７月３０日 Day 128: Last Day, Last Night...

A fantastic night of clubbing was had by all.

Day... seized. Didn't sleep for 2 days... stayed up all night saying goodbye and reminiscing with friends... then spent tonight clubbing until 6am... got Jonathan's bread breakfast buffet again... spent the entire time making Azalea House superlatives, trying not to cry when I left them all.

It's going to be so weird without them in America...

７月２８日 Day 126: How We Study for Finals

Today, I woke up at 5:30 to get breakfast buffet at Jonathan's with my friends, Fady and Nick. We ate an epic breakfast of all-you-can-eat croissants and salad before our Japanese finals. I think it made me do a lot better.

I mean, who couldn't do well when their friends make little faces in their tomatoes?

After the test, I went out to Office Bar with some other friends... regardless of the fact that I have a literature final that I'm not exactly 100% prepared for. Dutch courage is always the answer when it comes to literature... (jk kids, be sure to study hard!)

Office Bar is in Gaienmae, between Aoyama and Shibuya. It has a kick-ass view and over-priced trendy drinks in an Urban Outfitters-esque atmosphere. The walls are lined with new paintings up for auction every time we go, and there's often a DJ there playing some spiffy background music to the dimly lit room.

I wrote this while I was waiting for my friends... I was waiting for a while.

Standing with a glass of white wine at Office Bar, a lone DJ plays to a new gallery of neon paintings. A small child runs carefree amongst the empty tables and chairs, her parents monitoring cautiously from their table as they peruse the drink menu.

The DJ changes the track, lights a cigarette, and sips her wine. She looks at me, the only other customer in the bar, our eyes meet for a split second, but she breaks the undoubtedly uncomfortable gaze. She blows out the smoke.

I want a cigarette.

She's probably wondering why I'm sitting alone at this bar on a Wednesday night. My last Wednesday in Tokyo. I'll let her wonder.

I'll gaze pensively at the people on the sidewalk. They push past each other as they cross the street. They're just as alone as I am. Briefcases instead of bruises.

Jordan and Joelle should be here soon. Until then, I'll just be another American in Japan, sitting alone at a bar, wondering how in a city of millions, I wound up alone. My last Wednesday in Tokyo.

７月２４日 Day 122: Mori Tower and Golden Gai

Today, I went to Mori Tower in Roppongi with my family friends. We at kaitenzushi at Roppongi Hills which was DELICIOUS and then went to see the view from the observation deck. Sadly, there was a high risk of lightning storms, so we couldn't step out onto the famous helipad to see the most awesome view of the greater Tokyo area.

Instead, we saw this cool exhibit called "Seeing Nature" featuring all these cool pieces that had to do with seeing the environment in new ways. It's been so long since I've been to a museum, so I really enjoyed myself...

Feathers and fluff disguised as snow.

Paper mache gopher holes.

Since it's my last weekend in town, I decided to go to my favorite place in all of Tokyo, Shimokitazawa, one last time. I walked around, visited all my favorite stores indie/hippie/trendy second-hand stores, and left knowing that I will someday return.

Later that night, my dorm friends and I decided to go to Golden Gai, a cool bar district in Shinjuku. The first bar we went to was a drag queen karaoke bar. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves watching Japanese drag queens in green wigs drunkly slur their way through "My Way" whilst trying not to disturb the contents of their stuffed bras.

Then we went to a significantly smaller bar called Ace's. It sported a 6 seater counter and a wooden shelf full of brightly colored spirits and mixers. The bartender was a stone-faced Japanese guy in a pageboy hat who didn't know how to make a Manhattan. I got a Beefeeter on the rocks instead.

Around 3:30am, I was talking shop with the bartender for a while, getting a slightly self-satisfied "I'm-so-hip-with-my-Beefeeter" kind of buzz when I decided we should start thinking of our next destination. The other two people seated at the bar, a white girl with her Japanese boyfried, overheard this comment and immediately asked us where we wanted to go and if they could come with.

