An hour later and I'm in the neon heart of Atoyama city. Everywhere you look, the place is full of colours: cyan, magenta, red, blue, green, yellow. All glaring at you with eye-burning brightness. It's truly spectacular. especially at night. Right now though, with the storm blowing in, no-one really cares about the view. Everyone's just hustling from place to place under hoods or umbrellas.
As the streets flash by, you can see a change in the city. The buildings get taller and flashier. More glass, wider streets, upscale establishments. Less tacky. You generally get the feeling there's more money in the air. It's an almost palpable sensation. By the time I get to my apartment, it's almost like a whole different world.
Parking my bike in its spot, I ride the elevator up to my apartment. A disembodied female voice greets me as I walk through the door.
"Welcome home Mister Yamagoto."
Sandi. My domestic AI. Every home has one. When the system first came out, Sandi was an acronym. No-one remembers what it stood for.
There's a quiet hum and the blackout tint on the windows depolarises. I smile as I walk over and look out.
The penthouse looks out over the city. Downtown Atoyama. My favourite view.
This was a damn expensive apartment, but I'd been sold the second I'd seen the view. Besides, a penthouse in Atarashi Shinjuku? I'd have been crazy not to take it.
It's an ultramodern pad. The whole top floor of Kangawa Tower. Four walls of floor to ceiling windows and a wraparound terrace.
Like I said, Atoyama's a great place to live if you can afford it.
Far cry from where I grew up.
Yoshida Central on Kobe. Kobe's a planet on the other side of the Kobiyashi system. Ninety percent water. Yoshida's an archipelago of three islands joined together. Upper Yoshida, Yoshida Central and Lower Yoshida.
Upper Yoshida's the rich neighbourhoods and city center. Big mansions, parks, squares. The whole idyllic utopia thing. All paid for by the folks in Central and Lower Yoshida.
Yoshida Central is the manufacturing district. The slums are there too. Not that they call them that. Down there, they call them the "assisted housing districts". Only difference between them and the shacks by the docks in Lower Yoshida is that if there's a crime, at least the Police will pretend to be interested.
If you're a kid from Central or Lower Yoshida, you only really have three options. Join the gangs. Work in the factories and warehouses, or join the military. My parents did everything they could to keep me away from the gangs, and there was no way I was going to work in a factory. The only real option I had was the military. Soon as I turned eighteen, that's where I went.