タイお得な、「さくらイン
Left: HISASHI NAKAMURA (kickflip)
Age: 17
Skating: 4-5 years
Sponsor: Nope. I wish I was sponsored.
What's up E.P.P.!
Ше
ANNA
くら
K5PE
3FAV4F 時計 ごくらや 携帯・PMS受付センター
KSP PHSE
PEOPLE
The first things you notice about Tokyo are
the tons of people and how small everything
is. But unlike crowded US cities, there is
almost zero street crime; if you talk with
Japanese skaters they will almost inevitably
ask you (especially if they've never been to
the US) if everyone has a gun where you live,
or if you have gangsters and drive-bys in your
neighborhood. People are polite to and
respectful of each other, without the annoy-
ance that comes with zoned-out hippie
"friendliness." It's kind of weird, especially if
you're coming from any city where hoodrats
and hardness are the usual, but how could
you possibly complain? Not once during
shooting for this article did we have to worry
about going to a sketchy neighborhood with
thousands of dollars of camera and video
equipment, or hoodlums trying to take our
stuff in a normal part of the city.
LAYOUT
Tokyo is a totally unplanned city, except for the
Imperial Palace, right in the middle of the city, which
has been there for thousands of years, and a couple
other really ancient or really new areas. The "city"
never really ends, spreading outward in overlapping
clusters of taller office buildings, shopping areas,
restaurants, and entertainment centered around train
stations that gradually get less hectic the further you
get away from the center of the city. It's not like New
York, with one big center of huge skyscrapers; instead
there are multiple centers and multiple areas with big
buildings, public parks, and shopping centers.
What this means for skaters is that there isn't one sin-
gle big spot in Tokyo like an EMB, South Bank, or Love
Park. Different parts of the city have their own different
spots with their own different crews of skaters, who
might all cross over with other groups when they go
visit different spots in different parts of the city. The
skating is all about different spots where you go to
skate for a while, and not about shooting down the
street hitting whatever you might find. Since Tokyo
streets are so compact, and the sidewalks crowded with
people, you rarely see groups of skaters flying down
the streets; we did a couple of times see groups of
skaters cruising down the sidewalk on their bicycles,
boards in basket, on their way to the spot.
INTERNATION
YUKISABURO WATANABE
MICH
DAIMARU
4F レディスフロア
Right: Simon Lockett represents New
Zealand and goes off the wall with a
frontside ollie at Tokyo Station.
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