TARD BAIT

Whats up, So yesterday was a pretty long and awesome day. Sheridan and i started off by walking through downtown Shinjuku, just a few blocks away from our hotel. Its like a giant union square with tons of flashing lights. We shot a lot of flicks of the city and people. There are so many stores, little trinket shops and food places its too much to see in one day but we managed to mash through it soaking up as much as we could for a few hours. While mashing about we found a really nice temple. The first one we've visited since being here. We hung out for a minute and and older man approached us asking where we were from. We told him San Francisco and he then stated he had been there 53 yrs ago while serving duty in the air force. We sat and chatted with him for a while and had yet another great experience with another Japanese local.

Around one o'clock Toshi came over and met up with us at our hotel. It was great to see him again cuz it's been a while since he left San Fran. When he got there we went and had some lunch then off to hit some skate spots i had picked out around our hotel. We skated a bit got kicked out and decided to head to Harajuku to visit some of his friends and check out the stores they work in.

Harajuku is sick just like all of the other parts of Tokyo we've visited. It reminds me of a Haight Ashbury/ Berekely without the homeless. Still, everything is so clean. I don't know how with all these people the streets stay so clean of trash. There were the main roads with all the traffic and mega stores, but i found the best shops to be in the small ally like pass ways. First we stopped by the RENDEZ VOUS shop. Kinda like a skate/ boutique. There we met Tetsuya. dude is rad. He won the Japan S.K.A.T.E. contest and is pro for a Japanese board company called UNIFUL. So we kicked it with him for a minute and he gave me one of his pro model decks for a souvenir. Arigato gozaimasu Tetsuya!

We left there and stopped by the element skate shop to meet Tetsuyo (i know the names are way to similar.) and chilled for a hot minute. Tetsuyo hooked me up with the new Japanese version of the element skate vid. Arigato Tetsuyo! Then we headed over to another skate shop called Heshdogs. Now here is my type of shop! These dudes know what's up with skating. They are all for lowcard. They have tons of cool ass gear and they are all great skaters. Thumbs up!

So on the way for beers i noticed a sick pole jam right in the middle of the ally way across from heshdogs that no one has ever skated. I told Toshi to get on it cuz i wanted to shoot it. Toshi handled it, I got the photo and we both were stoked. So now i wanted it so I grabbed my board, hit the jammer and filmed my first line in Tokyo. SUPER FUN!

Off to the next spot. Time for beers and grub, so to the closest place for 2 dollar beers. We had some good eats, stuff I've never eaten before. For those of you that are vegetarian or pet owners I ATE HORSE! Raw horse that is and it good as shit. I was kinda weary at first but after the first bite i was solid. Don't take me to the horse races. After food and a ton of beers we had to hit the road before the subway closed. Thanks again to toshi for hanging out and taking us to all those cool spots, to tetsuya for the board, and to Tetsuyo for the vid and the company at dinner. Yesterday was a blast and we'll do it again before we split.