Japan Stories: October 1999
Kicking around Town
What's the best way of getting around Tokyo? By scooter, of course.
Jan scoots down our street on a nice day at the end of October
Zillions of people in Tokyo ride bikes around town (much cheaper than owning a car), and there are quite of few young people who ride skateboards. The big thing this year, though, is the advent of the high-tech scooter.
The favorite scooter of the discriminating (and yet affluent) skate punk youth is the K2 Kickboard. The conveyance incorporates, ounce for ounce, as much aircraft aluminum and high-tech engineering as a new Boeing plane. This little baby has three wheels for extra stability, including two front wheels that angle themselves for sharp cornering, and a brake over the back wheel for those hills. It even folds up so you can carry it on the subway:
Folded up for a scooter portage
Any idiot can ride the thing, and in fact, Jan can. It was Jan's idea to get one, but Angela's having fun taking it out for rides too. The thing is a total blast.
Tokyo, it turns out, is a skateboarder's dream: lots of small twisty paved alleys, gentle hills, and many areas where the pedestrian walks are only separated from the road by painted white lines instead of curbs.