Mina-san, have you ever stepped in something? What was your reaction?

Yuck ! I don’t like stepping in anything….The streets are very clean in Japan, though, I think.

The Harajuku station is one of my favourite in Tokyo (from the outside I mean). The country feeling it has goes well with the nearby Meiji Shrine. But why does it look like that, actually ? Any historical reason ?

Historical reason?
It’s a typical meijijidai building.
But a lot of tokyo stations became a kind of concrete subway sations and this one not, perhaps for the Tenno home:
http://ekiguide.hp.infoseek.co.jp/harajuku.htm
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8E%9F%E5%AE%BF%E9%A7%85

I love Natsuko-san’s commentary. Even her “umm” (s) are articulate, because they communicate her thoughts without the tedium of stating the obvious.

As for chewing gum getting stuck in the hair, I was also unaware that is supposedly a common occurrence in the US. But there is one story I can recount.

There is a wonderful song that was a hit on the charts before even my memory kicks in (i.e., truly ancient). “Does your chewing gum lose its flavor (on the bedpost overnight)” by Lonnie Donegan, one of the musical inspirations to John Lennon. I happen to have the hit on a collection of novelty songs, and played it once for a visiting UK scientist (whose father happened to be the groundskeeper at Sting’s farm). She had heard of it, but actually never heard the song itself. She related to me how her mother (as a young girl) was so taken by this song that she actually did put her chewing gum on her bedpost one night, and woke up with it in her hair.

Gum in the hair is more common than you might think. The most innocent way for it to happen is to fall asleep while chewing gum. A less innocent way is a prank that boys play on girls in grade school.

If you don’t want to cut your hair, there is a solution… peanut butter. Apparently, peanut butter has the right stuff to make sticky gum not so sticky so it will come out of the hair. Naturally you will have to wash your hair after you treat it.

I have more issues trying to avoid other things when walking, though. Even though there are laws for owners of pets in the city, many still refuse to pick up after them…