Ok this is most likely to be the most confusing entry written. When I started typing, it was Sat the 27th. Then I restarted on the Sunday the 28th. Now however it is Sunday the 4th of September. However to try and keep the flow going, I will just keep adding to the end.

You have been warned.

Oh, and a big “Konnichiwa!” to Uncle Jack, I am honoured you feel reading this is worth a trip to the library

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“Well dear friends, welcome to installment 3 of the greatest journal in the world, typed today, Saturday the 27th August, through a very hazy vision, but more about that later.” - this was going to be the start of this entry, but due to me not finishing it and going out instead, I will instead write an even more hazy account on this fine evening, Sunday the 28th I therefore warn you, there might be quite a bit missing (along with quite a lot of my memory… eek!)

*** jesus - I’ve only edited one paragraph and already my vision is going blurred and flashing!!! at least i don’t have a headache though I suppose….. ***

Last time I wrote, I was just settlng down to a good nights sleep, of course once again broken by the building crew in the morning, though they now seem to have demolished the wall and started putting up the new one, which whilst still quite loud, is a lot better than a jackhammer going off …. (cutting the concrete blocks with an angle grinder though does still make you grit your teeth so as not to go mad and hurl yourself of the balcony).

So it was up at 12 or thereabouts, to get my stuff together to go to the local city hall to register. I had my little map, but it is litterly just across the park, so didn’t cause too much of a problem. At least, that was the plan, except Seiko had drawn the map wrongly, so I went off to some other government building. Luckily a kind chap knew where i was supposed to be going, so dropped me off right at the Alien Registration Desk
It was then just a case of heading up to the counter, getting some forms to fill in and handing them back. In return, I was given a certificate of “living there..” (I dont know how to word it better) and a nice big pack about Setagaya-ku (all in English, w00t!) - I also had to pick up some temporary certificates that I would need to take to the bank in order to open an account and possibly the Vodafone store.

To Mum + Dad: You will be pleased to hear that health insurance is compulsory here (despite me trying to argue I don’t need it), however it’s not too expensive (about £30 a month) and means you only have to pay 30% (or sometimes 10%) of all medical fees. Not sure how doctor prescriptions work (as far as colds and antibiotics etc) - however there is a mystical looking shop in central tokyo that claims it can cure anything, just using diffent plants and animal faeces…..

Oh this is so annoying, I am not even sure what day it is, so I’m not sure what I’ve already said… oh hang on, ahah!!! Yes!!! I remember. This might be Thursday I am writing about. Ok… good…

So I got back from the Registration Office quite late, but still wanted to go to my college to enrol, however not knowing where it was, I had to go back to Shibuya to a net cafe to look it up. Once again though, I got there too late (the school closes at 5) - and seeing as it was the start of the typhoon, the weather was awful and not really good for “walking for miles to find a school” in.

Seiko was at work and Shiho was out, so I now had nothing to do. The rain really was coming down now (at least I thought so at the time) - so I decided the only sensible thing to do would be to check into an internet cafe for 8 hours (£5) It also seemed like it would be a good idea to try and find some more people in Tokyo to meet up with, so I headed to my favourite penpal site to see who was on offer. Fired off a few emails to random people looking for a language exchange, then put up a new ad of my own (its like a “meet people” bulletin board).

I then set the mail client in the background and just got on with some randomness… about 10 minutes later, I already had 4 replies, including one girl called “Waka” who was on MSN at the time, so was able to chat live. She did tell me some really interesting things, however I can’t remember that far back, except that I am supposed to be meeting her on Tuesday… (however I also told her I would mail to confirm on Friday….. whoops….)

The rest of the time was just some internet randomness (including catching up with Gerald.. hey dude!) - before I left at about 11:30 or so to get the train home.

And here, I must confess a sin, one of which i am massively ashamed…. I was so hungry by now that i went to….. yes, i know…. McDonalds…
Ok let’s jump subject here (we’ll come back to me leaving the cafe in a mo..)

Japanese Food - A type of food invented by someone who really hated the Japanese locals. Consists of making all food contain fish, or if they spare you of that, soy. Resulting in it smelling terrible. Then, just to take the p1ss even more, the time they do let you have something that tastes ok (such as western food) - they shrink it to about a quarter of it’s original size….

The food is actually really becoming a serious problem, I really can’t stand the smell of it (which is aparently the soy) - which makes just trying it very hard. I am therefore surviving on hot dogs and burritos from the local convenience store… Shiho and Seiko are worried I will just waste away, and I am inclined to agree with them. Whilst you can get more “western type” frozen foods (chicken nuggets and the like) - we have no oven, nor microwave so none of it can be cooked….. I do need to sort out something soon though (even if it involves removing my nose and tastebuds….)

Y01k3!

Anyway, back to the net cafe. So I had thought the weather was bad earlier, well now the typhoon was pretty much over tokyo, and was quite a bit worse. Luckily I had brought my umbrella, so I was able to keep it off my head, but the force of the wind meant it blew under the rim and got my top body all wet… yuk!
I got back just before the girls and we sat around for a bit until Seiko decided she needed to get some eye wash, so we set out in the rain to the 7 11 across the park. The journey there was ok, with a few dodgy moments involving almost overbalancing and falling into puddles, but we got there safely enough.

The journey back we (well, Seiko) wasn’t really quite so fortunate as a freak gust took her umbrella and ripped the top off, which then went sailing down the street. The more chivelrous (sp) side of me thought I should offer mine, however it was cold, so I just pointed and laughed… haha…

By now, the park had become pretty submerged, with water about 3 inches deep and most places and only a few routes to get around it all, most of these being very low (like 5 inches max) and thin (4 inches) walls across which we had to balance. All was good until about half way, when yet again the wind blew (strong wind in a tornado, who would have thought it!) taking Seiko off the wall and into the now mini lake…. hahahahaha…

Back home after drying off, we spend the next 3 hours or so doing english language / pronounciation practise. (Seiko has a book of about 1,800 word she needs to learn, so I just kept opening it at random pages and testing her and Shiho on them….) - and then proceeding to confuse them with - console (as in “dont worry”) & console (ps2) and polish and Polish….
So bed time was morning time, with Seiko having to get up again to go to work in 3 hours… lol…

Cool, we are now up to friday, which is a bit fresher in my mind.

Did I post the internet and phone will be installed on Wednesday? Well if not, the internet and phone will be installed on Wednesday I was up for the budget pack, but they went and ordered the 100Meg line instead… I suppose I can’t complain, its a 3 way bill split so wont be too bad…

Budawah…

So Friday morning, my tasks were simple. Go to Vodafone shop to get mobile, then with the number, I would be able to get a bank account at the Shinsei bank, before going to the language school to enrol. Simple..

The first problem occured when I got to the Vodafone store at 4 pm… hehe… I took a ticket and awaited my turn. 30 minutes later, I was finally called…

This was the Vodafone Shibuya store with the English support (which of course was the reason I had come here in the first place) so I had my list of questions ready. The woman who served me was extrememly friendly and was able to speak really good english and laugh at my jokes… (or maybe she was laughing at me..? ;))

All I wanted, was to be able to email back to the UK for free and also be able to send and receive SMS if i needed to. I already knew the phone I wanted, so I thought all would be simple. However at the Vodafone store, you had to pay 12,000yen for the actual phone. I said it was only 1 yen down the road, to which she explained I had to sign up for a 2 year contract, and if I broke this I would need to pay 10,000 yen (now here is where the problem occured, I mis calculated and made this to be £500…. not the £50 it is).

I didn’t want to do this obviously as I would only have the phone for 15 months. Again, another problem. Japanese phone contracts arent like UK ones. In Japan you have to sign for a year at a time, you cannot just use a year then keep on going without signing… To break after 15 months, I would be signed up to my second year of contract, so would have to pay 4000 yen (£20) - ok… I guess it’s not too bad.

