It was a cold lonesome night after a long rain, after eating instant noodles and onigiri (in the bath) All the talk about sakura at the moment I thought it might be wise to get a jump on the crowds and show up early. Thus the plan was put in motion.

12:00pm: I set off for what I thought would be the last train to shinjuku only to find I had missed the last train by a few minutes! Now I am not one to be discouraged that easily! So I set off in what I thought was the right direction for the, ahem, LONG walk from Hachiouji to Shibuya with, the bear neccesitys, charcoal filters and a bottle of pocari in hand. I had gotten about 100 meters when the pocari had run out, this was going to be a long night. After walking "straight" for about 2 hours, I came across a game center, well its time for a rest, I thought to my self. Unfortunatly they had a DDREX machine. 1000 yen and another bottle of pocari later, I headed off again on my epic quest when I started to notice some familiar things, then I pased my bank, and a sign saying MISAKI-CHO. I had done a HUUUUUGE loop and was back home!

2:30am: Now I am not one to be discouraged that easily! I asked a local who was still awake "which way to shinjuku" after a while of dissbelief, he pointed to a road sign I had failed to notice, it read in large freeway sign text "SHINJUKU: ROUTE 20" ok! we are in business! Following "SHINJUKU: ROUTE 20" until about 4:30am, I started to come across clubs and skyscrapers. "I must be nearly there!" I thought to myself. At 4:45am "SHINJUKU: ROUTE 20" had long since dissapeared into my careless trail of wrong turns, I came across a LARGE train station. First train at 5? Ok, so I catch the train a couple of stops and save my legs. I found the map. 460yen to shinjuku??!!! I had walked about 1 quarter of the way there.

5:20am: having come so far, and drunk so many vending machine items, I pressed on into the sunrise. I got to shinjuku which was waking up to the sunday with thousands of people arriving, I went with the flow and escaped through the south exit.

NOW I HAVE ARRIVED!! lets check out sakura! I wandered around trying to look like I knew where I was going, and after noticing familiar land marks I managed to get to yoyogi park via a zig zag trail of sporadic sakura. Yoyogi park already had lots of, soon to be blotto, people reserving space under the biggest trees with blue tarps, a hideous contrast to the soft pink sakura which had started to dry with the morning sun and were starting to fall.

7:00am: I hear a familiar sound; psytrance! I cross a large bridge and find shanti staff setting up for a free rave! talk about BONUS! danced to the sound check for a while with a girl with huge black pants and was out styled by about %500. Thought I should walk around a bit more as the Sunday crowds were beginning to crowd. I met a group of 5 girls who I thought were my age. WRONG, "nansaisuka?".. 19, 17, 16, 15, 14... Like wow. I estimated a good 4 hours before the rave starts so I shared their cardboard picknick mat and participated in a popular hanami past time "spot the ganguro gals". At about 12 they headed off for what they had come for dragging my embarressed hand through the crowd. WOW, 2 boys who couldn't have been older than 16 playing bad guitar.. I left the girls to their idols and went to the rave.

Talk about GOING CRAZY! 3 stages of tech, trance and psy! danced to the psy untill about 2! got seriously sun burned..