Time for
SICC GNAR Tales with ya boi Honda-Fan!
I got back from Tokyo Saturday, and on my last day I got the idea to try and hit up a skate shop to support the locals. There's only a few skate shops in Tokyo, and buying local helps keep them open (There's a soft-ban on skating in Tokyo, though) ; I made up in my mind to visit Heshdawgz in Harajuku to buy a board.
After wandering through Shibuya and having some KFC, I found it. Dude was super nice, and was blasting reggae on the radio! I went in originally going to get a signature board, but wound up grabbing a classic Eagle AntiHero deck. As soon as I had the thing with me (And free grip tape) I noticed I'd drawn the locals eyes -- so I kind of tried to keep it pressed under my arm. All the way back on the train, I noticed the curious stares from just an hour earlier, had turned into
concerned glares. I'm still not sure what kind of connotations a skateboard has in Tokyo, but I was beginning to get the creeps. I got back to the hotel and the housekeeping staff thought it was
kakoii-- or cool, which brought me some relief.
But then I had a new problem -- I've gotten the skate deck to the hotel, but... how would I get it home?
I asked online to see if anyone had any trouble getting through airline security with a skate deck, since in my head, it could be a blunt weapon. No one had said they'd been stopped -- but at worst, on budget airlines, some mentioned they might make me check it. The main point of wisdom was to have it attached to a bag, and they wouldn't care. I didn't have a luggage strap to put it on my backpack, but it was just the right shape to lay on top of my duffel bag.
I got through Japan security pretty easily after asking the JAL attendants about it -- they just said it looked cool and kind of shrugged. I slid it under the front seat on the JAL jet and proceeded to watch all of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. The fun ended as soon as I got to immigration here in the States, though. They ran my board through a scanner, nicking it in the process near the the raised edge -- patted me down like
twice, and went through my duffel for suspected contraband. Luckily my gate was RIGHT at the end of security but sheeeeeeeeesh. Overall, I'm still glad I got it, although if I do something like that again, I'm getting one of those bags with the slot in the bottom for skateboards. Also, just judging from the other dude who disappeared at LAX, I don't think that you can skate in the terminal
without incident.
Anyways, back home, and jet lagged beyond belief!