Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

Walking through a random part of North East Tokyo yesterday afternoon for no apparent reason other than it was undiscovered when I saw a gathering in a side-street.

A few hundred people were sitting around chatting, playing games at stalls or drinking beer. It was too small a festival for it to be public so I wasn't sure what it was in aid of.

Doing my best impression of a lost confused foreigner a little Japanese lady thrust a piece of yellow card in my hand and smiled. On it were a few boxes with food names and a square with the word 'beer'. Every adult had one, and children had a blue card.



It turns out this was an annual local council sponsored event for residents of that district. The card meant I could go to each stall and get one plate/cup for free (and then the matching square on the card ticked off). Children's card were different as they also had one free go at each game stall. Out of nowhere, I had a beer in my hand and food in the other.

This must be what it is like to live in Ramsay Street!

It was such an unexpected surprise; one of those things you stumble upon and make you realise how much is going on around you that you didn't even know about.