Tokyo - Day 1 (Finale)

-- 10/5/2016 - Written from Alex's Apartment --

By the time I got to Shibuya I was mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. The hot air with 100% humidity had me sweating through my clothes anytime I tried to move my bags. Texting with Alex I found out I could stash my luggage in a coin locker at the station, and then we’d be able to move around a bit more freely. 

I don’t think I’ve made this clear yet, but Shibuya is a crazy busy station. Most stations in Tokyo are around 5:30 in the evening, but Shibuya is a transit center for buses, and it’s adjacent to the busiest cross-walk in the country – Shibuya Crossing – where it’s not unusual for over 1,000 people to cross the street at each signal. It also happens to have a shopping mall, several huge Pachinko Parlors, and construction going on from top to bottom. Suffice it to say I was immediately overwhelmed getting off the train, and I was really looking forward to putting my bags down. 

I found some coin lockers alright, but then I had to find a way to pay for them. The locker wanted ¥400 in coins, but I only had ¥1000 bills. Fortunately, there was a helpful European couple that watched my bags for me while I went to a vending machine to simultaneously break the bill and get a refreshing iced tea. The first machine I tried was not taking my money at all, but a random Japanese dude came and tried to help me, and then took me to another machine that did work alright. With a ¥500 coin in hand, I went back to the locker and said goodbye to the European couple. 

Then I found out the locker would only take ¥100 coins. So I eventually decided to leave my bags unsecured for a minute while I ran to a newspaper stand, where the shop owner changed my coin for me no questions asked. Unlike most places I’ve been, it was super easy making change and breaking really large bills in Japan. No one blinked an eye when I later tried to pay for the equivalent of a $20 meal with the equivalent of a $100 bill. 

Finally, I was able to pay for the coin locker and shut it. And then Alex told me he’d be off of work in 2 hours. I ended up crossing and then orbiting Shibuya Crossing while I tried to get my bearings and get a feel for how things work in Tokyo. I walked past hundreds of great looking restaurants, trying to decide between them and wondering if it would be better to eat with Alex later on, so that I ended up not eating at all. 

Eventually Alex texted me that he was free, so I got back to the station, picked up my heavy load once more, and got a ticket for the Inokashira Line which was part of the Keiyo Lines, not the Tokyo Metro. I got out to Alex’s stop in Kugayama. I did a little better this time with the luggage on the train, putting most of the bags up on a luggage rack I hadn’t paid attention to before. At the station there was one older woman in particular who saw me lifting the bags and muttered “Sugoi–” (awesome). All I could say was “Ganbaru” (to persevere [yes, my Japanese is really bad]). 

Alex, my college friend and long-time parkour buddy, met me at the station with a huge hug, taking up one of my bags for me, and starting conversation as if we had just seen each other last week rather a year and a half ago. He lead me to his place a little ways south and we put my bags down in his amazing 3-story apartment with a loft. It probably has something like 500 total square feet, but everything in the building is carefully arranged vertically to make the most of the tiny alley it was built in.  

We headed back to the train station and Alex showed me how to buy a Suica or Passmo card, a universal transit pass that you could load with as much cash as you needed. We put ¥1000 on it and set off in search of a place to eat.

We ended up in the 7th story of an office and shopping building near Kichijoji eating ‘special’ tonkatsu cutlets. They were not spiked with weed. They were just special; I don’t know why. In addition to having special tonkatsu, we also made our own dipping sauce by grinding sesame seeds in a mortar and adding some mustard with sweet, ‘heavy,’ or yuzu flavored sauce. I had a beer with my dinner, and after being awake for 23 hours going more than 8 since my last meal I felt buzzed after just a couple sips. 

When it was time to go, we went back to Alex’s apartment, where we chatted and Alex did laundry. He showed me some 2-player Tetris games on his Playstation, but by the second round I was falling into utterly deep sleep for 2 seconds at a time, and then waking up feeling like 10 minutes had passed. I tried to stay up a little longer while Alex finished the laundry and then we made my bed. I wanted to keep hanging out, but we both knew I was dead on my feet. 

So finally, finally, I went to bed.