We didn't know, we wanted to see where the night was going to take us, we insisted. The girl was persistent, she kept asking, probing, interrogating (in English, but she spoke to her boyfriend in Japanese). Her boyfriend sat next to her uncomfortably as she kept at it. Finally, I said we were on a tight budget because we were students and didn't want to go anywhere expensive. She insisted on paying for our drinks at Ace's so we could accompany her to her friend's bar afterwards. She tried to pay with credit because she didn't have cash, but since it was a small bar, they only took cash. Her boyfriend paid for us all. I think the total tab was about ¥6500.

Frugal and stupid, we accepted the free drinks and proceeded to follow this crazy girl to her "friend's" bar. She started walking towards Kabuki-cho, the red light/yakuza district and we hesitantly and cautiously followed behind. While she babbled on about how she had graduated from UCLA, how she was the lead singer of some hardcore band, and how many host clubs she had been to in the past year, I tried to practice some Japanese with her boyfriend.

In the 10 minute walk from Golden Gai to Kabuki-cho, I found out that this guy was a 35-year-old film assistant for some anime studio and that this girl had picked him up at the Nerima train station that very day. It was their first date. I grew increasingly worried as we drew closer and closer to the heart of the red-light district. My friends knew where we were going and kept saying, "We should just run, let's just run for it right now... this is so weird, she's so crazy... Where are we even going?"

Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, we watched the girl ask a Nigerian guy for directions to "Hiro's place." The Nigerian led us to an underground entrance, the girl ran straight in with him, her boyfriend that she had just met didn't follow. Neither did we.

"I'm going home," he said.

"Why?" I asked nervously.

"Well," he said scratching the back of his head, "I've got work in the morning and don't really want to stay out that late."

"...Are we in some kind of dangerous place right now?" I quietly queried.

He looked in the direction of the underground entrance, "Well, I'm sure if she's taking you in there that it's probably safe..." he trailed off.

"...But?" I said.

"Other places around here aren't."

After explaining this conversation, my friend Alex said "Let's get the FUCK out of here!" So we ran out of Kabuki-cho, hid in a Matsuya, and then decided to walk from Shinjuku to Shibuya to kill time and catch the first train home at 5.

Definitely one of my more memorable nights here. Great way to spend a Sunday morning!

７月２日 Day 99: Alcatraz

Sorry this is WAY late, but I've been too busy with final projects, essays, field trips and fun to be updating this blog...

I've also been ducking the rainy season like a NINJA. Thanks, new leopard boots!! ^w^

Last Friday, my friends and I went to Alcatraz, a prison style bar in Shibuya. We had been to this other bar called Lock-Up the week before, which was a bar that looked like a jail, where the prisoners/waiters scared the crap out of you while you were eating.

Alcatraz wasn't like that. It was supposed to be kinda...

*Please note that this post has an 18 and over requirement from this point on*

...kinky.

We were a big group... about 16 of us, and we ordered the all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink courses. The courses had some very memorable highlights. We had Russian Roulette takoyaki, which was a plate of about 20 takoyaki... but 5 of them had tons of wasabi in them. I hate wasabi, so of course, I picked one with wasabi in it. Blegh. Straight up my nose. (X_X)

We also had a flaming chicken, complete with intertwined chicken feet... which I totally didn't expect (Like, srsly? Are we in China? Dirty!)

Yes, here are the waitress uniforms. Exposed thongs. Note the guys in our group... haha ;)

The place had some pretty spiffy drinks, I must say.

Test tube drink.

Some really cheap beer in test tubes.

My penis banana drink... and my other friend's drink... that was mixed with (if you haven't guessed already) a vibrator.

We all got pretty hammered... and took drunken purikura.

６月２５日 Day 93: Older Women, Older Men, and Me

No moments wasted here. As the end of this trip draws nearer, I've been jam-packing my weekends to make sure I'm making the most of my precious time here (only 34 more days). The week literally offers me no opportunity to explore Tokyo, or the places around it-- so this weekend involved very little sleep.

