Day Four: Shibuya

its funny how things work out.

Twenty minutes ago i was convinced i would be sleeping in a box for the night somewhere on the streets of downtown tokyo. and i was almost right.

i left for shibuya at about 1pm today. i went to the train station and decided to take a different route through yokohama that would get me to tokyo using the shinkansen. so it was legit. i rode the shink for about 10 or 15 km.

i eventually found my way to shibuya center street. thousands of people lined the streets outside the train station. masses of people like i dont even remember ever seeing in my life, even though im sure i have.

i photographed a picture of hachiko the dog, who is so famous that an exit at the train station has been named after him. hachiko is a true symbol of dedication and devotion.

from what i hear, theres even a movie about this special guy in the works featuring the acting talents of such greats as richard gere and rosie o donnell-- so look out.


shibuya is just another one of the wards of tokyo. it contains multiple areas for all types of things. there is a section for restaurants, a section for clothes, entertainment and prostitutes (all of this is part of the entertainment district). i definitely wasnt all about the red light, so i hightailed it out of there and made my way towards the station to make music shortly after i started exploring the area.

the crowds of people were almost too overwhelming, but i loved every second of it.


here is a view of the famous shibuya intersection

i met some really great people as well throughout the day. i met two guys from saitama-ken that were interested in rock music, a man that told me he loved georgia so much that he had an old school style georgian house built in tokyo, and a kid named tetsu that played the drums and was also really great. come to think of it, he wasnt a kid at all, he was a few months older than me.

and this has to be my favorite couple i met during the day--the suave akihiro and his beautiful girlfriend asuka.

we talked for a good long while about all types of random stuff. he said he liked motorbikes and she liked fashion. decent hobbies i thought. they asked me to play a song for them, so i busted out "brown eyed girl" and during the song this creepy old guy came up to asuka and started whispering stuff into her ear. im not sure what it was, maybe that i was a foreigner trying to take over the country with music or something to that effect.

anyway, akihiro saw what was going on IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG mind you, and grabbed asuka and shooed the scary old man away.

akihiro, if you ever get to read this, youre a good man and i appreciate you!

then they both signed my guitar and akihiro put a heart between their names. it was mega kawaii.


i met my friend jason from the mission at about 7pm at the statue of hachiko and went on a trip around shibuya. i showed him the magic i found in the entertainment and red light sections of the town and we went and ate some rice. i thoroughly enjoyed myself.

then we went and did an hours worth of karaoke. jason being such an incredibly decent man footed the bill for that. we met tetsu again on the way to the train station and he introduced us to his bands guitarist. it was cool, just wish i had got a picture of him tho.

anyway, jason did more than just foot the bill for karaoke and be my three hour travel companion.

im on my way back to where i have been staying when i realize something. all trains stop at midnight and i will never have time to make it back. so what do i do?

i dont know, i had to come up with a plan. i called jason and headed back to tokyo. i was planning on finding a nice nook in the city and sleeping til 5am when the trains would begin running again, but i made it to asakusa, making the final subway car by only a few seconds. after searching for jason for almost an hour, we found each other at the kaminari-mon, a huge sight here in asakusa tokyo.

he told me that by some mere chance, one of the girls living at the hotel where he is-that is involved in the same english teaching program- didnt need to use her room tonight, so i would have a place to stay.

so here i am now, sitting in a room of someone ive never met, in the middle of tokyo, feeling so grateful from the kindness of strangers and friends and acknowledging the importance of both. i also have to admit that its a miracle i was able to find my way here because i get this sinking feeling that some nights on this trip i wont pull out of my problems so lucky.

but you really never know.

more havoc to come.