An historical walk

For no particular reason, except perhaps out of a sense of nostalgia and a newly discovered fondness for plotting routes on maps and satellite photos, while showering this morning I came up with the idea of mapping a walk I did in Tokyo a few years ago. Now I've done my fair share of walking in the Japanese capital over the years, but this walk was special in that I did it alone in the middle of the night.

I was staying at a friend's place in Kanda, and went out one evening to meet some people for a drink in Shimo-Kitazawa. I was aware that the Tokyo subway shuts down around midnight, but still ended up cutting it a bit too fine coming home. I got the train to Shibuya OK. Unfortunately by the time I got to the subway station there to catch my next train I found the last one had already left.

Anyone with half a brain would have taken a taxi, but I was feeling pretty merry and decided it was a nice night for a walk. I forget exactly how long it took me and the actual route I took (hence I didn't actually get around to mapping it), but I do remember a few things quite clearly, such as being propositioned by a lady of the night on the outskirts of Shibuya and nervously passing some riot squad members on foot patrol near the Japanese parliament.

I was pretty tired towards the end and every time I saw a taxi I vaguely considered hailing it. I pushed on, however, and made it back to my friend's place without any major dramas. Looking at a map now, I reckon it must have been around 8km. Nothing really. But it seemed quite a feat at the time.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 356.9km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 82