On Friday, I was treated to all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ by a 31-year-old woman I met at Hub 2 weeks ago (I'll explain later). I went to Yokohama with my friends yesterday-- all day. Then I went to Trump Room and stayed out all night. Sunday morning, I went to Shimokitazawa and interviewed 2 complete strangers and Sunday night I spent drinking with my German and English friends while we watched the Germany vs. England match of the world cup.

And now I'll break it down for you.

Two weeks ago, I was at Hub, a British pub in Shibuya with my friend Kana. We had just come from all-you-can-eat Indian food in Shimokitazawa and wanted to have a little night cap before parting ways. Since Hub had very limited seating because everyone was watching the World Cup, we sat at a table with a bunch of strangers-- real bar-like and all that.

I ended up talking to this Japanese guy next to me because he heard Kana and me speaking English. He asked if we were from America, told me his favorite band was Green Day, and how he always wanted to live abroad, blah, blah, blah. It was all a very feeble pick up attempt. I was getting a little uncomfortable when he mentioned that he was 30. He definitely didn't look 30.

Just as I was wondering what I could say to escape the conversation, 2 women sitting across from me and this 30-year-old man saved me. He had asked me what kind of Japanese bands I liked, and I told him I liked Arashi, Japan's biggest boy band knowing that most 30-year-olds hanging out at Hub wouldn't like them. The 2 women across from me heard Arashi and immediately interjected, "Sorry to eavesdrop-- but we heard you like Arashi?"

"Why yes, I do. Thank you for providing me with an exit from this Green Day-loving manchild." I thought. Then we started talking, and the 30-year-old guy felt ignored and rejected (so I thought) and he left. These women were so nice, they asked us questions about where we were from, where we were going to school, really sweet. Then they started talking to us about how guys like Mr. 30 don't eat meat anymore, they're sissies. Then they invited us out to eat pork with them (and that's why we went out on Friday)!

Then the 30-year-old guy came back, placed a new lighter in front of me and said, "Here, this is for you." O_____o

Odd. I actually meant to blog about this 2 weeks ago when it happened... but wasn't sure it would lead to anything so... that's why it's so late.

Anyway, when I met Junko, the woman with the cool bun for dinner and NOT ONLY did she treat me, she brought me a gift.



ADORABLE. I felt like such a jackass for not bringing anything. God, Kate. Didn't you read Lisa's post about gift-giving in Japan? >_<

Believe it or not-- the night gets weirder. Junko had brought her friend Aya, a tomboy coworker of hers who I really liked. After we had finished eating, Aya's friend Misato had just finished work and wanted to join us, but our dinner was already past it's time limit (yes, the dream of tabe-houdai usually only lasts for 90 minutes). So what did we do? WE ATE AGAIN. At a nicer restaurant too!

After a 10 minute walk, we stopped at some washoku place (still in Shibuya) and met up with Junko's 60-year-old friend, Kin-chan, the owner of Ton-chan (the restaurant where we had just finished eating). Kin-chan was really sweet-hearted old man; and a little mumbly chain smoker with 1-year-old triplets. YEAH. He told the restaurant to hold a table for us and had a 99% empty bottle of sweet potato soju with his name on it waiting for us when we arrived.

I was really full from our FIRST dinner and was worrying everyone else because I was physically incapable of eating a second time. I forced down the most delicious eggplant I had ever eaten in my life, while trying to keep down the side of pork I had feasted on earlier, plus 4 or 5 mugs of beer (hey-- those Japanese OL's can DRINK). Then Kin-chan offered me some of the soju. IT WAS MIND-BLOWING. Because I'm only 20 and don't really have a sophisticated palette, I only got a little taste, diluted with water, but THOROUGHLY enjoyed it... wow.

This time, Kin-chan treated. He made sure to drop me his meishi (business card) to contact him if I ever wanted to come over to his house to have his daughter do my nails.

SURREAL.

Who knew strangers could be so cool??

６月１〜３日 Day 69-71: Birthday/Midterms Week

This week was everyone's goddamn birthday... and it's midterms-- so things are joyous and painful at the same time right now.