You know, there is a load more story to this (I was in the store with her for two hours) - but I really dont want to write it all now… sorry!! Suffice to say, I signed up to a one year contract (£20 a month, with £10 of free calls/data transfer and free emails), paid 12,000 yen for the phone, 2500 joining fee (I KNOW, I HAD TO PAY TO JOIN!!!! WTF!!!)

I couldn’t have the phone straight away as it takes an hour to activate, so I went off again to the internet cafe to check my mail. To my suprise, I now had another 12 replies to my ad from various people wanting to meet up. I still haven’t replied to any yet (no time) - but i dont think i will be short of possible friends here
Anyway, back to the Vodafone store and my phone was ready and already charged (I made sure by asking…) - I now had 30 minutes to get back home, drop off the box and stuff, change into a shirt (the club we were going was dress code) and get back to Shibuya to meet Shiho and Seiko for 8 to go eat.

Of course, it was never going to happen, so I felt a bit guilty when I finally got back at 8:45… :o

I was starving now and had found a guide to Shibuya which listed a local Outback!! (for anyone who doesn’t know what Outback is, it’s an Australian steak house which sells really nice food, we have them in the UK - there’s one at Wandsworth - you know Dad, we went there for Tom’s birthday)

So, we’re inside and I’m looking at the menu… hmmm… nice big steak I think. Now the sizes are all metric here, so I am unsure of the weight, but going by the price of the large one, I assume it should be pretty good. The obligatory Blooming Onion arrives first, which is comparable in size with it’s UK counterpart…. things are looking good.

When the steak arrives about 15 minutes later, I am sure that a mistake has been made. Yes there is a rump steak infront of me, however I think it must have come off the rump of a new born baby micro-cow (the type you get in christmas crackers…. =)) ….it did taste nice, I’ll give it that, but really…. I can only imagine what the small one might have been like.

Seiko had also found out the club was playing hip hop, so even though it had a swimming pool, this was not alluring enough to make me want to go, so we decided to go Roppongi instead (I know, I know, yuk yuk yuk…) - first stop though, the bookstore to go and meet a friend of Seikos friend!!? A frenchman by the name of Arnaud (I think) - who luckily spoke English and who is actually a great guy (which is quite suprising since he’s french … :P)

A special mention should now be made to the phone I had just bought, which of course had now ran out of battery… thanks very much…. grrr…. However apart from that, it’s an amazing phone and I love it to pieces. Finally I have a black flip, which can record pretty good quality movies and photos and send them as email for free!!! Haha! So now you lot can expect random videos and odd times of the day. The web address above was wrong by the way, its: http://www.vodafone.jp/english (not vodafone.CO.jp)

So to Roppongi (minus Shiho who had work the next day, so had gone home), first stop the “One Stop Bar” where Seiko’s friend worked and could offer 500 yen drinks. That’s pretty much all it could offer, the place was empty (probably as the music was rubbish) and pretty small… so after 2 drinks, we made our excuses and left (after meeting up with another of Seiko’s friends; Yuka).

We wandered around for a bit, before finding ourselves outside the “Hideout” - now I had been here last year, and remembered the dodgy drinks prices. The guy outside was trying to get us to go in with the offer of 500 yen drinks. I pointed out he promised this last year, but once we were inside suddenly the prices went up, so to prove he wasn’t lying, could I have a load of the 500 yen vouchers. He said he couldn’t do that, but if I wanted to come back upstairs to get a new voucher each time, this would be no problem.

Ok, that seemed fair… so we went inside.

Inside was a mix of foreigners and locals, with the locals maybe slightly outnumbering us gaijin, however everyone was in a good mood and the music was starting to get quite trancy so all seemed it would be good.

Arnaud was really getting into the musical spirit of things, pulling off very impressive (or strange, depending on how you want to see it) moves, which attracted the attention of a group of japanese guys who came over and started to clap This crew then became our new clubbing buddies, which was pretty cool… The main guy, whose name was Hipai, was really having a good time and was pretty smashed. He then proceeded to live up to his name, buy paying for a round for anyone who was within the vacinity, including two girls (Chizue and Mam… - doh, I forgot) who then came and joined out party group (We were quite blatted by now, and drinks had miraculously gone up to 1000yen…. the same as last year, so i don’t want to think about how much money Shipai was forking out….) - cue loads more crazy drunken dancing…

At about 3am, Seiko and Yuka left to go to a different bar (we arranged to meet at 5am at the station), leaving me and Arnaud to carry on (along with a new recruit, an extremely drunk j-girl who took a liking to anyone who would look at her… including trying to get off with Chizue… haha) - I managed to keep clear, though Shipai wasn’t so lucky (or maybe he was, depending on how you want to look at it….)

Come 4am and I was quite tired, but with an hour to go we had no choice by to stay in Roppongi. I just wanted to get a coffee to try and wake me up a bit, but not being on offer in the club, we decided to leave to find a Starbucks or something. The two girls also weren’t feeling the vibe so much and also left to come with us.

We sat in a local coffee shop (Starbucks closed at 4:30) until 5 when we left the girls to go to the station to meet up with Seiko… who of course wasn’t there… After 20 minutes, it finally occured to me we could use Arnaud’s phone (doh!) to call and see where she was.

We didn’t get through straight away, but after a few attempts Seiko finally picked up. Follow some very drunk sounding Japanese, along with a transfer to an even more Japanese sounding guy who then hung up on us. Getting a bit worried now, we called back, to only have Seiko again trying to explain something, but which neither me nor Arnaud could understand… Although we were still worried, we realised there was nothing we could do, but as we knew she was still with her friend, we decided to finally head back home.

Due to the time, the trains weren’t quite as frequent, however they weren’t too bad and I managed to get home by about 6:30 or so where I had a quick browse of the Vodafone catalogue before heading to sleep, when I noticed something I hadn’t seen before….

(Let’s recap, my contract = yearly, with a £20 break out clause I need to use in month 15. I then had to pay £60 for the phone in the first place.)

The “Happy Bonus” tarrif which I thought had a £500 breakout, only had a £50 break out. Why is this significant, well…

Phone cost if taking out Happy Bonus = 1 yen (0.5p)
Monthly line charge (- 5% bonus)
Month 13 and 14 - Free (Saving about £40)

So the phone saving cancels out the breakout penalty, followed by me getting 2 months free and a 5% reduction. Whereas I just had to pay for the phone AND now pay the breakout penalty… grrrr… I wish I was angry, but the woman was so nice I dont want to go back and complain incase she gets in trouble or something…????

Saturday 27th August

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Woke up feeling absolutely awful and with no memory of the night before at all!!! (Luckily it’s all come back now, but it was incredibly amusing at first :)) - and deciding I definately didn’t want to go clubbing this night (supposed to be meeting George to go to Womb).

However, staying at home seemed pointless, so at about 7pm we went out to find some food. My stomach wasn’t feeling so good, so it seemed Subway was a safe bet for a plain sandwich. Subway roast chicken is nowhere as nice as it’s UK counterpart, but they made a good effort. The only bad point to the meal was the cockroach stuck on his back near our table, but after switching seats so I couldn’t see him, everything was a lot better. It also says a lot to the quality of the sandwich that I didn’t feel sick after we left, and had suddenly picked up a craving for some vodka…..

George still wasn’t ready, so to pass the time between then and him arriving, we went to the local 50yen arcade (though all the games I played were 200 yen..???!) until he called and told us to meet him outside Starbucks, after which we proceeded up the hill to one of his friends leaving parties.

Just getting in the lift should have set alarm bells ringing that this place would be expensive (it was a complete glass front that was on the side of the building, so you saw out over the whole of Tokyo as you went up to the 15th floor) - but getting inside it was amazing. The whole wall was glass, and being so high up meant you could just see for miles. Only having 2000 yen on me (£10) meant whenever the bartender came over I had to pretend to be on the phone and so after 15 minutes or so, we decided to go and head over to Shimokitazawa.

Now Shimokitazawa is billed as Tokyo’s Camden and after going there in the day, the night promised a lot. Except when we got there, the place was dead with the only visible thing to do being Karaoke. I wouldn’t have had a problem with this, but Arnaud only having a week left here wanted to party, so decided he would pay for a cab back to Roppongi (oh joy!)

