Skating

Jingu Skate Rink is an oasis in summer.
If you overlook the slightly choppy ice surface, unsharpened rental skates, and a few crazies on the ice, this is the best place to spend a 34 degree afternoon that I can think of. It’s cool. It’s athletic. And it’s not too crowded on a Saturday.
We went yesterday. Tod hadn’t skated in about ten years, but within minutes he was skating backwards and zipping around the rink. I can only skate forwards, a little shakily, but I loosened up after a couple of laps. Even with a wobble, I love to skate.
I turned around the rink with Lionel Belasco tunes running through my head, and the first few lines from Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age
“The bells of St. Mark’s were ringing changes up on the mountain when Bud skated over to the mod parlor to upgrade his skull gun. Bud had a nice new pair of blades with a top speed of anywhere from a hundred to a hundred and fifty kilometers, depending on how fat you were and whether or not you wore aero.”
Later on, Stephenson describes Bud as “a little hinky on those skates” which is exactly how I see myself. Only I don’t have the skull gun.
Info on the skating ring (in Japanese): http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/gaien/05.htm