Beautiful Bonus Break in Tokyo

I had a great day today. Basically I got an unexpected day off. Apparently my boss had told me ages ago that the school would be specially closed today. But not having written it down, it totally slipped my mind.
It was a wonderful feeling being told yesterday that I didn't have to come in. It's even more precious when your schedule is as full as mine is.
I got up early (unwillingly). My body clock was set to 'work', so I couldn't sleep in. But I took a long, lazy breakfast reading my blog roll. Then I did yoga for an hour. I'm getting better each time, managing to do poses I could never do before. Next time you see me I might try showing off with a bit of contortion. It'll probably send me right to the emergency ward! Pride comes before a fall.
Then I headed into the centre of town and had a nice lunch in a very trendy part of Tokyo. It’s called Ark Hills in Minato Ward. You may recall I’ve talked about the ‘Hills’ brand of shopping complexes before. This is one of the oldest. It’s all glass and marble and fountains and swanky restaurants and cafes. The best part was sitting there watching all the other regular Joes go back to work while I could just hang out. Bliss.
I had a funny incident at lunch. I really am becoming more Japanese than the Japanese themselves. I ate in a very Westernised café. They probably target the many tourists and international bankers and lawyers that knock around that area.
I had a simple lunch of veggie soup and rice. But when it came to my table, I realised I had no chopsticks. Without even thinking, I went up to the waitress and asked for some. Would you believe they didn’t have any? They had to go and get me a sealed, disposable set. I swear I think I got the choppies the cook was going to eat his own lunch with. I was mortified. It had just been a knee-jerk reaction on my part. Turns out they wanted me to eat the rice with a spoon. What am I? A Neanderthal? I was very glad they’d put me in a seat way in the back. The witchy assistants were having a good laugh at me as I walked away. I guess I was the first person to ever ask for choppies.
Having said that, I proved later on that I am far from being one with the Borg. Ark Hills is just around the corner from the American Embassy. As I was aimlessly strolling away from the centre, a police officer stopped me and asked where I thought I was going. Turns out they have special anti-terrorism security measures in effect and you can’t walk up near the embassy without a permit. I was so shocked at the question that for a good few seconds (it felt like hours) not a single word of Japanese would come out of my mouth. Thank God I’d shaved off my beard. In my hirsute state, the cop might have thought I was a Palestinian militant and wrestled me to the ground.
It all reminded me of when I lived in France. At that time the country was under threat of attack from Algerian terrorists. The French have a great word for the special security measures they take in such situations. They call them ‘vigipirate’ - pronounced vee-jee-pee-rat. The ‘vigipirate’ mostly entailed covering over all the trash cans in the country and chaining closed emergency exits, turning them into potential death traps. I just loved that word though. It conjured up images of the vain Frenchies dressing up in their pirate finery to battle the evil terrorists.
Anyway, back to my day off. The weather got pretty good so I took a long walk and visited Hamarikyu gardens. This is an old park right in the centre of the city. Tokyo's not at all the concrete jungle it's made out to be. I took a few pictures, mostly of herons and butterflies, Japanese pine trees and tonnes of plants I don't know the names of. I also got a mozzie bite for my troubles. You wouldn't credit it! And it almost October, too! Thanks a bunch global warming.