We stopped one in the street and pilled in instructed the good man to drive to Roppongi - and off we went. The speed we went at seemed a bit erratic, but we put this down to Japanese drivers. It was only when we were still stopped at a green light, did we pay attention to our driver, who had fallen asleep! Seiko kicked his chair to wake him up, so we continued…. for the rest of the journey, every few minutes, the guy would then fall back to sleep!!! We should have probably been really scared, but we couldn’t stop laughing and even managed to get a photo… we did get there in the end, and we secretly hoping he would fall asleep before he took the money - no such luck
Before we went into a club, it was a quick stop off at a convenience store to buy some very cheap alcohol to drink in the street first (thus saving us valuable cash!) - the pikey within me decided to go for the cheapest strongest (some fowl lemon drink) - which predictably meant after about 5 minutes, I was saying “Konbanwa” to anyone who walked past and trying to strike up a conversation with a friendly Japanese guy, who I had to apologise to “Sumimasen!” as I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying… “Wakaranii!”

Finally, 3 cans later we were ready to find a (different) club - Seiko suggested “Muse” as Arnaud wanted to meet some JGirls and apparently that was the place for foreigners to meet them… so we went, 2000 yen to get in £10 (but 2 free drinks) - but it did seem to be playing some decent music. Much to Arnaud’s dismay however, the place was just full of guys (at least 3 to every girl) - however the real reason we were here soon became aparant after realising Seiko was missing and after a long search, finding her in the chillout room with some guy called Matt…
Arnaud was now pretty fed up and wanted to go, but after pointing out this would be unfair to Seiko, he agreed to stay. His luck was in though, as after about 20 minutes, we saw Seiko on the way out. I ran after her to see what the ku was, to have the guy give me his phone number and tell me to call it if i got lost?!?! I was like “eh?” - to which he said “if you need to get to Seiko’s house, just call me” - i told him i lived with her, so knew pretty well where I lived - to which he replied, “well thats strange she said that then…” - i know, that really doesn’t make much sense, however i think it’s safe to assume Seiko must have been pretty drunk (nothing different there then…)

I then went back to tell the good news to Arnaud who had now managed to find some JGirls (5 of them) and was engaged in conversation with them on the center table.

Blond Hair Syndrome - The art of being cute by hair colour?

Gowry had said about this before I went, girls will give you attention because of your hair colour. But I couldn’t believe this would be true.. though i stand corrected. The amount of girls who have come up to me and told me i have “cute hair” … ? … how can you have cute hair?!?!? I don’t understand! Even worse, I don’t know what to say back, normally just going with “Arigato” and trying to look shy… :o) haha.. I dont want to say “you look cute too” or something back (wrong idea!!), but at the same time, feel i am supposed to just to not be rude….?? (answers on a postcard please) - maybe i should just dye it black??

So to tie that in, this is what happened when i went over to Arnaud. I got the hair ruffling works (DON’T - i spend ages gelling i just right!! :p) - and was worried I would have to stay over there - however Arnaud wasn’t so impressed (”These are girls are ugly…” - harse i think, they weren’t, however there seems to be no intermediate word - a girl is either “beautiful” or “ugly”….) and wanted to go find a different club.

This involved a brief walk back down the main road to Roppongi (via a convenience store first … ;)) - where we looked for somewhere to go. However after 30 minutes of looking, Arnaud wasn’t at all impressed with the women (the notion of looking for good music seemed not to be a matter of importance for him) - so it was decided (to my relief) that we should go home.

I went the long route home, as I was unsure what the Seiko situation was, so got home at about 7:30 (after sending about a million photo mails to Gowry :D) to a quiet house. I must admit, i was still pretty drunk, as i’m sure I saw the guys shoes by the door, but on checking again when i woke up, they could have been my slipppers…!?!

After lying in bed for about 30 minutes, Seiko popped her head around the door and then went off…. At least.. I think she did, though I have a nasty suspision i imagined all of this –? she’s dissapeared out again at the moment, so i can’t confirm - however i will ask when she gets back
So yes, woke up to an empty house and after taking a 30 minute shower, decided i should use the time constuctivly to update this - so - here i am - 3 hours of typing later!!!

Have I missed anything? Probably, but I can’t see straight so well at the moment, and certainly don’t want to read back over everything to work out what’s not there… lol…

Tomorrow we are all going to Odaiba to see a show of somesorts, though i’m not sure what. I also really need to make the effort to enrol at college before they fill up too quickly….

UPDATE UPDATE - Ok I missed a whole week, so will continue as in one post, however there’s no way i’m going to sit on this floor for the next 5 hours, so it might be a little rushed

Monday 29th August

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Monday was the scheduled trip to Odaiba and we were very kindly driven there by Shimpei. It’s hard to explain exactly what the whole place is and it’s purpose, but i will do my best.

Basically, some time ago (I think Shimpei said about 30 years ago, but i could be wrong) the Japanese Government decided that a new “part(?)” of Tokyo was required, so they built a massive man made island, which is of course, Odaiba. Then they built a huge bridge to get to it (the Rainbow Bridge). Finally, on this massive island they build a massive ferris wheel, a huge mall, the Fuji TV Headquarters and a load more industrial things.

Apart from the large wheel, the main attraction seems to be around “Pallette Town” - which houses a mall built to look exactly like the rome in the caser times. If anyone has been to “Caesars” in Las Vegas, you will have some idea of what this place looks like. They have the same high ceilings painted to look like the sky, fountains in various openings and big pillars holding everything up. On closer inspection, these pillars and the marble is just painted on (unlike the usa one which did it properly) - however it still looked quite impressive.

We arrived there around lunch time, so first step was to find something to eat. Obviously Japanese food was out, so we settled for an italian. To try and make a bit of an authentic, I was made to order all my food and make some enquiries about the menu in Japanese … (Kyo deserto wa nan desu ka? - what is today’s desert) - and even to make a complaint about my fork being dirty!!

The meal was actually awful - so Shimpei taught me how to say “this food is disgusting you stupid idiot!” - however I didn’t quite have the nerve to say it to the waiter when he asked how everything was … (Kono bakka yaro - you stupid idiot)

Next we went to check out the arcades (which in this place were hideously expensive, 200yen a game!!! - £1) before going out the main building to find the show / fair thing. It was a bit of a trek and on reaching the place, we found out we were required to pay 4000yen entry (£20) - which wasn’t really too appealing. Instead we went off to the beach to have a quick look around (i use the term beach very loosely - it was indeed by the sea and had a sand like mixture, however it was also mixed in with loads of tiny rock fragments which made it look a nasty colour….)

Finally (sorry, I am rushing this, I need to catch up and only have 2 hours until the pizza arrives…) we went to the Sega Themepark. Basically all the rides are computer generated, including the roller coasters and flying machines. This kinda took away most of the appeal for me, so i declined to go on anything except for the Touring Car Championship simulator which was pretty cool.

Basically you get in a full sized touring car (mine was a Mercedes) which has a huge tv screen in front of it. You then basically are playing the computer game “Sega Touring Car Championships” - but the car you are in is on hydraulics so moves with you…. SUGOI!
Finally it was time to head back, so we went to get the car from the car park (£20) and get on the freeway home… lol, freeway, i love that word.

Getting home and it was dinner time, but instead of staying home, I was told we were going to go to a Japanese pancake restaurant - cool, sounded interesting - and i’m happy to say it was.

It was a little walk from our place, so en route Shimpei gave us a guided tour of the area (which of course didn’t involve much - we have a library and 3 convenience stores…) before we got to the main high road and the restaurant.

