TOKYO NE #4. NICK, NAT AND RUSS.
October 13, 2009

This is Russell, one of the founders of Crooked Tongues /U-Dox- admittedly one of the landmark entities of this culture. He was in town for a few meetings for an upcoming project, so we decided to connect and have a wee chat about trainers and other assorted things.

I remember once upon a time someone told me that the best luxury you could ever have would be to be able to go to work in a teeshirt and jeans every day. Russell inspires me by taking this notion to the next level - the only person I know who wears a teeshirt, shorts and Jordans to board meetings. Believe it or not, he brought 15 pairs of shoes to rotate around on this trip. And I thought bringing 2 pairs was a little excessive.

You can't deny the amount of influence the Nitro/Nitraid crew has had on Japanese street culture over the past decade. Russell linked up with these guys and XBS took us to their store - AGITO. It's located in between Cat St and Meiji Dori, and Agito serves as the flagship store for the Nitraid brand. Nice fitout, and the entrance was pretty buzzy - a part of the 'wall' slides away to reveal the entry. Thanks for the tour XBS!

Nat Saras, and Nick Yamazaki. I feel like I owe a huge shout and thank you to these two gentlemen, for going out of their way to take care of us and providing some rather entertaining moments throughout this entire trip so far. Nick used to live in New Zealand, so we spent a bit of time talking about home and sharing stories about days gone by. The old school 'casino' crew (if any of you guys end up stumbling onto this blog) might remember Nick, although he spent most of his time in Christchurch. Look forward to seeing you again soon Nat, and Nick. The pride of Asia.

Just as Russell travels with multiple pairs of shoes, Nat chooses frames instead. This is Natto-sty-ru.

A big group of us ended up having dinner in one of Nick's restaurants/bars in Ginza. It was a pretty eclectic group with people from all over the world - like a rag tag UN general assembly of misfits and louts. Believe it or not, out of the dozen or so times I've been here this is the first time I've actually had sushi in Japan.

Nice.