the middle just to get the perspective right.

And if I could stay up past 9 I’d paint tonight. Although that hasn’t happened yet.

After the scramble we head back to the hotel. But that’s not as easy as it sounds. The train is easy enough. But it’s the 400000 that are trying to do that at once that is absolutely  mind blowing. Ever see those videos of the trains in Japan where there are attendants pushing people into the doors so that everyone can fit? https://youtu.be/o9Xg7ui5mLA?si=XSAezjUGV6yQ0pM1

We’re not quite at this level- not by a long shot. But it IS rush hour and it’s as close to this as I’d ever want to see it. I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant by the time we get back to our station. We’re calling it sushi.

Back to the room for a quick change of clothes and then on to the “meet and greet” dinner. Where we sit alone at our own table and firmly meet nor greet anyone. We’re really bad at this socializing thing. I mean we smile from a distance….that counts right?

Dinner is Japanese a meat board and their version of chicken wings (so very good and spicy) and beer.  Lots of beer.

Back to the room for the nightly closet drinks and roof sitting.

Gosh I love it here.

And these Muppets. Even the unlucky one is pretty cool. Shame we’re gonna have to cut him loose.

I drift off to sleep with not a care in the world. Honestly. My thoughts are absolutely non-existent.  It’s very strange for me- a person who has to jump out of bed the minute their eyes open in the morning to keep from spiraling with my thoughts in the dark about things like the price of gas and if I should be learning Cling-on just in case the aliens show up.

I’ll take the reprieve happily. So I lean in. And I dream of Wagu cows in toe shoes, and sushi’s crossing a busy intersection.

What was in that smoke?……..