Waiting for a friend at Harajuku Station, I found a space off to the side of a passageway to wait and watch out for their arrival. One group of people after another disembarked from the arriving Yamanote Line trains below, climbed the stairs to the passageway leading to the exit and flowed by... all moving smoothly together in the same direction. I watched the people river flowing by and it was one of those moments when you're not looking for something profound, but there it is. You look in front of you with a relaxed mind at what's there, and what you see can be quite profoundly beautiful.
Going to pray for the New Year at Meiji Jingu on the 5th, outside the traditional 1-3 peak, there are a lot of people, but no special crowd control measures are necessary and it's a smooth flow all the way, with no waiting. It's a cold day with a warm sun and little wind.
After praying for the New Year, we visit a nearby garden that I have always found to be strangely (and beautifully) mostly without people. I suspect most people are unaware of its existence. On this visit, it's nice, but an alarming number of large trees appear to have died. Likely yet another effect of the 1,400,000,000 fire breathing, poisonous gas emitting vehicles on the planet energetically destroying our world for our convenience.
2022 feels like an important year - a year when things come to a head and enough of us choose life and beauty over mindless destruction and we head in a constructive direction.
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/
