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shinjuku shoulder bump

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I went for a trip through the "Shinjuku" part of town today. I visited some temples and a couple of graveyards. Each of the graves had a little brazier for coals or incense, and spots where you could plant flowers. Each was also usually marked with several slender planks that had text on them - I don't know what the significance of the planks is, but I'd guess it was memorial or perhaps prayers.

From there I followed my guide book to a small neighbourhood of narrow streets where there are countless tiny bars. And by tiny I mean they could possibly only server half a dozen people at a time at the most. These were barely wider than the doorways, and sometimes were perched one atop another.

Shinjuku station is supposedly the busiest in the world, and I believe it. It's the size of all of the TTC subway stations put together, I'm sure. Enourmous. I mean, there are several rail and subway lines passing through the place.

Here's an image of the district.

As I was crossing a street, I passed a fellow gaijin coming in the opposite direction. Our arms brushed as we passed one another. It was the first such contact I'd had on the street since I've been here, though it happens all the time back home. And I was thinking about – do Western men feel they have to stand their ground and therefor will purposefully bump into one another?