This was a proper Japanese style place, with us having to sit on the floor around a largish table with a metal hot plate in the middle (which was a *very* hot plate as i discovered when i put my hand on it… lol)

There was no smell of soy in the place and i was quietly optimistic that perhaps this place might actually deliver something nice….. and it did
First course was some very tender (or is that, boiled for a heck of a long time) beef with a cabbage mix (I know Nan, i am allergic to cabbage, but i didn’t want to offend … :p) which was then put on the hot plate (though plate is such a wrong word, this this was basically the whole table) and started to fry. We then picked off it as we wanted… mmm… just thinking of it is making me hungry again
Next course was a noodle / meat combination thing which again was put on the plate and again was most scrumptious.

Finally was the “pieste de la resistance” (sp) which was the pancake. Now I don’t know about you lot, but I see a pancake as one of the batter kind. Not this though, it was like basically a bit potato cake, topped with many different things. Despite this initial dissapointment, after trying it, again it didn’t matter as it was so nice
I should add that along with this, we had skipped the usual water drinks as Shimpei wanted to introduce me to all Japanese alcohol. Well, it seems i have a taste (as also is true in the uk) for the women’s drinks, prefering the nicer taste of fruit to the harshness of alcohol - which Shimpei found incredibly amusing. “You drink like a girl!” - well i don’t care, as the alternative tastes rank as….

I think I must have tried every drink on the menu by the end of the night (we stayed until 1am) - so of course come home time I was hungry again…! A quick stop off at the 7/11 to buy some burritos solved this…

Tuesday 30th August

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Today’s plan was quite simple, go to the language school to sign up, then meet up with Waka afterwards at about 5. Getting out the house at 3 meant i was kinda stretched for time, but figured it would be ok.

So, first stop the language school.

I found the place easy enough (it’s right on the main road - hard to miss) so went inside to see what it was all about and was immediately greeted by a very friendly old woman (well I mean she must of been about 55 or so…) who sat me down and the proceeded to explain how the course / school worked. Mon, Wed + Fri are Speaking and Listening Days, with Tue + Thur being the reading / writing days.

Actually, i should rephrase that. The first thing she did when i sat down was to grab my hand and proclaim “what a great ring, where did you get it?” (talking about my chinese / japanese ring Gowry got me at christmas) - i *think* she was being genuine, but maybe she just wanted to be nice to me so i would sign up … haha….

I must have been talking to her for ages as she went through everything which was all great until she got to the bit about start time. “Everyday is 9:30″ - HOLD UP - no I explained i wanted the afternoon course as there was no way I could get up a 9:30. “Sorry” she said, but “there are not enough people to run an afternoon course” (it seems everyone in this country likes to get up early and finish early so they have a whole day to play with).

As much as i pleaded with her, she wouldn’t budge and run the course just for me (even when i offered to pay double :D) - i was starting to worry this could be a problem. I wanted my months holiday of getting up late, and this looked like it was going to skupper my plans.

Then she hit me with another whammy… before i enrolled, i had to come to an observation class to check i liked and agreed with the teaching methods. Which was, yup, you’ve guessed it, at 9:30 the next day AS WELL as thursday. Well that just sucked as i was meeting Waka that night, then Chizue and Maduka the next and had been intending to stay out…

Anyway, I kinda half heartedly agreed and was finally able to leave However as it was now 4:30, I knew i wouldn’t meet Waka in time, so sent her a text letting her know i would be an hour later than planned - she replied ok.

So now it was off to Shibuya to get the train to Ueno to meet up.

After about 20 minutes into the journey I get another mail from Waka telling me she is too tired to wait and will go home?!?! Of course, I have never met her before and don’t want to come across as too angry, so instead of replying with the “f*&k you b1T6h, i have just travelled ages to find you” - i sent back a more conservative - “no wait, i’m almost there” (lol)

15 minutes later the train finally got to Ueno, so i headed off to the hard rock cafe (our meeting point) to find her. (i had by now forgotten what she looked like, so hoped she would recognise me - not difficult i suppose when i am the only blond in the whole station….) - however she was not there… hmmm… email time.

After 20 minutes she had still not replied and i was just about to give up and go Akihabara when finally i got the vibration in my pocket and the familiar “fairground noise” that lets everyone know how popular i am …. - Waka had indeed left and gone to Ikebukuro (about 10 minutes from Shibuya….) - but i could come meet her if i wanted.

At this point, i didn’t know where Ikebukuro was, so sent a message back accordingly.

15 minutes later I finally got a reply, so i headed back to the Yamanote line (the BEST line in Tokyo - like everything good is on it….) and off to Ikebukuro station (20 minutes away).

Arrive at the station - send email = “where are you” - 15 minutes later - “at the exit”…. (this station is huge and has about 8 exits) - “which one?” - 10 minutes later “east exit”.

Beginning to think this girl is a complete moron, but not wanting to waste anymore time and to try and make the best of the situation i head to east exit - where of course, she isn’t….

me: “i am at east exit, where are you”
her: (5 minutes later) “east exit”
me: “erm, i am at east exit, where exactly are you?”
her: (15 minutes later!!) “Come to Ettu”
me: “what is Ettu?”
her: “shop”
me: “WHERE?!” (trying not to send an incredibly rude message - keep cool mr ben…)
her: “it’s right outside the exit inside the mall (i forget), you can’t miss it”

I then head outside, but i can’t see this place, until i just happen to look right down the road where the big sign for the mall is visible…. slightly confused, but putting nothing past this girl, i head down the road to the mall and into CENTRAL exit. I’m looking around when i hear my name called… it is of course Waka who has been waiting at central exit the whole time…? hmm…

She tells me we will go Karaoke after, but first she has to meet up with some friends, so we head over the road where I meet 3 guys, 1 korean and 2 yanks who seem quite friendly so we get chatting. i tell Waka I haven’t eaten, so she says to go to a restaurant, so we head off to find one.

Finally one that looks ok, so she says to me “you go in and eat, then ring me when you finish and i will meet you” - this seems like a completely stupid idea bearing in mind the only reason i am here is to meet her, but she seems pretty adament.

I finish eating within about 20 minutes, so text her to say i’m done…. 35 minutes later she replies saying “what do i want to do?” - i text back saying i thought we were going Karaoke. Her reply - “well I have no money, but you can go on your own if you want..” ?!?!

Ok now I am convinced this girl is an idiot… the whole point of tonite was to go out, not for her to then say she has no money so i should go out on my own?!?!

This girl is a complete idiot….

So I go home… what a waste of a day - i could have gone to Akihabara after all… i suppose the upside was that i would in bed early for school the next day…

Wednesday 31st August

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Something very scary and terrifying happens….. my alarm goes off at 8:30 … OMFG!!

This is going to be a struggle - roll out of bed and stumble to the shower. Ahh, the water feels so nice and warm and … sleepy …. Luckily there is the clock in the shower room, so i manage not to take too long and am all ready and leaving the house by 9.

The train is at 9.05 (i didn;t know this at the time) - so i just see it leaving as i get to the station and have to wait for the next one 9.10 or so - which means i then miss the interconnecting one at Sangenjaya - before finally reaching Ometo-Sando and having to wait in a queue for the Fare Adjsutment machine.

My first day @ school and of course, i am late
Luckily the older woman isn’t in yet, so i am spared a telling off - but given my sample book and ushered into a classroom where i sit to observe. Or at least that’s what i am supposed to do. I find though that after about 5 minutes i have drifted off into a complete day dream which i find very hard to shake off.

After an hour, the class has a break so i am moved into the beginners class next door to see what i will actually be doing (the previous class was the advanced, just to see how far it is possible to get in 7 months) - where it’s just one guy being taught and the teacher (who i will have from Monday) - again I sit in here for an hour and a half, just watching…

The lesson teaching to me seems odd. There is no english allowed to be spoken in the class, so everything is taught in Japanese. I can see the logic here, but I know for a fact that I needed quite a bit of explaination on the “particles” system before i fully understood it, so i worry that maybe something else later along the line might require similar..?

After this lesson, I again had to sit with the woman outside to ask any more questions and for her to drill into me that 9.30 is not early (i still don’t agree…) - before she waved me off telling me she expected me in at 9.30 the next day - i tried to argue it to 10.30 but she was having none of it…

“Your mother is not here in Japan, therefore I am now your mother here. So I will make sure you will study” …!