On Monday, I went to cake-houdai for my friend Kelsey's birthday. It was actually more like a cake orgy than a feast. SOOOO MUCH CAKE... We went to the Shibuya Branch of Sweets Paradise, which was full of cutesy middle/high school kids filling tiny bowls with scrawny portions of sweets while my gaijin friends and I stacked our plates with spaghetti, curry, potatoes, kanten and cake. Lots of cake. Puttin' those dainty little Japanese kids to shame.

On Tuesday, we went to kaiten-sushi, otherwise known as sushi boats. I ate 9 plates of nigiri... aka: 18 pieces of pure, uncooked deliciousness for under $10. I didn't need it to be someone's birthday to go completely hog wild on sushi. I just go for excellence.

Yesterday was my friend Natasha's birthday. She had her party at a tabe-houdai and nomi-houdai izakaya in Shinjuku. The food was definitely sub-par... nothing but appetizers and flavorless nabe... but I must have downed at least 4 glasses of beer and 6 or 7 gin tonics... followed by a brief 2 hour karaoke sesh with the birthday girl and crew. *Note: this is what most college kids do on a school night.

Whilst on the way to the karaoke box, we were all unabashedly intoxicated on the 10:30 train. We were all foreigners, exchanging words the way most inebriates do: at a more than audible decibel level... and we were told off. To be more specific, my friends: Nick, Harriet and I were told off my an old Japanese woman who curtly informed us, "This is a public train." in perfect, accent-less English.

God, I've never been so ashamed in my life (in Japan). I've always made fun of obnoxious foreign assholes on the train, but now I've lived to see myself become one. One that makes Japanese people cringe... One of their own converting to the crass and ugly form of communication that is only reserved for shameless gaijin with no regard for the observed dead silence of the sacred train. I sobered up real quick and wanted to die then and there. I hope I never see that woman ever again.

After that public shaming, I kept insisting that I wouldn't go to karaoke, "Nooo, no... I have a midterm tomorrow..." But unfortunately, because of the presence of an extremely hot err-- persuasive French neighbor of mine, I was convinced it was a good idea. After a few good rounds of Disney songs, The Cardigans, David Bowie, Queen, and Britney Spears-- Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On came on, and my friends and I decided to call it quits.

I showed up to my midterm today-- without a (debilitating) hangover! Amazing how Celine Dion cures that... maybe her music reeks of ginger and not French Canadian post menopausal bliss.

４月３０日 Day 37: In This Club

So my friend had a party last night at a club called New Lex in Roppongi. It was my first time clubbing in Japan and it was NOMI-HOUDAI (all you can drink)! Although in retrospect, I didn't REALLY use it to my advantage... but that's ok because I can actually remember everything! (^0^)

In short, this is what it looked like when we entered the club at 11:45pm:

This is what it looked like when we left the club at 5am:

Highlights of the night:

-Getting introduced to Akanishi Jin (Japanese Justin Timberlake aka: love of my life circa 2007)

-Sitting and dancing VIP with my friends while the other mere mortals were forced to stand and get shoved around all night on the dance floor.

-Sweat.

-Hearing my favorite song, "SHOTS," by LMFAO and dancing my heart out.

-Helping random strangers get to the toilet before they blew chunks all over the club bathroom.

-Watching some random guy knock over all our drinks, shattering all our glasses.

-Getting burned by some douche's cigarette, ruining a good pair of tights.

-Watching all the Japanese girls throw themselves at sleazy gaijin.

-Losing all feeling in my feet from wearing my hooker heels.

-Leaving the club, watching the sunrise.

-Taking off shoes in Hibiya Station, walking barefoot all the way home.

