St. Patrick's Day in Japan

On Sunday in Harajuku, there was a St. Patrick's Day Parade. I was invited by Katlin, so I thought that I should go. I was very curious as to how this would compare to anything I had seen back home.
The first thing that we noticed, was that it was definitely "Western". The atmosphere and attitude were very different from the Japanese matsuri (festivals). The parade was pretty small, but it was nice. There were groups from Ireland, Japan and the U.S.
The main difference that I noticed, was that a lot of Japanese observers would jump into the procession and try to pose with people or characters. This would hold up the line and delay the parade. I thought that this was very strange and a little rude. I don't know if they thought that this was what we normally do (in the Western world). I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen any Japanese people behave this way at a Japanese matsuri. I just thought that it was strange.
Overall, I have to say that the best St. Patrick's Day parade I've been to, it the Chicago St. Pat's parade. Where else do they dye the river green?
I'm glad to have experienced the parade. There were a lot of people who watched the parade and most of them were Westerners. It was a shock to see so many non-Japanese people. Especially people that I didn't know. As I mentioned before, our town doesn't have many foreigners. We all seem to be linked to each other, so it's a shock to see a gaijin that I don't know of.
Anyway, on Monday, it was Katlin's birthday. I didn't feel well and took the day off. She also took the day off. The weather was warm and she got a new camera for her birthday, so we decided to go for a walk. We could get fresh air AND she could experiment with her new camera. After that, we came back to my apartment and played Wii. Later, Katlin, Iggy, Nick and I went to an okonomiyaki restaurant. It was a lot of fun. It was a great way to spend the day. It was also very different from spending it with my family and eating the traditional "green food". At any rate, it was fun.