Day One 一 Making Friends

After skating all around kiba, where I'm staying, the first night I was very discouraged I began to worry this trip might have been to rash, I felt lonely and I felt as if I was the only tourist in the whole city. As it turns out, I am, at least in Kiba that is. Kiba, still part of Tokyo, lies on the outer edge, it is absolutely beautiful and crawling with beautiful canals, vintage children's parks, and locals. It is where most the working class live in tokyo, and very few tourists ever venture out here. So, I awoke the first day with very little hopes for my future here, so far it wasn't what I expected. I went down to the nearby subway station, luckily it was perfectly placed right by where I was staying, and bought an open pass for the subway ¥600 and took the light blue tozai line to harajuku station with skateboard in hand. I honestly didn't have a clue what my plans were, but I heard about harujuku station from one of my books that I read. When I arrived in harajuku I was completely astonished, the streets were covered with people moving at high speeds on their feet, bustling about between shops. Huge lines waiting in front of each shop, specifically the octopus ball stand, nike, and a handful of cafés. I got help from some locals and was pointed in the direction of the nearest skatepark. I flew down the streets passed the hoards of people, I got a little mixed up as far as directions go, but I ended up at the skate park pretty quickly. When I got there it was locked, the signs on it all in Japanese, I had no idea what to do. I asked two kids walking by, they appeared around my age, if they could translate the signs. They translated the signs and called the management and found out the park opens at 1 and it was ¥200 for entry. After that was settled, they asked to take pictures with me, I obliged, I could tell they were trustworthy people. The boy, ken, was an amazing photographer, and his friend was helping him. Turns out they were just waking around the city shooting photos. I asked if I could come along and hang with them until the park opened, they were happy to take me along. We walked back through harujuku, passing through the beautiful corridors of buildings, and the well manicured gardens filled with green and pink and blue, all perfectly layed put. We stopped to take pictures here and there. We ended up near yoyougi park famous for its shrine for the emperor. The park was covered in towering green trees, we followed underneath this lush canopy on a wide path covered with other people touring the are. We crossed underneath beautiful shinto arches and took pictures on unique Japanese bridges throughout the park. Unortunately we did not make it all the way to the shrine before Ken had to depart for cooking lessons, but I figured I was here long enough and could go back later. I hauled it back over to the skatepark but sadly it was still closed, I had 45 more minutes to wait. I decided to drift towards the center of shibuya, once again with no goal in mind. Shibuya was covered in cafés and eateries and shops, my favorite part was the giant square where hundreds of people crossed the street at once from all directions. As soon as the sign turned green people flooded the streets like the first downpour after a great drought, it was very easy to get lost among the crowd. I crossed the swarm of humans and ended up at the Starbucks to catch some wifi, in there I saw the other friend I made with ken, noman. We shared words and he told me he wasn't busy and asked to come along with me to the skatepark. Together, we once again went towards the skate park, this time crossing underneath the bullet trains and through a beautiful grove of cherry blossoms, the pedals falling to the grown and blowing in the wind really brightened my day, it was almost like a dream. The ground was covered in the pink pedals. I made it into the skatepark and rolled around for a bit. The setting was absolutely brilliant, a park risen up above the streets on its own little island surrounded by Sakura trees and holding its own greenery inside. After about an hour I went outside and talked to Noman who had been waiting there, he said he was hungry so he planned on going to McDonald's, I told him I would meet him there after I was done at the skate park, after another half hour of skating I rolled towards Mickey D's in the center of shibuya. It was totally packed and I climbed all three stories looking for him to no avail, I probably took to long at the skatepark. I gave up and decided to try what mcdonalds was like in japan, it seemed so popular. I ordered a Big Mac, I had never enjoyed mcdonalds before until that. Sitting up on the third story and chowing down on a burger with a side of those amazing mcdonalds fries while looking out over the hundreds of people scurrying before was a very pleasant experience. After that I headed back home and took a nap. After I woke up I got a message from Kobayashi (ken) he actually lived right by where I was saying, we met up and went sight seeing with his friend from Hokkaido. I got to see the beautiful tokyo bridge, and the building site for the Olympics in 2020 the views were spectacular. After that we went to tokyo tower, it was absolutely magical, a burning red tower modeled after the Eiffel Tower in France and surrounded by cherry blossoms. I captured some great photos, and then we went off to get dinner. Ken took us to a great place that wasn't expensive at all, my chicken katsu was only ¥400 and it was absolutely delicious. After that I went home and passed out. It was an amazing day.