Ahh…. 1:35am on a Sunday night (or is that Monday morning) and the weekend has finally come to a close…. well I suppose this means I’d better tell you what went on - innit!

But first, to mum + dad - WHERE WAS MY CALL - don’t love me anymore obviously… waahhhh!

So Friday night was Ayako’s birthday at a bar in Roppongi. I had been given instructions by Seiko that i had to come straight from work and not go home first which kinda sucked, as it meant I had to wear work clothes out, however… the reason was that Ayako was going to get last train home, so if i went home and then out, I would probably miss her.

So who is Ayako? You might remember her from just before christmas (the girl i woke up with, not knowing where i was), but if not, this picture should refresh your memory (Ayako is in the middle):

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The bar was a new place I hadn’t gone before, and was set into two rooms. One a normal bar area, and the second (where we were) more like a stage area , with some live singers and everyone sat around the edge.

To start with, I just kinda kept myself to myself as I knew no one, and Seiko and Shiho were sitting away from me, but after a few drinks, I started to get a bit more chatty, in the end, ending up sitting next to one of Ayako’s friends “Haruka” who spoke good English and we got quite animated… it was a sad moment when the place shut
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(The guy on the right is important - so remember him :))

So when it finished (which was about 4am - so much for Ayako getting last train) everyone departed to go their own seperate ways except me, Seiko and the guy above - who by now were quite hungry, so we scoured the streets of Roppongi to find somewhere to eat.

The first place that came up was a new Japanese place that had only just opened, so in here we went to order a few plates of Yaki Soba. Quite why we ordered so many I don’t know (we had 3) as only 2 of us were eating, but they were incredibly nice - so I guess not so bad.

Come the end of the meal, we went downstairs to pay, but were just ushured out !?? I only found out later, but ^^^ had already paid for us when he went to the toilet - i wish i had known as i didn’t get to say thank you
We finally got home at about 6am, which was incredibly early for us…. just what were we thinking?!?! But we decided it might not be such a bad thing as we would need the energy for Toshi’s birthday later on that evening.

Seiko and Shiho went out during the day, leaving me at home to work on Gowry’s project and sort out some more company things (it’s getting quite interesting now… hurrah!) - however, come 7:30pm, I still hadn’t heard from anyone and didn’t know what was happening….

At about 8pm, Shiho and Seiko came home - but to tell me the bad news that the party was cancelled as Toshi had to work… man, I don’t agree with these Japanese companies… no way would you get me working on my day off - especially if it was my birthday.. poor guy.

Anyway, where was I … ah yes, so I enquired if we were still going out, to which Seiko replied “up to you, but I need to have a nap first”. It’s obvious what my answer was, but I agreed to let her sleep for a bit and I would wake her at 11pm.

Come 11 though, it was obvious she still needed sleep - so i once again let her lie…

However at 12pm, it was finally getting near the “too late to leave” - luckily Shiho was now just going out (to meet Toshi from work) and had woken Seiko for me, leaving me just the task of shouting at her until she finally got ready
We left at about 12:15 and walked to Sangenjaya where I had a quick meal of a “Big Mac Set” (i know, i know, way too much McDonalds) before we hailed a Taxi to take us to Roppongi. The traffic wasn’t so bad this time, and thus the whole journey only cost £15!!! Awesome - we’ll have to get taxis more often
First stop was Don Quiote where Seiko had to buy some purfume for a friends birthday (you’d be amazed at the amount of people shopping at 1am…) before we headed (reluctantly it must be said) to our usual haunt of Hub. I say reluctantly, as we are kinda bored of going the same places all the time and really wanted something new - thus we sat at our “thought” table trying to plan where to go next.

I remembered there was a club inbetween Wall Street and Maxim that we hadn’t been before - and seeing as we had no other ideas, decided to give it a shot. It was called the “Rock Bar” and, believe it or not, was geared towards rock music. Unfortunately we had just missed the live band, but it was still a very cool joint with some nice tunes playing. For some reason, I’m not sure why, but sitting in it made me think of Ibiza, and just being able to walk out to the beach. Seiko and I thus decided that we must go on a world travel together - including Thailand, Panama and Brazil
At some point in the night however, the Rock bar lost its name and instead started playing R’n'B - thus signalling our time to leave and skoot along to Maxim next door.

At we had gone before 5am, it was still hip hop night (so Seiko was happy) and indeed there were a few more people than usual in there - however, they too started to slowly drift out - leaving pretty much just me and Seiko there. The music by now had switched to dance, but with no one there - whats the point?

Oh, and remember i was talking about the bar tender before (with the old photo a few posts below) - well now he has become the manager, he has changed somewhat. Seiko and I feel he’s gone from the friendly bar tender, to a bit of a “bad guy” - what do you think?

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We couldn’t take the emptyness any longer and decided to continue our bar crawl by heading over to Hideout - however, alas… this was empty too!!

Just where was everyone? This presented us with a great puzzle….

It was then that Seiko had the idea to try a club we hadn’t been for ages “Quest” - infact, i think the last time i went there was last year - and hadn’t gone back since due to it always being empty. However, the people had to be somewhere and as women got in free, it was decided Seiko would go in and check - before giving me the go ahead if it looked good.