So, first and foremost-- I ran into Akanishi Jin about 4 times last night. I bet he probably thinks I was following him haha. My friend who knows him pulled me up to the velvet ropes, made Akanishi get up and take a look at me. I flashed him a peace sign (his signature one from his days on Gokusen) and a smile and he sat back down, probably unimpressed, but WHATEVS. Then, after I told my friend Kana that I saw him, he wound up standing at one of the tables in the middle of the club. I told her, "GO TOUCH HIM, YOU'LL NEVER GET ANOTHER CHANCE." So she did. Then I ran into him when I went to the bathroom. My friend Keith saw me, opened the men's door and he was standing right there. We made distinct eye-contact and I'm pretty sure his eyes were saying, "Woah, it takes a very desperate disgusting person to follow someone to the bathroom." BUT I DIDN'T FOLLOW HIM!! (+_+);; Anyway, the last time I saw him, he was sitting in our VIP couch section (even though he had a private one all to his own posse). He was just sitting there, looking at the crowd, looking bored. I told my friend Heather (the cutest white girl you'll ever meet) to go say hi to him. She had no idea who he was-- but I told her how famous he was and she had a nice little chat with him where he said, "How do you know who I am? I'm so famous. I want to dance with you later." HAHA.

All Akanishi sightings aside, the night was UBER fun. I felt like such a badass flashing my VIP wristband. My friend basically does PR for this club so he got us all in the private seating section. It was soooo much better than dancing on the main floor, which was probably more like a summer rush hour train towards the end of the night. It's weird how the fact that I got to sit down made me VIP, but there were NO SEATS IN THE CLUB. Yep, that's right. None. Pretty awesome after you lose all feeling in your feet and get sick of everyone's sweaty body rubbing up against you. Towards the end, I wasn't even dancing standing up-- I was loving my luxury VIP couch too much.

Here's a cool drink my friend brought over for us. I have no idea what was in it.

One thing that sort of amazed me was the fact that I somehow wound up holding some random Japanese girl's hair back while she puked, my usual duty whenever girls and alcohol come together. I was in line for the bathroom, pretty much at the front, when all of a sudden this guy shoves this girl in front of me and says, "She needs to go before you." Seeing her pale and sweaty face, I knew this guy wasn't joking. There was one other girl in front of me, but I told her in Japanese that this girl was going to barf all over the bathroom if she didn't go ahead.

There were only 2 stalls in the bathroom, so barfing girl was in one, and the girl in front of me was really nice about letting her move ahead. Once the second stall was free, another girl about to blow ran to the front and I told the girl in front of me, once again, to move out of the way. Now both stalls in the bathroom had puking 70 pound Japanese girls in them. They were taking soo long and so I made small talk with the other non-puking Japanese girls in line. They said, "You are such a good friend." to which I replied, "I don't even know them!" After a little more small talk, my new friends and I noticed these girls were taking too long in the stalls. I let my ugly American out and pounded on both doors yelling, "オ～イ！！早くしなさいよ！" Which means, "HURRY THE EFF UP."

Little did I know how urgent this message was. The girl in front of me who had been kind enough to let two other girls pass her had been waiting patiently for her chance to spew and finally couldn't wait any longer. She ran towards the sink, and in my attempt to make up for the fact that I had basically ushered 2 girls ahead of her, I held her hair back and ran the water. The girls I was talking to in line said, "Wow, you really are a good friend." to which I replied, "I don't know her either." HA.

All in all, it was a good night full of debauchery, dancing and drinks; but I really don't think I need to do that again any time soon. Roppongi is legitimately dangerous, full of mischievous gaijin, belligerent drunks and other shady people looking for something to occupy their night. Clubbing in Roppongi until 5am was definitely something on my list of things to do in Japan, and now I've done it...

In 5" heels, for most of the night. Funny story: Today, I ate it while walking in flat sandals-- I might have re-torn my ligament! I'm going to Kyoto tomorrow! YAY!

３月２６日 Day 2: Japanese People Don't...

