Walking around Tokyo is always an amazing experience.  It is like no other city in the world. Just when you think that perhaps Tokyo is just a city a lot like New York, then you find some new, amazing, or peculiar sight that makes you change your mind again.

For the past few months I have been collecting Japanese shirts.  NO, I don’t go and try to pull them off people’s backs! I just collect the words that are on them. Check out the samples below. For a while I thought perhaps these types of “shirt quotes” were reserved for the young and the trendy.  Leslie said that since I couldn’t come up with a meaningful explanation of why those words were on that shirt in that order, that perhaps that was the point. But recently I was in one of the most upscale department stores in Tokyo - Isetan - and came across a very nice polo shirt with another shirt quote for my collection. It’s hard to figure. I guess I don’t have to explain it to collect it. 

Here’s a portion of my collection for your puzzlement and bemusement. Not all are shirts but they all fit the model.

Relaxed in the nature    You must be a dab of life (shirt at Isetan)

The way which has just been completed your back sharpen and purify it  (shirt at Shibuya)

sheen dip (sic; repeated many times on a shopping bag seen on subway on the way to Narita airport)

There are no birds of this year in last year’s nests. (shirt on subway)(This one actually may mean something but I am not sure what it is.)

In the years since we first received transmission of your historical documents (shirt in the subway)

Alpaca mission critical (not sure where I saw this one now)

make lapid progress   perservere in one’s AIM

A storm in heaven  on the way to the Quickout counter

you know you can’t escape reality

mischievous  what’s next is to bite with the speed of a glowing animal and disappear into the dark of the wildest dreams

I HATE MYSELF AND I WANT TO DIE (nice sweatshirt on the train to Chiba)

racketeer gadabout

(bag) Nature Tradition  Charmed Herb  California  Happy Colorful  First Appearance  Lightly Heart Cheerful (accompanied by a picture of a marijuana leaf)

(shopping bag) the rising generation                              DRAMATIC                                                the thing comes to me from time to time

(backpack) the inclination of the younger generation towards a variety of sports

i [heart] lover the stripes

By the light of nature. Keep at a distance. enough and to space. (with a picture of a taxi). Shirt in Kyoto

THIS IS NOT A PAINT COMMERCIAL THIS IS FUTURE (shirt in Shibuya)

BUT ALL IN ALL I CAN SEE NOT GENUINE REASON WHY I SHOULD NOT UNDER TAKE THIS TRIP (shirt in Shibuya)

smile makes every girls happy

Dandelion! Go ahead with your roots spread

Not a shirt, but there is a clothing store east of Shibuya named Incesticide. Not sure how that name came about.

This one isn’t a shirt, but I can’t resist it:

Let’s Enjoy Tokyo! Sewing Needle Memorial  February 2/Shojuin Temple (Shinjuku-ku). 

For this event, old sewing needles are placed into tofu and a memorial service is held to thank the used needs for their service. Prayer is made for greater sewing ability in the coming year. There are many food stalls at this popular event. 

(I’d avoid the tofu stalls at this one myself)

From the airport magazine Via, volume 1-3 Winter 2002