This is the park near Nagahama station. People kept trying to ask me questions in Japanese while I was taking photographs. The man who worked there wanted to show me a really beautiful tree, but in Japanese culture the gesture for come here looks like shoo. Finally, I understood & I took more pictures of the amazing maple trees.
One of the first days here, Nolan & I road on Michigan Dori, & he showed me where to get to Nagahama Park, which is a hugh, lush park with a faux-castle, built circa 1996. I ended up misplacing the 100 yen bike lock I had & was worried that my mama cherry would get stolen (like I thought it was the day before) so I wandered through the path on my bicycle.
At a certain point, I came across these cages that appeared empty, so I got off my bike to take a picture & tell people that those are Japanese-style punishment cages, until I realized there were the saddest animals in there!
I sat down & spoke to the monkey or ape or whatever for a while, but he just kept itching his crotch. The animals seemed to be alone in there, with no friends to pick bugs off of them or sleep next to, so I decided that I would go back to hang out with them & share my sandwiches. I haven't yet...
That's when I looked back at my bike & there was a ravenous gang of feral cats licking & rubbing near my bike.
After seeing the cats scratch themselves profusely, I decided I didn't want Japanese fleas & went to a different part of the park, where they followed me. I eventually out-bicycled them & sat on a bench to eat the salad I packed & read. As I was eating, a few middle-aged Japanese women strolled past & stared at me. One woman actually came up to me, without saying a word & peeked into my tupperware to see what I was eating, then to her friends said, bejitarian.
It was kind of rude.
This was the view from the bench where I ate my salad & got harassed by those ladies. It seems that more people in Japan take advantage of the parks & other public areas than in the States.
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