You see a lot of odd things in ol'Japan. Off the top of my head I can recall Yakuza in large four by fours with loud hailers on the top shouting about being proud of Japan, men pissing almost anywhere they choose, lonely looking women by roadsides drinking gin, over-sized t-shirts with foot high words claiming the Japanese person adorning is "BLACK AND PROUD".

Well this morning I saw an old woman, maybe about 80 years of age, sit down on the curb of a deserted street, pull a harmonica out of her bag and start to play. No audience, no percievable reason. She just played. And I didn't even flinch.

Suddenly that sort of thing isn't wonderful, strange, noteworthy? Have I become that jaded? Perhaps everything seems so foreign here that even the moments that should be standout or odd are just lost amongst a crowd of strange. Things which should be amusing become bemusing and I don't even lift a shoulder to shrug it off anymore.

If an English 80 year old woman had enough of her mental faculties intact to even know which orrifice to place a harmonica on, it would be celebrated on local news. If the same woman took to playing songs to the grass on empty roads then she would be national news.

Seeing this lady should have been my 'plastic bag in the wind' moment, an affirmation of life, joy and the romance that can't be better conveyed than with the strains of notes and melodies of music.