I decided to treat myself to some cream puffs from the shop in Shibuya for lunch (i was so tired, nothing else seemed particualy nice) - but then wanted to head home as the internet should have been installed (yay!)

Got home to find everyone back, including Shimpei - however no internet, so instead we headed off to the local electronics store to buy the washing machine. (or at least, for Shiho and Seiko to buy the washing machine….)

By the time we got back, I was knackered (it was now maybe 5pm) - however had to get out for 7:30 to meet up with Chizue, which was now looking at becoming a major task in itself.

Seiko and Shiho then went to go out, so I figured to pass some time, I would just have a sit down on Seiko’s bed…..

Of course, the inevitable happened and I woke up at 7.00 or so…. doh ^_^

Now worried I was going to be late, I decided the best thing to do would be to call, however i was beaten to it as my phone started to ring with Chizue’s name flashing up.

“Tomorrow I am going to Kyushu and am still packing now, so I’m really sorry but I won’t be able to make Tonite - I’m so sorry”

I tried to sound as dissapointed as I could (hehe) - but of course was now quite relieved - instead re-arranging for next friday.

I was though incredibly hungry, so it was back to the supermarket for my familiar shop of Chicken and Pasta Sauce, with a special treat of a creme caramel for dessert….

Spent the rest of the night playing computer games until about 1am when I figured I should go to bed…. except due to the knap i had taken earlier, sleep then proceeded to illude me until about 4am….

Thursday 1st September

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How wondeful, the familiar alarm signal at 8:30. This morning however I wasn’t so forgiving to it, and through it out the room to go back to sleep….. school can wait….
At 11am I was again woken, but this time it was a bit more excusable as it was the internet crew, round to fix the faulty cabling. An hour or so later, they were done and the net was up! Unfortunately, even though the whole house is networked up, it’s not been done in the most efficient way, so still only one of us can get on the net at a time, however we’ll sort this out and get a router at a later date - for now, it’s ok.

Spent the next few hours or so going through my new emails (400… sheesh!) and catching up on the forum - before getting ready for the big night out in Shibuya and “Club Pure” which had an all you can drink night for £7…

Firstly met up with Arnaud, before heading to Pure to meet Seiko outside. Now bearing mind it was only about 11pm, the amount of drunk people fallen over on the street was amazing, so amazing it was just comical. These were normal business people still dressed up, just collapesed on the floor!!!

Outside Pure was an even better sight, a guy/girl (we weren’t sure which) lying in a puddle with a rat sitting on top of him/her!! Tried to get a photo but it was too dark, dammit… Arnaud kicked the rat, expecting it to scarper, but instead it just stayed there… not afraid of us at all..?! The next kick was slightly harder however and sent the poor creature flying across the road…. hahaha….

Finally Seiko turned up and we headed up into the club…. to be greeted by the most empty venue i have ever seen - there were about 8 people there….

Was hoping this was just as it was too early, so on getting a drink, enquired to the barmaid where all the people were. She assured me they would come later, so we retook our seats.

By about 12am however, everyone had left, with the only people who we had originally thought were clients - turning out to be actual staff. Arnaud now decided he would have a dance just for the sake of it, and Seiko was pretty cained, so i headed back outside where the barmaid had now switched jobs and was working on the door.

Her name was Akiko and she was a promoter during the day she explained. I think she was underselling her title here as after some explaination her job sounded pretty impressive. Whenever a foreign band comes over to Tokyo, she is in charge of sorting out their hotel accomodation, planning everything - and so on. To mention a few, she has looked after Coldplay, Foo Fighters and Robbie Williams!

It was then decided that I should try and get some more people inside, so I was put on promotion duty, walking up and down the street shouting (in japanese) - “free drinks, come inside…”

Maybe my pronounciation was poor, or maybe it was just due to it being a Thursday night, but no one took me up on the offer, so after 20 minutes i sadly gave up
There was still no point going back inside though, so I stayed downstairs with my new friend and got introduced to her other friends who had now joined us (after going to Lawson across the street and buying me some food…!) - before being joined by Seiko and Arnaud who had got a bit fed up of staying inside.

Cue 2 hours or so of random chatting until the Pure team decided no one else was coming, so would close. We were however invited back inside for a private party type deal, which free pool! So in we went, where we met up with the Pure manager along with the manager of Club Ruby (down the street) - who told us we could now come in for free.

At about 4am, and after getting obliterated on free shots, we decided to head out and get some food (just me and Arnaud now, Seiko had already got a taxi home) - not before being told we were expected back next weekend, but we wouldn’t have to pay - SUGOI!

It was then a quick stop off at the local curry house to grab a bite until the trains started at 5.05.

The alcohol was now really kicking in though (we had been given 3 quick shots to knock back before we left pure) - and it was a bit hazy getting back to the station, where although I tried my best, i couldn’t run fast enough down the stairs to get the train - and along with another woman, almost collided into the closing doors.

Just then my phone let me know I had a message, and after checking it and reading the message from Arnaud letting me know he had just thrown up on the platform (haha) - i was about to put it back in my pocket when a great idea formed itself.

“I know, to pass the hour between now and the next train, let’s call some friends”

Cue some very drunk phone calls back home (including one at my peak of obliteratedness to Helen - sorry about that!) before finally the train arrived at the station to whisk me off home

Friday 2nd September

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After waking up and almost having a heart attack when i saw my outgoing call log (this months bill is going to hurt….) - i got ready to head back to school to properly enroll and endure the telling off i was sure i was going to receive.

Luckily, the woman back at learning HQ wasn’t as annoyed as i thought she would be, and did see the funny side of it… phew
Walking back to Shibuya to get the train, I again received a text message, this time from Kaori, complaining she was in Shibuya with nothing to do - well now seemed like as good as time as any to meet up, so i told her to meet me at Starbucks.

Unlike Waka, Kaori was much better at time keeping (and actually replying) and arrived at Starbucks just after I got there. We then headed for the curry house of the night before to get some much needed nutrision.

We must of stayed in the restaurant for 2 or 3 hours just chatting about anything really. It was then decided we should go shopping as she knew some places that sold cheap furniture - so off we went.

It was getting kind of late now and i wanted to go home to use the internet, however was unsure how I should say this without appearing rude… deciding the “looking really sleepy” method was the best, i kept yawning until she asked if i wanted to go home… (w00t!)

So I made my excuses and left, though not before being offered a free ticket to “Agehar” on the Saturday night, which was pretty cool, so I agreed.

Back on the train home I sent a message thanking her for the ticket and buying my dinner and that I would bring Seiko to the club and that it would be cool so that she could meet her..

She replied back - “Oh okay”

Now maybe i read into this wrongly, but it would seem from that, she wanted just me to go. Why would this be…? I’ll admit, now i felt uncomfortable as I am thinking she quite likes me … eek!

Got home and was still pondering the whole Kaori episode when I got a message from Seiko telling me she is in Roppongi and did I want to come meet her and her friend Rei. Of course this sounded a good idea, so I set back out to get the train.

Arriving at the station at 12.05 was not an issue at first. The first train went to Sangenjaya no problem. It was at Sangenjaya that the fun started, there was only one train left before they terminated totally and of course, it wasn’t going as far as I wanted.

The choice was to either cut my losses and go home, or stick with it and walk to Roppongi from Shibuya (which didn’t seem that far, Roppongi-dori is right near the station) - decided i did want to go out, and meeting up with Rie would be cool (i had met her last year, but couldn’t remember her…!?) I set off to Shibuya, and from there, started walking down Roppongi-dori.

40 minutes later and I was finally there and taking a moment to have a rest (it was so hot again) i lent against a lampost. Except it wasn’t a lampost, it was a bus stop post. It was at this moment that the bus turned up (which of course had come from Shibuya…) - grrr… damn that seiko, she told me there was no bus!!!
Seiko showed up a few minutes later with Rie (who I didn’t recognise at all… hmm…) with Arnaud running up pretty much straight away after. First stop, the local convenience store.

