January 13, 1991

7:53 pm, Saturday (again again)

It turns out that I am very bad at reading maps. Randomly walking anywhere is the way to go.

When I woke up I was surprised with the number of people on the train. I was awkwardly pushed against the window with two other men sitting beside me. Thankfully nobody touched my bag or opened the notebook plainly lying on the floor. It took at least five stops for the subway to decline in people, only to later come back with a whole new set. I was lucky though. Yokahama Station isn't nearly as packed as Tokyo Metro. From the stories I have heard from Emi-san, a person can get lost in a matter of minutes.

The subway took me all the way to Tokyo, where my father started his career as a photographer. Of course he had a few pointers, and much more money than I do, and was older. We're still the same. I'm going to work my way up to the top! I'm going to be the best, not just for me, but for Dad.

The streets weren't packed yet. A few men and women in suits walked into big buildings, but most were in street clothes and heading off to places other than work. I was able to find a big park nearby with the help of a few nice strangers. Once I found a nice spot away from people I took the time to see what I actually brought with me.

-Money: 200,000 ¥ (well, 199,800 ¥ after paying the park entry)

-Water: 5 bottles

-Gum: 3 packs

-Clothes: 2 shirts, 2 socks, 3 boxers, 1 jacket

-Food: 2 bags of chips and 2 boxes of pocky

-And my camera and this stupid journal.

I didn't need to worry about food for today, just thinking of this morning makes me lose my appetite. I planned to explore the park, find a nice tree to climb in, and sleep until the park opens again. Hopefully tomorrow I could find a building I could sleep in instead of outside.

The park was beautiful, with trees surrounding the green plains filled with relaxing people. While I took pictures of different people, ranging from a family having a picnic to a person just reading, I managed to get a good idea of where I am. This park was apparently in the middle of Tokyo, and one of the most popular to visit. Outside there were many small shops, along with the company buildings only a couple minutes away. The nearest school was a bit of a walk, but it made a good sneak away place if I was ever recognized by the police, that is if my mother even bothered to call them. She's probably happy I left and is sitting with Eiji right now. Eiji…..

I've been sitting in this tree for about 3 hours, trying to find a position that no one could see me. It's in between two of the three gardens in the park. Since the park is so big I just had to wait until the coast was clear to climb up. Most of the people were leaving either way, since the park closed at around 4:00. The sun is already starting its slow decent down from the sky. A bird flew past my head and settled on the branch above mine. It's so small, get it has the strength to fly for miles in the sky without resting. The flowers in the trees were growing, the leaves shielding my body from the cool evening air. Even after sleeping most of the train ride I was both physically and mentally drained.

I shifted awkwardly on the branch then sighed. I would have to start getting used to sleeping uncomfortably. My dad used to tell me stories of when he was younger, before he gave up high-risk jobs in the city to instead take care of his family and move us to a small town. He told me of the many times he would end up spending the whole night awake in a cramped space, waiting for dealers to come out with their partners in crime. Once he spent 7 hours in a vent just to take pictures of a small time yakuza paying a group of cops as compensation for keeping his dealings under cover from the public. My dad also ended up having to hide out at a friend's place for a few weeks when the gang went looking for the photographer who took the pictures. Yet, after all of that drama, my dad still continued to take jobs like that. And he loved every minute of it.

It makes me wonder if I would ever be as good of a photographer as my dad. I wonder what he would say now, if he knew I was out here on my own. Well, there's no backing out now. The only thing I can do is try to sleep and hope I find somewhere else to stay tomorrow.

Well, that was the next chapter. I'm really sorry I didn't keep to the whole "one update per day/every other day" thing. Boot camp (as I like to call it) for marching band was a lot tougher than last year, since we got a handful of new teachers. Let's just say I passed out on my bed as soon as I got home ever night. That took a while to get over, and add to that having to get done with last minute summer work. I finally took the time to write a new chapter. I believe I should be able to post another tomorrow, but for now enjoy this.

Time to go work on I'm Done, then hopefully New Found Love.

*ALSO! Side note on the amount of money Akihito has. 200,000 may seem a lot for people who are not aware of how much one Yen is to the American dollar, but it actually is only around $1,637. And the simple things found in convenience stores will drain that money. A bottle of water cost about 100 ¥, so food it bound to cost even more than that. The reason why I gave him that amount of money is because the average housing cost in suburban areas in Japan is around 300,000 yen. Since they live in a really old and small house I believed that 200,000 is a fair amount.