HOLY
Cat food.
当店おすすめ!
超撥水
こんこん
ミラコンコート
SHITO
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY NIK PREITAS
Horioshi tattooing Luis Martinez the old-school way.
Panda chicks in Tokyo.
K, I'VE NEVER BEEN OVERSEAS BEFORE, AND JAPAN
is a pretty crazy place to go as it is, so you will understand that
I could only utter the words "holy shit" when faced with the
abundance of craziness experienced on my recent trip to Japan.
Bear with me.
The first time I used the expression was when this guy Taki asked
me if I would like to go to Japan with Aaron Harrison, Luis
Martinez, Crazy Eddie, and him. Taki is a tattoo artist and runs a
skate company called Room 21. There was a tattoo convention in
Tokyo that his teacher, Horioshi, was going to, so he figured it
would be cool to set up a few demos for Room 21 in Japan before
the convention. Taki purchased plane tickets and it was set. Little
did I know that between the 24th of August and the 6th of
September the words "holy shit" would be used more in my vocab-
ulary than the word "like."
70
I flew once when I was a kid, but I don't remember it much, so
you can understand I wanted to yell my favorite phrase when the
plane lifted off the ground. Eddie sat beside me and was feeling the
same, so the first thing we did was call for Jack and Cokes. It was
all right after a while-all you see is blue below you and blue
above you, unless you sit next to someone named Crazy Eddie,
who got cut off after 10 Jack and Cokes and was sprawled out
between the seat and the floor.
The first thing felt when we arrived in Narita, Japan, was the heat.
The doors of the airport opened and we were met with a sticky and
humid heat. It felt like Alabama in the summer, but everywhere you
looked there were Japanese people with clouds of cigarette smoke
above their heads. Someone forgot to tell me that in Japan you
drive on the left side of the road and that the steering wheel is on
the right side of the car. "Something I will
just have to get used to," I thought-but the
cars, man, the cars. The cars all look like little
boxes with tires like those spare ones you're
not supposed to drive on over 50 miles an
hour. The roads? Just imagine a really skinny
mini-ramp. It is the same feeling, except that
there is bamboo on the sides. Insert my new
favorite phrase here.
Our new guides, and lifesavers, were
Suguru, who owned a skate shop in Iwai
called Effort, and Ryo (pronounced "Yo").
These two characters were great. As we drove
I realized, after swerving through rice fields
and jungle, that we were staying in the coun-
try. Eddie was stoked, hanging out of the
sunroof, and I was thinking about the two.
words that I was now growing accustomed
to. Taki told me that Suguru has 900 dollars'
worth of beer at the house. I dwelled on the
words longer.
Need I go on about Suguru's house? Part skate
Aaron Harrison nailed this 50-50 second try.
SUNTORY
Flood on Wa
GET!!
THRASE
Luis, backside tailslide.
Decisions, decisions.
Pretty boys.
Vampira strikes.