St. Patrick's Day Parade

On Sunday the 19th my brother and I went to a St. Patrick's Day parade. It was held in Omotosando, one of my favorite stations, and there were over 2,000 people there. All the streets were blocked from cars and crammed with people. There were no floats, like the ones I'm used to from Louisiana on Mardi Gras day. But there were a various of people in the parade. There were to different groups of baton twirlers. Most of them very young and in elegant dresses. There were some tap dancers. Many marching bands from schools and one from the Japan army. There were people playing bagpipes. One of the more interesting things is that during the middle of the parade a man came holding a huge American flag. A St. Patrick's Day parade held in Japan that has American flags? A little odd... there were also many Irish people there, some in the parade others in the crowd. There were many organizations from Ireland and one high school. There was this dog foundation thing with about a dozen dogs in cute green outfits walking in the parade. There were also these three guys wearing real armor like a chain mail and plate legs. As of all St. Patrick's parades there were a lot of beer advertising's. Mostly Japanese and Irish people in the crowd but a mix of many races in the audience. The parade went around the whole block. There was this one club from Ireland that held this sign and on it were faces and names of famous people from Ireland like Bill Clinton, and U2 (a band). There were singers, dancers, and baton twirlers. But the majority of the people were... well just walkers. There were tons of people in the parade with babies and children or just mothers and fathers walking with green shirts on. I think it was like if you were Irish they let you walk in the parade. Which is funny... the parade lasted for about 2 hours, they went one side of the rode and made a U-turn and came back up the other way. There were many photographers and camera man- all recording the parade. Over the middle of the rode is a huge bridge. It's there because there is no crossing sign or lights for the people to walk across there so they use a bridge instead. But of course it was blocked off for the parade with only three camera man on it. After the parade was over the people died down and left. Bet most of them went to eat lunch because it was 1 in the afternoon! When we walked by McDonalds it was funny because almost everyone in there was white. I wouldn't blame them seeing that I have eaten all sorts of Japanese food and well just didn't like it. But all the restaurants were packed. The subway ride was even worse. It was just cool to see something with over 2,000 people of different races. It was really cool.

Crammed Pack!

Today my mom wanted me to go to Starbucks for her and get her a coffee. I waited 10 minutes for a rapid to come. A rapid is a faster train that only goes to certain stations. I wanted to go to Urayasu. When the train came it was packed. I was crammed in the back. I was between two elderly people, a lady in front and a man in the back. We were all crammed together. Once the train started going the lady in front of me started leaning on me. When she leaned on me I was forced back against the man and it started a train reaction. After about 6 minutes of back and forth between the sides I finally reached Urayasu. Everyone got off there and it was hard to reach Starbucks. I got the coffees and went back to the station. I went to ring my card and the buzzer started going off. I only had 60¥ left- not enough to by a ticket. Luckily I had enough change from the coffees to get a ticket, just enough though. Once my train got there, it was empty. There was about 5 people on the whole train total. The closer to Tokyo City you go the more packed it is. My dad says that in the morning when he goes to work there is no one on (because he's going in the opposite direction of traffic) but on the way back he's packed as a bug. That's why I normally walk!