poor pengin

Seriously, I dunno what those penguins did to piss off the Japanese. Probably wore their outside shoes inside or something. Well sheeeeit, I just had a three day bender of a weekend in Tokyo, and I feel like I need to write something down about it, if for no other reason than to read it and look back fondly when I am feeling trapped in this charming little inaka town. Riding the Super Hitachi into Tokyo, I was immediately comforted once the scenery changed from (building)(grassgrassfieldhillnothingnothingnothingnothing)(buildingsnackbarconbini) to (hugemegamallhirisehiriseanothertrainlinegoingunderneathmine-andoneoverheadtoobuildingbuildingFUCKINGLALAPORTYES) basically, good ol urban sprawl :) Only downside was the middle aged lady singing softly behind me in what might have been english, and getting kicked out of the reserved seat section. Unsuccessfully tried to gaijin smash my way through that one but ended up having to hold my breath through not one but two smoking cars on the way back to the free seats. God those smoking cars are awful.

But I eventually made it to Ueno and the mother line, the Yamanote. Night one was partying with one of Tim's friends and a group of random Japanese, including one girl who "could legally be considered a midget" and was way too interested in Tim's fly once the zipper broke. I was also trying to mentally prepare for my first night hitting the clubs in Shibuya and Roppongi. I've heard a lot of varying accounts from people here, and I've always been more inclined to believe Anthony and Ari that they are balls, but I had to find out for myself after all. One of the Japanese girls said this club Womb in Shibuya was supposed to have some good music so we checked it out, and payed a 3500Y cover charge to gain access to... complete shit. I did actually like the music even if it was just standard techno stuff, but man. No one there, and of the people that were there 75% were white guys. We left pretty quick, sacrificing the cover, to go to Roppongi. I was expecting it to be even worse, honestly, but it was ok. By that part I'd been through a 2 hour nomihoudai and various other drinks and was just enjoying the atmosphere. No idea what the name of the second place we went to was, but it was gigantic and labryrinthine, and you could turn corners looking for the bathroom and get completely fucking lost. That was cool. Night one ended... well with three guys looking to find a love hotel with an open room at 6 am in Ikebukuro. Yeah that was kind of awkward. Luckily most of these establishments have front desks where you don't have to see the staff, and theoretically they can't see you clearly either. Plus there was plenty of room to just crash without any awkwardness once inside. But yeah.

Woke up at 2 pm and went out to get food and check out Akihabara for some deals. Got a sweet ass faceplate for my phone that makes it look all ipod shiny. And I contemplated dropping 20,000Y on some in ear headphones but decided to hold off. I feel like Akihabara could be a dangerous place to go, and not just because of this guy :

Eventually I met up with some other Ibarakians, and we all chilled in the business hotel Jon rented. Then I got my ass handed to me by Rick at Street Fighter II (I think my situation is pretty much like this (read the newspost too).) We'll see, I gotta get back into shape with CvS2. Also back in actual shape, like me physically. So then, with April as my sugar mama, it was night 2 of clubbing in Roppongi. Shawn AKA future boy was the man of the night, as he figured out we could get into Vanilla on the cheap if we just asked. Vanilla was actually worth going to too! Music could have been better, and drinks definitely needed to be stronger, but the crowd was real good. Ha I still wanted to make a quick exit to avoid this one Canadian girl tho.

I didn't get enough of Tokyo after 2 nights of partying past 4AM, and I hadn't met up with Anthony and Blanchard since they arrived for Aeon training, so we managed to get that together despite them barely having any forms of communication. So Day 3 was more chill, went to Ueno Koen and the zoo there, where I saw the above penguin sign. Had to cut the excursion short, which was a shame since I managed to find out that THERE IS ANOTHER TOP RUN SUPER YAKINIKU VIKING and its halfway between Ueno and Akihabara. But I wanted to get back home to another meeting, and was feeling pretty worn out by that point. Spirits were lifted, however, at the awesome yakitori place in Omika (sorry I know not Omiya) with Angela where the staff gave an awesome chourus of "irrashai!"s and "one order of delicious chicken on a stick!!!" every time you order something. Eventually I finally got back to Takahagi, and spent all day yesterday recouperating.

So yeah, awesome weekend.