God, what a long day. I'm frickin' exhausted. But then again, my day started at 5:30AM because my mom's stupid crackberry woke us up with its incessant vibrations. I seriously want to throw that stupid thing out the damn window because it ruins so many lives... Anyway, it was too early to go anywhere so I ended up eating a traditional Japanese breakfast of fish, okayuu (rice gruel), tsukemono (pickled veggies), miso soup, and melon juice courtesy of room service. It was pretty good! Mom had an omelette. Of course, she also had to have "just a bite" of my breakfast too... -___-;;

After that, we got ready to go out with mom's childhood friend, Atsuko. After a 2 hour period of watching some seriously weird Japanese music videos and commercials, I got dressed. Of course, what I was wearing wasn't satisfactory to my mother's standards which brings me to the subject of today's title...

According to my mother:

Japanese people don't wear short skirts, you need to change.

Japanese people don't wear sunglasses, they'll think you're... chotto...

Japanese people don't say what they're thinking, they just think it.

Japanese people don't eat things in one bite, will you slow down?

There were a few more, I feel like I should have written them down. Oh well! I guess I'll just have to treasure these gems.

Anyway, we finally got together with Atsuko and went to go see what my "dorm" is going to be like. Atsuko's navigation system took us on a very long detour though Tokyo to get to Azalea House in Nerima, where I'll be living. The room is small, but definitely livable. It comes with a mini-kitchen, bathroom and lots of storage. The best part? NO ROOMMATE! WOO! The manager of the building told us that there aren't too many Japanese people that stay in Azalea (Japanese people don't do that I guess...). The residents there are mostly international students from a bunch of different schools like Keio and Waseda, not just Sophia like me. It looked like the place could house about 40 girls so I know I won't be lonely!

Here are some pics of the room:

We were able to get some house supplies and other essentials with Atsuko at this store called LIFE. I seriously can't think of a more appropriate name for it-- it had everything!! It was like a Japanese Target or something... Then we went out for lunch and tried to activate a cell phone for me to use. Unfortunately, the one we bought about 5 years ago is obsolete now (as can be expected) so I'll be out of touch for a while. I could use my American phone to call people-- but it'll cost $2 a minute O_O

After that slight disappointment, we headed back to our hotel to meet up with mom's friend, Miyoko, a Japanese interpreter she had met on her last business trip. She is a character. She is probably about 5 feet tall with burgundy-colored hair. She wore a purple dress with purple tights. She decided to take us to this really nice Japanese-style Korean BBQ place in Roppongi called Ushi no Kura. Apparently a lot of celebrities like Amuro Namie like to go there. I can see why! Each grill has its own private booth-- very nice for people who like to get drunk discreetly... which is exactly what we did.

It was FANTASTIC. Miyoko-san insisted that we start the evening off with champagne, which we happily agreed to. Then we had a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, followed by another bottle of cabernet sauvignon. The conversation was colorful, to be sure. It was full of, "Oh my God-- I love your mom." and "You are sooooo beautiful. You are both sooooo beautiful!" Towards the end, Miyoko-san had invited us to her mother's tea ceremony in Nerima about 10 times... "You don't have to go... you should go! But you really don't have to!" we didn't go this morning because she probably doesn't remember doing it!!

The colorful conversation only added to what was undoubtedly the best meal I've had in my entire life. We started off with various kimchi and then Miyoko asked us quite casually, "Do you eat organs?" So we had liver too! I've only seen liver in chemistry class and never thought it would be appetizing, especially eating it raw the way we did, but it was... amazing.

You can see the liver on the left, and some kimchi on the right.

Here's some other Korean-style pickled stuff: mushrooms, daikon, and beansprouts. Don't remember what the green stuff is, but it was good too!

I'm sad I only remembered to take pictures of this after we had eaten half of it, but it was deep fried kamaboko (fish paste) with sweet potatoes and shishito (the pepper-looking thing). It came with a sweet brown sauce that made it taste like heaven.

But the most delicious thing by FAR was this beef sashimi we had. OMG. It melted in my mouth!! Miyoko-san was so fabulous, she insisted we get another one. She had reserved it in advance because it's so damn popular!

I would have taken a picture of the restaurant, but I had to make sure the three of us got home safely... my mom fell asleep in the cab on the ride home.