Apologies for the recent lack of updates; partly due to the fact that I've simply been very busy at school and partly because I haven't had anything interesting to write about. It dawned on me one day that I should write about what it is like to be an exchange student 'That'll give me loads to write about!' I though, but I can't actually think of anything worth saying that isn't made up emotional dribble or practical advice like... err... remember to by some adapters at the airport for example.

Now however, I have two weeks with loads of free time. This is because it is now the week before test week at my school, and all clubs are taking a break, including the Kendo club. Next week, test week, is also club free, with every day ending at 11:40 so those poor Japanese students can go study all day and all night. Last Sunday then I wen't to Harajuku once more, the previous Sunday having been a YFU orientation day.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera's memory card at home, so I only had the camera's internal memory. This would have been suffice had I realised how to decrease the whopping resolution of the pictures, but try as I might I could not figure it out, which meant I could only take so many pictures. Only upon returning home did I realise I could have taken pictures with my perfectly adequate mobile phone camera. At home I also figured out how to change the resolution after about three seconds of fidgeting. God damn I hate being an idiot sometimes...

Unfortunately I don't real have pictures of the eccentrics today, as they were all gathered in the shady corner being oggled by an annoying number of tourists with huge cameras. Whenever any of them would pose some fat american (Don't you just love how nobody cares about prejudice against American tourists?) would shove in so their friend could take a picture. So instead I headed off to Yoyogi park for the first time, and bumbed into some of these fellows.

Another of Harajuku's Sunday spectacles is the congregation of so called "rockabillys", who dress up in leather, do their hair and put on a show. I had heard of these guys before and I wasn't expecting it to be very good, but I actually found them to be brilliant entertainament.

I swear it didn't even sway in the wind. 

And what better car for these eccentric scallywags than a pink cadillac? 

From there a followed a path on the left of the park which was crowded with lots of bands, most of them quite good. (Unlike the not-quite-so-skiled rapper I saw outside Shibuya station; felt a bit sorry for him when he said thank you into the microphone even though nobody even gave him a glance... then I found it amusing.) The interesting thing was that there would occasionally be two bands right next to each other, playing at the same time, which it seems results in a discreet yet furious battle with some volume knobs. I know my right ear was bleeding after passing them.
A nice band composed entirely of drums and barrels.

 
Also found these hippies painting the canvas for their new peace tent. 

 
Yoyogi park seems like a great place to go for a picnic, hard to believe a place like this exists in the middle of Tokyo. 

And finally I bumped into these girls on the bridge on my way back. Needless to say I made the most of their offer. As did a tall nerdy fellow who sort of stood in front of them with a petrified look on his face until one of the girls hugged him nervously while he stood there with his arms straight.