August 18th, 2004
So as to try something billionet and radical, mentally and physically, the second day of walking would actually be a night. The hot summer afternoons here and desire to sweat as little as possible led me to that decision.
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WALK THE FRIENDLY YAMANOTE 2004 START!
Shibuya - 00000
The south side of Shibuya is one I don:t walk though too often. This mahjong club is named after Lupin the Third. The katakana says
"Rupan". Rupan = Lupin. The time is 7:25 pm. I had originally planned for us to leave Shibuya station closer to 6 pm, but things happen.
Ebisu - 03033
It took a bit longer to get here than I originally thought it would. By the way, on this leg of the voyage would be indie-newcomers Mark
and that other guy we:ll just call "Seth".
Right in front of the station is a statue of Don Ebisu. Single-handedly bringing beer to Japan was his big claim to fame. He called it "Yebisu" and in gratitude the city managers of Tokyo named an entire ward of Tokyo in his honor. The only snag is that the name was changed to "Ebisu", dropping the "Y" mainly because there is no "ye" sound in Japanese.
Meguro - 05330
Ignoring bars and 99-yen stores, we managed to locate Meguro station without the slightest of ease. We got slightly lost weaving back
between houses and learned a valuable lesson it the process. Two stations done in an hour, things were moving along swell.
PRO TIP - Makes an excellent wallpaper if tiled. Maybe. What it says is "tomare" or stop! It:s the command form of an intransitive verb.
Gotanda - 06836
It was right down the line and much easier to find, not 16 minutes past Meguro station and it felt like we were walking a straight line the whole time.
"Kosumo" is a good name for a company. Well, not really. But finding your brother:s name in katakana isn:t something that happens everyday in this country. Especially is you don:t pass Gotanda station, as I would never had if I didn:t do this gigantic indie adventure.
Never let "Seth" carry the map. He threw it in the first river we passed. HE THREW THE MAP IN THE RIVER?? OMGF!!1
Ōsaki - 08995
This sign is proof that I should probably get a better cell phone to take these pictures with... In two years or so. Mark also
tried to get a shot of it, but his results were the same. So be grateful what you get. This will be the last station for a while.
What comes next is "TEH WALK" as I call it. The stretch between Ōsaki and the next station, Shinagawa, is a mighty one.
It:s claimed the lives of many a foolish gaijin before me but those poor saps weren:t BUSTERS now, weren:t they?
Now map-less and hungry, around 9:18 pm we loitered into a convenience store to get supplies and directions. I knew that the line curved north somehow, but the "somewhere" and "somewhen" were still unknown to us. We got out instructions, sort of, and left. I presented "Seth" with this bag of popcorn. 7-11 popcorn. The best of all the convenience store popcorns, in my opinion. I think in return he either paid for the chocolate milk I got, or watched me pay. One of the two.
Following the road and that poor 7-11 manager:s advice we found our way to a park inhabited by inanimate dinosaurs! While Mark was able to make friends with the lizards of terribleness...
"Seth" found himself on the business end of three-clawed yellow arm that doesn:t move.
It may not look it, but I:m like 30 feet in the air. The thing at the bottom of the picture is not Mark:s finger, but the roof of a two-story tall car. And yes, I:m 12-years old. Ha ha ha, aren:t you teh clever one?
Shimbamba-mae station. Shim-bam-ba. Arguably the greatest Japanese name in the history of Japanese names I can read and write. If you:re ever looking around to buy a new horse, this is where they keep them.
Turn here or all hope is lost. "Yamate" may be correct or not, I don:t trust the English on the signs here any more.
Almost three feet long, this man-eating beast was spotted and ignored, thinking it was a large wooden carving. "Seth" pointed out my mistake, and a picture was taken. But to get even, I suggested he put his hand near it so we could get a sense of scale (pun?). Also this is the last known picture of his right hand. It:s funny how things turn out, really.
Around 9:58 we saw our first signs of downtown Tokyo way off in the distance. It:s a beautiful city at night. It just sucks I can:t take a better shot than this.
Shinagawa - 12976
10:08pm and the night was officially almost over. 50 minutes of walking and more walking with a little wandering for flavor.
FINALLY the promised ending point of the night. We could:ve gone a little farther, but possibly missing our last train home
kinda snapped us back in line. All in all, a good night:s walk.
Shinagawa station is one I:ve gone through but never in oddly enough. I:ll remember to take some better pictures than this at the start of the next indie, whenever that is. "Seth" was going to crash at my place for the night, so we had about an hour or trains and walking ahead of us.
Down below the station, where the train platforms are I snapped this picture of Mark walking away. He:s the dude in gray.
And he snapped this picture of us. We were hunched over on the platform plotting something... Something... Very plot-able. Mwa hahahaha!
He also took this picture. Beats me why; but he did, so I:ll post it here.
Oh, the people you see riding the train at 10:24 pm on a Wednesday night...
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Starting late on this was a pretty bad idea. So was being late, myself, but who really cares? Pikachu counted 12976 steps, and 4000 of them were in the last hour. It:s that missing hour that killed this indie. We could:ve made it as far as Tamachi, and had almost half the loop completed. As it stands now, I:m not sure if I can do this in four parts, which poses a problem.
That problem being that I have to make up that hour someday. And as of writing this, part three is done and waiting to be written. I know how much ground was covered, but can:t tell you because I:d rather end this indie on a note that goes something like this...
TO BE CONTINUED??