She soon emerged to say it did indeed look good - so in I went… WOW! It was extremely busy, so this is where everyone had gone. But even better, it was playing some very nice UK hard dance I think it was a special event as there was a whole new temp DJ rig erected and everyone was HAVING IT
It didn’t take me long to get back into the dancing spirit, nor Seiko to find a new boyfriend…. the amount of guys she meets (then can’t remember the next day) is astounding… meet Takashi

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Ah well — also on the dance floor, making its first ever appearence - the new England and Italian combined football shirt
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By about 9am I noticed that Seiko had fallen asleep on the bar, so it seemed now was time go head off. Seiko’s new friend wasn’t quite so eager to leave her yet, and accompanied us to the station where we put Seiko into a taxi.

Feeling a little awkward now as I wasn’t sure what Takashi wanted to do (he spoke no English at all, nor did he seem to understand “osoku nihongo itteikuddasai” (slower japanese please) - but he followed me into First Kitchen where we got some breakfast - and then began the difficult situation of small talk.

I know I say I normally enjoy this, but when the guy is speaking at warp speed, it’s incredibly hard to keep up. Eventually, he seemed to twig that i really couldn’t catch much of his chat, so he slowed down slightly - but still, it was a bit of a mission trying to keep up
Anyway, we finished eating and said our good byes - with him i think expecting to speak to Seiko again very soon…. i’m not quite sure she feels the same though…. ah well
And there you have it, the weekend gone….. :/

Ah one thing before you go. Take a look at my “McArt” - i was trying to create the illusion of the chips flowing into the burger container. I think I did a pretty good job and intend to sell my work at the next modern art exhibition I attend
(Well *I* thought it looked cool :p) …. enjoy ….

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Ingredients for a fantastic new year:

1) Go to a far away country full of happy people.
2) Go to the busiest part of that country.
3) Add a few thousand Japanese people.
4) Take a huge nightclub and fill it with these people
5) Play all your favourite tunes

Mix it all together, get there 50 minutes before midnight, wait patiently in the queue until you get to the front….

….. and then find out your friend has forgotten her ID so you can’t get it
So I’m at home - and my new year was spent standing dejectedly in the street whilst everyone else was drunk and happy …..

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On the optimistic side, I hope this is a “things can only get better” moment, rather than a “the rest of the year will be the same” ….. ho hum …. seems like I get quite a lot of bad luck here - my good old flukeyness skills are not working so well…

Anyway, enough of tonite - that’s just too depressing…..

So! Last night, a friday, so usually spent at home - however this time as I didn’t have work, it meant I wasn’t tired come the evening, so wanted to go out.

I was to meet Seiko at 12 in Roppongi (oh joy), so duly arrived the obligatory 20 minutes late We weren’t going to the strip this time though, but to a club quite some walk away (where Seiko already was) - so off I set, stopping at the local AM/PM on the way to buy a little “pocket sized” bottle of Jacobs Creek (£3)

Joining us tonite was Ayako, Seiko’s friend (the one who had been trying to sell her a fat reducing machine for the last god nows how long) - we met outside the club - MUSE (the same one we went with Arnaud) - which wasn’t ideal, but the wine had seemed to hit quite quickly, so I wasn’t *that* bothered.

2000 for me to get in (only guys pay - ahah, so this is why Seiko chose Muse! ;)) - though this does include 2 drinks, so it kinda evens itself out.

Inside it was a lot less busy than last time and really nicely decorated, so I was actually pretty happy we went here…..

Being the sensible chap I am, I decided it wouldn’t be such a good idea to get a drink straight away due to the recent bottle of wine, though for some reason this logic didn’t seem to stick for very long, as soon I had ordered a Smirnoff ice….

We then found some chairs and sat around talking for quite some time, during which I seem to remember a glass of white wine and a tequila being added to my drinks list….

From this point onwards, I am not sure what happened, though the photos seem to indicate we were all in a pretty similiar state, I do remember meeting a German guy called Alex though….

Say hello!!!

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Another thing that is quite interesting is the following photo. It was supposed to be of Seiko, but if you look in the background …. …. i assure you the whole place wasn’t like that !!!
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Of course, the night wouldn’t be complete without one special thing….. of course by about 5am, Seiko had fallen asleep again and we couldn’t wake her, so were ejected from the club….
Bring on some more memory loss, and then roll on this morning….

….. mmmmm …. all nice and warm …. i barely manage to open my eyes, i feel awful - so i stretch out….

Something’s not right, for one my bed seems to have grown in size and two I’ve just banged my arm on someone else..?!? Confused, I focus and realise I am in bed with Ayako in a strange room - slight panic sets in - have I gone back to her house?!?

A quick check and I am wearing all my clothes still, phew, but the mystery is still not solved - however the power of sleep is all too much for me, and back i go….

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A few hours later, I’m woken up by my dear friends And the situation is explained to me, at the club we met one of Seikos friends:

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Who after we left the club, invited us back to his - which we accepted, so Taxi’d it back to his apartment in Roppongi, before falling asleep in the spare room.

Bizarre, I can’t remember any of it lol…. Helen, you must be so proud of me
So lucky Friday happened I suppose, otherwise this weekend would have been a complete disaster. Nevermind, we can try again next week - it would have just been really nice to be in a packed club for the countdown… (Stop dwelling, STOP DWELLING :))

Apologies for the disjointedness of this post and the incredibly bad English, but I feel dreadful, but just wanted to get it all down before my memory goes again… lol