TE
LOTTE
Clockwise from Above:
Christian scorches a front-
side on the condemned
ramp. A sample of the hot
talent brewing in the East.
A rare look into the armpit
of an airplane. Another
rising ripper from the land
of the rising sun.
Thiebaud, Natas Kaupas, Don Brown, Kevin
Harris, his wife Audrey and Pierre Andre. Trip
organizer Duncan hustled to finalize the
details of what was to become an advent-
uresome journey into the unknown.
SCREAMING YAHOOS AT 20,000 FEET:
Boarding was simple enough, the plane took
off and the caballeros immediately became
extremely restless. One bright sonofabitch
started telling airplane disaster stories, in-
cluding the one about the JAL plane that got
bombed and all that was left of the pas
sengers was their sneakers, a few watches
and a teddy bear. "A TEDDY BEAR!"
screamed Ben, who proceeded to barf all
over himself and Jim Murphy's jacket. Murph
narrowly escaped by diving over the seats.
Schroeder hid in the bathroom for the next
three hours while chaos reared
its pretty mug and began
to steadily dominate the
back of the plane.
Guerrero, who'd raged
the previous night, was
now in a state of blissful slumber. Eddie.
Reategui conked out right next to T.G. Well,
it's not hard to figure out the possibilities
when you combine two dudes in a dead
sleep, a roving band of mischief mongers
under the influences of a weird combination
of distilled substances, and a felt pen. Things
got so out of control that the stewardesses
threatened to withhold service unless the
raucous rumpus reduced to a dull roar.
"Okay, we promise. Bring more drinks." A
short-lived declaration that soon brought a
visit from the captain. "Hey, if you're the cap-
tain, then who in the hell is flying the plane?"
"Shut up guys, I don't savvy that much
Japanese, but I think he said something
about pulling this thing over and kicking us
off if we don't put a lid on it." Again, promises
were made and not kept. A stewardess.
began to cry, the plane ran out of beer, then
Mr. Ben came out of the head into the arms
of Jay Adams who proceeded to deliver a
severe dosage of knuckle noogies. Not the
best thing for B.S.'s condition. When Murph
asked about Ben's state, the reply came in
the form of a stream of clear liquid. Ready
this time with his jacket stored in the
overhead, Murph stagedived across three
rows. Johnson, in an effort to be helpful, held
out an air sickness bag, only to get an arm-
ful of the clear liquid. It was wiped off with
a T-shirt which was thrown over the shoulder
for luck. Imagine the surprise of the sleep-
ing Japanese lady when she woke to find the
soiled T on her headrest.
SO, THIS IS TOKYO: Customs was a breeze,
and there were no troops waiting at the gate,
which was not too far out of the question,
since somebody was blasting Andrew Dice
Clay through a ten-pound boombox turned
up to ten while the aircraft taxied into the
gate. The crew was greeted by a man holding up a sign,
something about JSA Skateboard Championships.
Everybody followed him because it seemed like the right
thing to do the lowkey types having the presence of
mind not to hang too close to the high key types (a move
that proved to be useful in the next few days, saving
certain individuals from much grief, possible physical
pain and jail).
Everybody loaded into a giant limousine that
resembled a glamorous bus with a TV and drink
holders on all of the seats, then disembarked
at the Royal Park Hotel, which had to be a five-
star joint. A bunch of guys with cool caps
ran around gathering all of the baggage
and barking orders to each other in a
gathering baggage sort of Japanese.
The group was then herded into a
large, brightly lit room with rows of
tables covered with fine linen, blind-
ingly polished silverware and ex-
tremely fragile-looking cups and
saucers. Men dressed in slick white duds
ran around the tables pouring coffee, tea and
an occasional beer. This gathering was intended to in-
troduce the yankee cowboy skate dogs to those who were
responsible for this shindig: the Japanese Skateboard Association
(JSA), LOTTE (a company which manufactures an assortment of candies
and goodies), various other luminaries and some girl in a dress. The quasi-
chaperons of the riders were Mikato Nagamoto, Aki Akiyama and Nisi the Incredible.
The official types laid down the week's schedule and asked if there were any ques-
tions. Points came up about getting up at 5:30 in the morning to catch the ride to the
comp. "Never in the history of man has a skater gotten up that early to go to a con-
test." It's changed to 8:00 "We want turkey for Thanksgiving!" They promise the turkey.
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"How much for the girl?" No
comment.
Rooms were assigned, no china was
broken and the huns were let loose on an un-
suspecting Tokyo. The Japanese would soon
learn that they hadn't had it this bad since the
last time Godzilla dropped by for dinner.
SEVERAL DAYS OF STRANGE WEIRDNESS:
For starters, in Tokyo, and possibly the rest of
Japan, they drive on the left side of the street.
Another thing, Tokyo has a thriving nightclub
scene that is enough to put the most rigorous
nightclubbers to a test. In the Roppongi district
there are nightclubs a plenty. On one corner
alone there is a ten-story building that houses.
a nightclub on each floor. This structure became
the site of many of a scene for the fearless
American creatures of the night. A string of crazy
misadventures persisted throughout the week.
Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities in
the world, thus the cost of admission is high to
places with hip tunes, hip drinks and hip women.
The wild ones tried to figure ways around the
issue of having to pay. In one incident (each and
every situation did somehow become an inci-
dent) the line outside a club was much too
lengthy for Mr. Adams and Mr. Johnson. They
opted for the old vault-over-the-wall trick.
Although both are accomplished athletes, they
weren't quick enough to elude the eagle eyes
of the bouncer. It didn't help that they landed.
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