By Kevin Cooney
Walking through Ikebukuro the other day I was stopped dead in my tracks by a large group of Japanese all clutching whatever recording device they could. Tokyo, being Tokyo , it could have had any number of causes. Was there an Ayumi Hamasaki sighting? Had Godzilla finally returned? Were they just excited to take a picture of me, a friendly gaijin. Sadly, no, they were not snapping my picture but the enormous rainbow I turned to see behind me. At each and every corner along my route I found the same scene. A dozen or more natives, stopping their shopping, if only momentarily to catch a digital rendering for their cell phones and digi-cams.
Going with the flow as one often does on Tokyo's city streets, I couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon. I popped out my camera and took a few slices of rainbow home for myself. To be fair, I don't think anyone actually got a picture of a rainbow, more likely just a "rainbow-bit" Maddeningly one could only glimpse a small portion of it from any given spot between the tall towers of the cityscape. But, it was enough. With all of Tokyo's neon and plastic it was an awe inspiring little reminder that somewhere far beyond the grays and browns human structures mother nature was still doing her thing.
Surprising as it was, near Sunshine City, on "Green Road" was an actual, honest to goodness display of the beauty of mother nature. As clicked away, I heard the crowd cooing "kirei desu ne!" Beautiful isn't it. It was.
As beautiful as it was, I turned and found the crowd was far more interesting than the mother earth happening that had brought us together. Tokyoites were actually talking to each other. People who didn't know each other! This is even more out of the ordinary for the famously polite, but somewhat distant Tokyoites. The crowd had in this moment of spontaneity become a little friendly chattering community of on-lookers. I paused to enjoy the scene of all these hustle and bustle city folk lingering to chat with each other for a moment until a woman (a total stranger I must add) said to me "Did you see it. Over there?" I smiled and told her "Yes, I saw it." I saw something very special.
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