Oasis

Every now and then you come across it: a little oasis in the Tokyo that makes you forget that you’re in the middle of one of the largest urban jungles on the planet.  I was out walking with my friend Bill the other day when we came across it.  Well, I came across it – he had found it before and wanted to show it to me.  Trees surrounded the Torii Gate that represents the separation of the sacred from the profane, but it was directly between two apartment buildings, clearly part of the city.

But once we walked through the Torii, it was a different world.  Trees buttressed each other to create a cover of green.  It was a lovely shrine made of up of three small buildings and several interesting statues, including large lions at the sides.  The ground below our feet was fine dirt, not concrete at all.  We could walk down a long set of steps to the bottom part of the shrine, which included a sumo ring.  We’re not sure what or who practices sumo there, but it is clearly unmistakable as a sumo ring. Right at the bottom of a tree-lined shrine.

And then just as quickly as you entered, and walked down and through, you’re out again, on the other side of Hiroo toward Ebisu and Shibuya, as if nothing had happened.

But something has happened.  Somehow I felt refreshed.  I felt like the dust and bustle of the city had fallen off me for a few minutes.  When I emerged out of the oasis into the real world, I felt as if I could take on the masses once again.

And that, my friends, is the magic of Tokyo.