Friends/Shibuya

I am walking away from the house and heat is in the air, trying to get into my body. The sweatshirt, which is a lump in my backpack (which Okaasan said wouldn't be necessary to bring because today it will be hot all day and night) is collecting warmth and handing it off as sweat onto my back. Renato and I are walking the 15 minutes to Musashi Sakai station from Kusamasan’s house, we’ve just started. We turn onto a main street and balanced down our side’s narrow sidewalk, pushing against the fence to let bicyclist by. My fingernails have become very long. Maybe the shape of them makes it hard to fingerpick my guitar, maybe the long, flat sides that cling to the strings are the reason that my having finger-picking finger nails makes finger picking much more difficult. On the corner is a 100 yen store. It’s fine with Renato if we go in to the 100 yen store so I can buy some fingernail clippers. So we do, and I do (though yet, I haven’t used them, I will use them now… I feel better). Renato is British sounding. Though he was born in Peru, he lived in England for 8 years, before immigrating here. He is the eight years former exchange student of the Kusamas, and has been living in Kyoto for five years getting a sociology degree at Kyoto University; he is very, very good at the Japanese language. And at languages in general, I suspect. He is fluent in Spanish, English, and Japanese. And probably something else. He is clever. He is British. He has that British charm. Looks good with a mustache (I’m sure), although he hasn’t worn one since I’ve known him, which has not been long. But his “five-o-clock shadow” gives a pretty good idea of the type of facial growth he is capable of. It’s all very classy. Classy chap. Really good guy. Renato. We arrive at musashi-sakai station and meet Rachel and Gwen and Eva and Ericka, and Maud (Who is from France and who, interestingly, I think, speaks almost as little English and she does Japanese. And so to communicate with the other girls, they mix English with Japanese and get the point across. And her chest is pierced. Not her nipples, you know, just on top. We don’t really communicate a lot yet.) We get on the train to shibuya with all of us, Renato too. Renato is meeting someone at Yoyogi park for business opportunity, networking sorts of stuff. The rest of us all are going to Shibuya to walk around. Shibuya is one of the places you see on television, with the big intersection and the big, huge TVs built into the faces of buildings. It’s tremendous. It’s enormous! The height of the buildings is dizzying. We’re out of the crowded train (Which, by the way, was crowded. Though Rachel says that it isn’t usually so crowded, now is the most crowded she has seen since she has been here. Inhaling in that train… you know the feeling, you can feel the sickness of someone else going down your throat when you breathe it in, it’s sort of a minor scratchy, itching feeling. That’s what breathing in the train became after 5 minutes of obliviousness, although altogether it was a short ride.) So now we’re outside, in Shibuya, faced by these mountainous buildings screaming advertisements that I don’t understand. Mostly. The streets are narrow and crowded in Shibuya. The six of us… six?... me, Rachel, Eva, Ericka, Maud, and Gwen. The six of us are trying to follow each other and are losing each other, getting separated, getting partially reunited except for one person, being alone and searching for the others (me once), being separated while walking, because Rachel and I will walk fast but the others won't. Everyone is stimulated. Ericka is afraid to get lost, so she will always stay next to you. She has lived in Northern New York state her entire life but has never been to New York City. It has been a few hours. We ate. I ate salad, because I wasn’t very hungry and it was cheap! 100 yen! When night comes, it’s just Rachel and I because the others decided it was best to go back and have free dinner. Rachel and I eat at Mos Burger (we shortly mock the name as we enter) I have the TERIYAKI BAGA and she has the SOMETHINGSOMETHING KATSU BAGA. She is usually vegan. These Bagas are small. Afterwards we think to go to Yoyogi park, because a Brazilian festival is going on there! Maybe Still! We don't know which way is North, so instead we go sing Karaoke. We’re on the 6th floor, in room 601. Our two ‘presents’ are a pineapple filled with pineapple ice cream (hers), and an apple filled with apple ice cream (mine). The drinks are unlimited, but we paid for it. We didn’t really make the unlimited drink thing worthwhile, and we didn't have songs in mind to sing part of the time. It was very very fun. Shibuya is exciting. Partially having-had-some-alcohol, we get back into Shibuya station and we go into this train. This is the first time I have ever sat on the train, there are lots of empty seats. There are very few people on this train. I get back to Musashi-sakai at 9:30 and walk toward where I think my home is at. I’ve never walked to the station from home except for today with Renato. It’s dark and peaceful. I am comfortable here. (Most) People are to themselves here. I don’t look behind me much. I am not paranoid much walking into the dark alleyway alone. My house should be close. A few lefts up (I know only one street name, ‘Nishino’), I see my house. I open the gate. I close the gate behind me. I unlock the three locks. There is laughing inside.