Alexander's

I have a japanese friend, that I greatly enjoy spending time with. We sometimes go shopping, to a bar, visit a park or eat a snack together. She speaks quite good English, corrects my Japanese, tells me if I sound like a girl and makes fun of my strange and outlandish habits. She likes the Japanese Todai students, because they are nice, well behaved and polite and my European friends, because they are funny and crazy. I get to speak a lot of Japanese and she talks a lot of English. We meet once or twice a week for a few hours -- neither of us has more time to spare and that way our relationship also keeps casual.

This arrangement is almost perfect.

So this weekend we met, as so often, in Harajuku[^1] and decided to go on a quick window-shopping trip and then sit down in the very nice Yoyogi Park, just around the corner. I was thinking of maybe buying new jeans and a second opinion is always a good thing to have. Otherwise I would end up with something totally crazy I could never wear.

Could we go up that street first?
Sure, but why?
My mother is very shy, but she wants to see you, so she is sitting in one of the cafes and wants us to walk by, so she can get a peek at you.

Surely a very reasonable request. Meeting the mother in person might include subtext neither of us would like to include, but if I just walk by a cafe where she happens to sit, no harm is done. So we walk down the street and then start shopping. After about five minutes my friend gets a mail from her mother -- I'm apparently a nice person and the mother approves of us going shopping.

The interesting thing is this never seemed strange to me, until I told a friend. Well I guess Japan is slowly but surely getting me when I don't find these only in Japan moments strange anymore.

Want some more strange things?

How about the 30 year old professional photographer, that opened a photography club at a girls only university, basically to get naked shots of the girls there. He is now 50 and still quite active in that club.

Oh and while talking about photos, the photography club of the Todai asked me if I wanted to participate in an exhibition. I'm not yet sure if I have enough photos of girls' panties, but I'll give my best anyway!

[^1]: one of the crazy fashion areas in Tokyo