The Local Convenience Store - A fantastic place, open 24 hours where you can pick up cans of very strong lemon flavoured alcoholic beverages for 50p. A perfect way to start the night; go to the conveni, get 3 or so drinks, sit outside drinking then head into the club. Quite pikey I know, but at £5 a drink inside the clubs, I DONT CARE!!!
First stop was Gas Panic (Hip Hip, yuk!) However on arriving there and finding it to be massively overcrowded, we moved quickly on…

Next stop was an underground Hip Hop club, which was massively overcrowded and playing some god awful music. Rie however was in her element and was soon whisked away by a decidedly sleazy looking guy who seemed to appear from nowhere, leaving me with Seikos two friends (who she still hadn’t introduced me to) - this part of the night is hazy, but i believe we stayed for an hour or so (and after i had knocked back a few white russians…) before leaving as we just couldn’t take it any more.

Our final stop of the evening was to be a Trance Club, found on the 6th floor of a distant building. On entering all seemed good, with Seiko quite drunk (well that makes a change) and ordering a round of Champagne! (well it was just for me and her, but Arnaud and Rei were off somewhere else).

Arnaud was thoroughly loving the place and had already made some new friends on the dance floor - seiko had now found someone else who would supply her with drinks, but Rie didn’t seem happy at all. After trying unsuccessfully to get her up and dancing, but failing, I asked her if she wanted to go outside for a bit instead - which she did, so we left to sit outside on the wall and chat.

An hour or so later, Seiko tottered out, saying that Arnaud was so happy he was going to stay, but we could now go, which seemed like a good plan.

On walking down the highstreet however, something amazing caught my eye… A ROAST CHICKEN STAND, complete with portable spit for fresh chicken.. W00t! Quickly getting out my wallet, i then proceeded to purchase a quarter chicken with some roast potatoes…
I couldn’t wait, finally i had some proper food and eagerly raised the chicken to my mouth (with chopsticks of course) and took a bite…

But… something was wrong. This thing in front of me certainly looked like chicken, but had the taste of something most unlike chicken, infact it was less edible than anything i had yet tried… (including the Natta!!) - I could have cried…. (i didn’t…. ;))

So it was with a sense of misery that I trooped back to the station, only for seiko to say she was going somewhere, wouldn’t tell us where, and jumped in a taxi to be whisked away..?!

We (me and Rie) stood there for a while assuming this was a joke and she would soon be back, however after 5 minutes it seemed aparent that no, she had infact left…!

So home alone it was then…!? There would be questions in the morning….!?!!?

Right, I can’t type anymore… this floor is so uncomfortable. Plus the pizza should be here soon, so I’ll try and write up Saturdays events tomorrow, along with a report on the first day of school!
Ja Ne!

Hmmm… Justin never filled in Monday, and we are back home now But hey, I will try and write the rest so we don’t forget what happened. Excuse me if i miss a bit, but it was 3 (now 4!) weeks ago!

Right, Monday the 12th was our big trip to Ueno, the supposedly largest shoe shopping district in Tokyo. As you can imagine, J was pretty excited about this as all he had been going on about all holiday was how great the shoes are and how he was going to buy so many.

We got there quite early (I believe I was awoken at 7:45 or something) and the day was really nice and sunny. Stepping out the station and all looked really nice. Flip, memory very bad… I think there was a big hill just behind the shops opposite the station, and some large (but clean) skyscraper buildings leading down the highstreet.

After finding a bank that would change sterling (most seem to only take US Dollar) we were ready to hit the market, or at least J was, i was happy to go back to sleep… hahah… This basically began J’s most dissapointing day…

You won’t believe how many shoe places there were, with every possible shoe you can imagine. Aparently there were all these great styles you dont get in the uk… I dont know about that as shoes don’t really bother me, but J was very happy…. until it came to trying to buy any.

Yes dear friends, the old ’shoe size’ problem soon cropped up. No matter where we went, no one seemed to sell shoes larger than a size 9 (perhaps a 9.5) - and with Justin being an 11, this was not good news. So desperate was J to get some, he was talking about just wearing them and dealing with the pain!?!?! Crazy!

Special mention should be made to the guy with the suitcase selling the (fake?) LV wallets, we’re not sure of the price, but I reckon it wasn’t as high as the £200 the real LV shop wanted around the corner, I know which one i would have bought

Not sure what time we got back to Yoyogi, but we were going to meet Seiko in Shibuya for her to take us to a traditional restaurant, the Lockup.

I suppose we should have guessed from the name it wasn’t going to be normal, and the haunted house entrance kinda made a few things seem odd, even when the waitress handcuffed J to lead us to our table, I still didn’t twig… LOL… we were led to a jail cell (complete with iron bars and everything) where we had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor nice one! You were then served by jailers or fellow inmates, lol. It was actually really nice, and the food was really good (though J didn’t approve, not sure why, it was japanese and was fish). We stayed too late to have pudding (it shut at 12) but was still great all the same.

Afterwards, trying to find something to do let us to the Starbucks (the one that overlooks the ‘famous’ crossing) we were sat for a bit drinking my frozen vanilla shake and mucking about with the blinds. We were then pretty undecided on what we should do, so we caught a cab back to Yoyogi, to sleep early ready for the next day….

Tuesday the 13th -

Pretty sure that never happened, I’m looking at the photos for reference. Seems we just went later on to Shijuku, where we did go and explore a bit, found all the dodgy pr0n shops and found a real shanty town style supermarket Were gonna go to a strip show (£25 for 3 hours) but didn’t bother… went on the arcades instead.. .lol.. i do know we had to be home early though as Seiko was going to take us out.

Wednesday the 14th -

We were up at a reasonable hour however on the run to meet Seiko at Harajuku station, we managed to become seperated, so were late as usual (Actually, i was still on time, i found a shortcut, but poor mr J went back looking for me… lol) where Seiko took us to 4Lab one of the best Tattoo parlours in Tokyo. Why I hear you ask? Well, ever since I had been thinking of Japan, I had decided I wanted a Kanji (japanese characters) tat of the year of the monkey. (which was actually why i started back at the gym, to try and build my uppers arms up!! it also HAD to be done in Japan btw, otherwise i didn’t want it) I know a lot of people dont think Kanji on your arm is so cool anymore, but i dont care, i wanted it cause i like it … simple However, after spending some time in Japan and developing such a love for the place, i decided ‘Monkey’ didn’t really symbolise anything ’special’ to me and that i wanted something that would always make me remember Japan, for this reason, I changed my mind to ‘Never Forget’ (which translated directly into Kanji as ‘Forever’). The artist loaded it up on his computer and printed out some samples which i held on my arm to see if it looked ok… they did so after getting the price (£60) we asked when we could book for… the artist said ‘now’ would be ok (i was expecting a wait) and did i want to do it………. bit nervous now, but said ‘yeah’ … eek!

The artist took the print out, then traced it onto some (best example i can give) carbon paper. He then cleaned my arm, put on some gunky stuff and applied the transfer. I now had a purple outline of the design i was about to get put on me, this was the last chance to change my mind… lets do it!

I was asked to lay back on a little bed/table like thing, get comfy, then he began… Now i had been expecting pain (as thats all you ever hear about) - but to my suprise, there was none! More a scratching sensation, cool! So i’m laying there .. and after 5 minutes “hmm… wow! this is gonna be there forever (ironic really)… hmm…” then after about 10 minutes “god, i really hope i like kanji symbols forever…” haha… after 20 minutes i was just bored, so started to drift off to sleep… then finally after about 45 minutes it was over..

Getting up and looking in the mirror, there was now an addition to my body…. and it looked great However i couldn’t keep it out in the open (as the guy explained, its basically an open wound! yuk) so it had to be covered in antisceptic, then wrapped in clingfilm, before being covered in tape…!

No matter what anyone says, about how i might get fed up of it, or regret it, i know this wont be true. I’ve got it because it means a lot to me, and always will… how can i ever regret that???

