3 days ago I knew I was going to Tokyo. It`s best to do so early in the morning before the day starts. I also knew that I was cold when I left my house and it was snowing. On the train the doors would open and close and open and the cold air would rush in. I got into Iwaki and immediately had a desire to buy something warm and so I ducked into my favorite clothing store or was going to duck into the store when I realized that the day had not started yet. The day starts at 10am and there I was with some other early bird risers at 9:30 on a Saturday morning waiting for the Iwaki buy center to open. Me and an old man followed each other up an elevator trying to see if the entrance could be breached, but soon found that the doors were locked. There was however, a coffee shop that was open and so I went there and ate some egg and bread and sipped on a Kilimanjaro hoping that the coffee would take me away to Africa, but it didn`t. I ate fast and paid the bill just as the clock struck 10am and the flurry of early morning risers entered the big mall. I had 15 minutes to buy my warm clothing and get on the train to Tokyo. Life seemed to go from way too slow to way fast and I ran. I scrambled into the clothing shop and quickly tried on a shirt and decided on the purchase and paid. I looked at my watch and it read 10:12. I booked it to the train station and found that the train had gone. The next train would come an hour later putting my launch off point at 11:00. I decided to strike off and search for other faster ways to get to Tokyo and the first thought that popped into my head was that a bus would be a good idea. It was cheaper too. Some time later I looked out the bus window and watched as Iwaki disappeared into first factories and then rolling hills.
The first reason I had wanted to go to Tokyo was to learn how to play the Shakuhatchi. I was eager to learn some direction to the instrument and found that there was a seemingly well known teacher in Tokyo and so I emailed him up and he emailed me back and a date was set on Sunday. It never makes sense to go to Tokyo for just one day and so I had to invent other reasons to go to Tokyo. My girlfriend was close and in the vicinity, but she was hanging out with her Mom that day and so that was quickly omitted from the list. I would`ve gone to Tokyo for that reason alone to go see her. When in doubt though, I found wherever you are in the world you can always find places to climb and or play music and so climbing took center stage. I was going to Tokyo to find climbing and so that is why I sat 0n the bus on Saturday and tried to figure out things to do to be productive and pass the time it would take for the bus to make it to Tokyo. I tried reading and that didn`t work and so I tried playing a video game, but that seemed worthless, and I tried studying Japanese, but it seemed I was getting nowhere with that either so I just thought about my current situation and focused really hard on what I was going to do later in life. What was going to be next on the dinner menu of life after I left Japan? I thought about this the whole way to Tokyo.
I had memorized the directions to one climbing place that I had searched on the computer the night before. I had to find the best way to find Takonobaba station. I got off the bus at Ayase, which is the entrance of Tokyo and after some navigating on trains and using McDonald`s as usual to steer my way I arrived a Gravity Gym. The climbing wall reminded me of art the way it was set up. Each hold had a colored symbol next to it and the route was followed by following colored symbols. It was a small climbing wall more like a long hallway, but it had a nice feel to it kind of like an interactive art museum. I met many Japanese people who had my similar interests and made many friends and studied lots of Japanese and got better at climbing. It was good things coming at me for the next 5 or 6 hours and after leaving I decided that food was what I wanted. It also popped in my brain that I should`ve taken a picture of the place, but my food craving and forward progressing situation stamped out that action and I soon was ordering Katsudon or something quite like it and that is precisely when my phone went off and my lovely Iyo called me.
She has the sweetest voice like water and sun and flowers all mixed together and then sprinkled out. After her voice and hearing her voice and knowing that she wanted to see me the Katsudon and food offering before me became an obstacle I would have to overcome instead of a mere product of consumption. I quickly ate the meal and rushed off to meet Iyo in 20 miniutes time in Shinjuku. I was in climbing mode white and dusty and my life became a mission right then and there. The print off of the mission arrived right after I exited the restaurant. It said change your shirt, brush your teeth, look clean for your lady and so I went to the only place that would accomplish these tasks in record time, the convenience store. I changed my shirt in their little tincy wincy bathroom, brushed my teeth and even bought hygiene products. I then ran to the train and then was soon waiting for Shinjuku stop to appear on the train digital map. I soon found Iyo and held her hands and thought to myself this day is getting even better. We walked off to go see the a huge tower that she had a hard time pronouncing and soon found that it was too crowed to see because the whole world seems to come to Tokyo every Saturday and Sunday all year long and there were lines and people waiting and cold air approaching. We walked off and tried to figure out other things to do and finally found refuge in a small coffee shop and we were just together and that made us happy. But soon she had to leave and I as I walked away that night I had to think to myself ``hey you got to see her today that wasn`t even part of the plan`` I soon arrived at my favorite hostel in Tokyo and soon found music being played and made some more music friends on the 9th floor of the hostel where people from around the world gather and talk about the places they`ve been, sing songs, and talk about Tokyo, Japan. I sang my songs for wonderful people and then knew that the day was coming to an end and so bought a drink and out of a vending machine and let Tokyo pass me on the highway and send me to dreamland.
Early morning was when I checked out and and got up and looked for breakfast and later found the place where I was going to learn Shakuhatchi and later get lost for a little after playing Shakuhatchi and finally returned home on the train paying 60 dollars instead of 20 dollars and I listened to some really nice music in Ueno station that was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes and made me feel really happy all the way home. And then home came again and my recent past became like a distant dream and I learned or became aware again that a volcano was letting off smoke in Iceland and keeping the world on land for the time being, except birds, which were still allowed to fly.