After that was finished, we were ready to catch the train to the Tokyo Dome where we were going to watch the Giants vs the Dragons in a first for me… Baseball!! We had been pretty excited about this, and made sure we bought some baseball tops to wear to the game. Seiko also bought some mini bats to hit, which i adopted part way through…

However, realistically, baseball has to be the most boring sport in the world!!! No one seems to be able to hit it, whether that means the pitchers are really good or the batters are crap, i just dont know. But to watch a game for almost 4 hours which the score only being 4-3 was quite a, whats the word, not sure… but you get my drift!!! Was worth it to say we’ve been though and it did only cost £8.
Afterwards, we went across the road to what can only be described as an outdoor mall/theme park. There were all shops and restaurants around the enge of a pond thing, with a log flume that falls directly into it, and overhead a massive rollercoaster with a huge ferris wheel! Even better, there was a ‘Moomin Cafe’ which I got quite a few photos of, make mum happy

We didn’t eat here though, and went to a ‘Jonathans’ Family Restaurant (pretty much the same as Denny’s) and Seikos favourite. The desert menu was too good and really hard to pick something, i think it did a good job though

Thursday the 15th - Asakusa

Seiko had again planned to take us out today, this time to visit Asakusa, where there was a massive market. Supposed to meet Seiko at Yoyogi station at 3, but J swore blind it was 2. This meant i had woken up late (i was planning for 3) so had to go pick her up instead of doing my washing. Went to station, waited half an hour then finally rang her. She was indeed meeting at 3, so i had to run back home to start doing my clothes. They didn’t finish in time, so J went and picked her up at 3 (hmm, or 3:30), we finally got out the house at 4:30!!!

Asakusa is a mix of old and new, it had a large temple and massive market which sold loads of great and wonderful things. Unfortunately I had *NO* money so couldn’t buy anything. Looking back, this was a fatal error on my behalf, as try as i might, i couldn’t find that stuff anywhere else

From the walk from the station to the market, we kept getting mobbed by guys with carts offering to run us ‘downtown’ for ‘great discount’ and ‘amazing experience’, this was actually really funny as that was all they would shout… much better would have been ‘downtown, monster, dragons, very cheap’ which kept us amused for ages.

Pushing through all this and walking to the end of the market brought us to a massive temple with many shrines. One of these things had a ‘luck stick’, where you shake a vase type thing to reveal a stick with a symbol on it. You match this up with the draws in this building and it tells you your fortune.

The first one I got was ‘Worst Luck’ stick, which basically meant everything in my life would go wrong. I was pretty upset about this and took another one… suprise suprise this one (UPDATE LINK) came up… which made me feel a lot better

After spending a good few hours in the market it was time for food, and time for justin to get his wish of a sushi bar. One was nearby and aparently very well priced… its crazy, just a massive conveyor belt that snakes around the restaurant with a load of different coloured dishes on it. Each colour is a different price, from 50p or so up to £5. YOu just sit at your table and pick off the plates that you want to eat!

Justin was in heaven (as you can see from the amount of plates he stacks up), I however wasn’t quite so happy as it was all fish My problem was soon solved when a plate of strawberries and a pineapple came around… hahaha… Don’t worry, i did try some fish too Prawns, Friend Squid and some batter prawns (though still with their shells on so they were quite crunchy!!)

After this, we headed to the 100yen store (yes I kid you not, 50p!!) where you wouldn’t believe what you could get for your money! I should have taken more photos inside, but some of the stuff back here would have cost a couple of quid!

We had to be back at Yoyogi station by about 10pm to meet chiakiy, so back we went. We had made (well Justin had, well done son!) a decision to not go out tonite (Cause everyone was so tired) so we bought a load of drink and went for an on the roof drinking session. We even made ourselves a lot more comfortable by dragging a few matresses out which was good for about 2 hours or so, when everyone was really tired and it was freezing cold… lol… Seiko as usual got completely plastered, and rather unfortunately managed to kick my camera across the roof giving a good dose of scratches and causing the memory card to fail (but dont worry, i wasn’t gonna let that stay like that!) - even funnier was trying to get to sleep with her rolling around drunkenly moaning… hahahahaha

Friday the 16th -

Justin and Seiko got up early to go (you guessed it) shopping leaving me and Chiakiy to lie in for a bit. We got up a bit later on, rang Sakura House to change the checkout time from 12 till 4, and went around the shops in Harajuku, before meeting up with Justin and Seiko (and her sister) at the station a bit later on. I still didn#t have any money, so we had to go to Shinjuku first to visit the only place that could change money after 4pm. We then went to the local Sofmap store to change my camera but were told it had to be done in the original store!! grrrr.

Me and Chiakiy then headed off to Akihabara planning to meet Justin and Seiko there later on.

Taking the camera back seemed to be a bit of a chore, as you can’t do it in store, you need to go to a ’service centre’ first where they check something actually is wrong with the items. Was a bit worried about this as the camerea error was intermitant and it was really the scratches i wanted sorted. However everything went without a hitch, even having the woman run down the road to the local Sofmap (And back) to get me my new camera,… HURRAH!

Can’t remember if I mentioned the no smoking policy, well if not, here it is again - Akihabara is a no smoking in the street district. To allow for the addicts (lol), they have built a ’smoking room’ which is basically like a shop with just bar style chairs where you go to smoke!!! hahahahah… pathetic

We had planned this night to go to Club Atom (in Shibuya) for a trance night, 3 floors of hard house and trance, so i was pretty excited. Firstly though, we had to eat and figured we should go to a traditional Japanese restuarant. We picked a IZAKAYA which is basically a bar/restaurant open until about 5am where business people go after work purely for the purpose of getting drunk! It was really nice inside and very traditional looking (no shoes allowed, slippers provided!) and after putting our shoes inside a locker, we were let to out little table/compartment type thing.

The menu had all manners of interesting sounding things on it (and some that looked really good, but when you got them translated suddenly you didn’t want them anymore!!!) so everyone picked a load of different things (to my embaressment i must admit i ordered a pizza!!) - with the starter being raw squid (See photo), its unclear quite how much J didn’t like it, but he tried his best to look manly. Me and Chiakiy thought better of this and let Seiko (Who again didn’t look so happy about it) finish it off

I’ll tell you what is great though, COW TONGUE. Yes my dear friends, roasted cow tongue on a stick is just soooo nice. Its like a really nice kebab, but without being all greasy and yuck! I highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity of trying it. Also another weird dish… chicken bone. Yes, yup, uh-huh, thats right, the bit we throw away, the japanese boil until soft(ish) and then eat. The most pointless dish ever (though I guess it saves them quite a bit of money).

Ater leaving, it was a quick hop across the road and onto the JR for the 60p ride to Shibuya Seiko had a rough idea of where it was, so we followed her (Forever!!) up the hill to find Atom. Decided to stop on the way at the local Lawsons to get some drink (might as well get a bit merry first) where you can buy Smirnoff Ices for just 90p (NOT FAIR!!) so we found a little standing area where we were able to get the drinks down. (well tried, as they were very fizzy and Justin remember can’t burp… oddball! ;))

The road to Atom was off the main road and down the hill a bit, which led us through the ‘love hotel’ district of Shibuya. What is a love hotel? Let me explain. In Japan the houses are usually very small, with thin walls (or even sharing bedrooms) so its quite difficult for couples to get any ‘quality time’ if they live with their families. For this reason, the love hotels were built. Charging anything from about £15 up to £70/80 (i kid you not!) you can hire a room for 3 hours or so (in Tokyo you are limited to 3, or book whole night, other cities you can pay per hour as you wish)… You generally go in and there are pictures of all the rooms with buttons next to them, pick a room you want, press the button and pay the person behind reception (the button turns off the light to show room is no longer available), you then have your time to ‘get it on’ … due to the nature of the places, the rooms are usually very, very nice, and contain *everything* you need (this includes a sound system with multi channel music, lighting for every possible light controlled with dj mixer style faders and multiple heat control switches… cool!

What was quite amusing is they are all in the large club district… no prizes for guessing why.. when the clubs shut, suddenly the hotels fill…….

Anyway, we walked up and down this street until we finally found Atom (it was about 1am) we went to go in, but OH NO! We told it *closed* at 1… what is it with the japanese??? all the decent music clubs shut early…. not fair not fair… Justin was up for going to Club Asia next door, but i was determined to have some trance in Japan (my dream for godsake) and refused to budge on the issue.

Seiko claimed to know somewhere in (suprise, suprise) Roppongi that played trance, so we jumped in the £12 cab to get there… i sense the mood in the cab wasnt the greatest, as everyone was worried this was going to muck up again…

Got to the club, all ready to go in, read the sign on the wall…. Hip Hop Night?!?! NOOOOOOO… wtf was this… Seiko felt pretty bad, Justin seemed just pissed off, and i could see my dream just slipping away. To try and rectify though Seiko said she would go to an internet cafe around the corner somewhere to find out where we could go. Leaving me, J and Chiakiy to sit around (for quite a long time, J was getting quite annoyed :)) - however she finally returned claiming she had found somewhere, it did play all types of music but was the biggest club in Roppongi (though everyone seemed to claim that), its name, Club Vanilla… so we set off on the short walk to find it…

5 minutes down the road, down a little backstreet and finally, there it was. From the outside, it looked quite upmarket, had its own car park next door, and a really nice entrance hall. We had a problem though, males had to be 23 to get in… goddamit! However, we played it cool, and made it inside (”yatta!”) - £15 but you did get two free drink vouchers (shame we had forgotten to take our own) …. so we went in….

Ok, now we understood why this place had a good reputation… it was, not amazing (wrong word), but definately something special. It was like a really trendy place, but without the unconfortableness that usually comes with that style of joint. Lit with dim red lighting, all the furniture and walls where white and it just looked… WOW!

Downstairs as we entered we were greeted with the sound of R&B (woo bloody hoo :() and the lockers to put our coats in (not sure if i’ve talked about them before, but lockers are all the rage here… so much better than a cloakroom…) - the r&b room had white sofas all around the edge, with some tables and chairs dotted around, with the dancefloor in the middle and the bar and dj booths in the far end. Everyone seemed to be having a really good time, and the vibe was just wonderful…

A set of stairs led up to the next floor, so we decided to explore the next level. This brought us up to a smaller room, with a little bar and people doing massage and the like (i think, memory hazy) and also the toilets… it seemed like the ‘chill out’ room as people where standing around talking…

There were some more steps (5 or so) which led up to the next level and a corridoor which also had bar height tables and chairs on it, and the sound of house music coming from the far end. Down here we walked until we came into the main dancefloor. It was alot bigger than downstairs, the main floor being in front of us, with poddiums and higher levels dotterd around with various females dancing about, then behind that was a fake wall which had the bar behind that (i guess to block some of the sound so the bar guys could hear what you were ordering!). To the left of the dancefloor you had the seating area, huge it spaned almost the same size again and just had loads of high seats with loads of people sitting around chatting. At the back of this was the bar area. I’d like to point out again that this was all really nice looking, with the plants adding a really nice ambience to it all.

We all sat down on one of the chairs nearest the floor and went to get some drinks. The music was plodding along house, which no one seemed to like that much, but as we were all together, we decided to stay for a bit longer. Then something started to happen… as i listened, each song ’seemed’ to get a bit harder… then next one would drop back, but next would go one step forwards.. i commented to justin ‘it seems to be getting harder’, which he grinned but said wasn’t going to happen…

then finally, after a good 20 minutes of teasing… it happened… the dj started to play some decent music!!! my dream was being lived!! i ran out onto the dance floor and started to go for it! Justin and Seiko couldn’t stand it, so left for downstairs, but i persuaded Chiakiy to stay up with me and tried to get her into the music… even the introduction of some more crazy clubbers didn’t help, with her looking totally lost - yup, she left also to go downstairs

I used this time to get another drink, so headed up to the bar, gave my drink token and waiting for my drink. The barman was a bit distracted and giving me my drink, put the bar tokens he had in his hand down on the bar…. thank you very much! yatta!

Back on the dancefloor on my own was OK, but wasn’t quite as good as it could have been, so noticing some mad girls on the stage, decided it would be more fun to go dance with them… Lol, they were so drunk, but loads of fun, shouting ‘Agay (Aki?)’ repeatedly in time with the song. I don’t know what it meant, but it was fun, so i just joined in.. haha.. met up with a crazy (but cool looking) japanese guy (in the photos with the sunglasses) so we partied on down together - until i got up on the stage with the girls, then got dragged off by the bouncers… aparently only girls allowed up… grrr… had to leave, so went back down the corridoor where i bumped into Seiko and Justin who were heading back downstairs…

Chiakiy was happy to see me, but the music was, argh! nasty… however i did my best to try and dance, and must admit after getting used to the crapness of it all (hahaha) did have quite a good time, helped along by the very nice japanese guy who was giving us his (*very* strong) drink - too much though, and we had to sit down… lol…

Blimey, this is a long night report, but theres more!!! I couldn’t deal with much more r&b and seeing as there was only an hour or so left, i left the crew to go back upstairs to the dance room, where i hooked up with my new jap pals making sure not to jump on the stage again (though ironically, the girl got so pissed, she was carried off by the bouncer in a fireman style carry outside, only to escape and run back in!!! :))

A mention has to be made to my final drink, half an hour before the end, and realising i had a ticket left, i went up to order a vodka and orange. Now i dont really drink much here in the UK, so i dont know if its the same, but when he was pouring it, he does both liquids at the same time, then stops the vodka after glass about half full to fill rest with orange juice… except he didn’t he stopped both, looked at me, said ‘ah fuck it’ - then filled the remaining half glass with vodka!!?!? nice one!!!

That was what it needed to tip me past tipsy onto all out pissed, hurrah! I hit the dancefloor with gusto and had the best hour of the night - sadly it ended, and i had to say goodbye to my new friends (i can’t remember the names, sorry!) and go find the rest of TeamTokyo who were waiting downstairs by the lockers, ready to begin our final saturday …. the fish market…

Saturday the 17th -

As knackered as we were, Justin was determined to see the fish market, and to be honest, i did think it would be kinda stupid to miss it as it was such a big attraction. Luckily, the train went straight there from Roppongi, so it was just a case of waiting at the subway station before the lovely clean train arrived!!!

Getting out at the other end, the fish market was easy to find, a massive ‘warehouse’ style place, surrounded by a huge car park, filled with lorries, and guys driving around on the most manipulative fish carrying truck things (the driver and the engine are mounted at the front in a full 360 turning circle part, allowing change of direction and monouverability second to none… also means you have to look out as they fly around *everywhere*!)

After just making it across the carpark with our lives (and dignity) we entered the main warehouse where all the selling took place. It was so busy and full, with just enough room for one of the trucks to drive down a path and little else. Everywhere were boxes and boxes off fish, many of them still alive and flicking water at anyone who walked past… Justin was off with his camera again, photoing anything and everything…

We stopped by one guy who was having particular trouble with a fish, he was holding it up with it flapping away, so he punched it! Then, not content with giving it a black eye (:)) he proceeded to stick a metal hook down into its body via its mouth and pull out its insides!!!?! yikes!

Now for the main plan, Mr J wanted to eat here, so we headed off to find a fish bar (still in the market complex) where you could actually be served the fresh fish from the market. For this reason, it was quite expensive, and as I was really tired, i declined the offer, instead sleeping on the bar for a few precious minutes Everyone else tucked into their food, with justin thoroughly enjoying his ‘fish brains’…. until he found out what they were lol….

By now, everyone was really tired, and seeing as we had to be up quite early, decided it was time to go home… finding the station was a mission and a half though, and i was now hungry, so Chiakiy and I hopped into the nearest Lawson to get some Spaghetti Bolognese (no, really!) - however on coming out, Justin and Seiko had disappeared - we spent the next 30 minutes looking for them, but unfortunately to no avail… then finally caught the train home (the station was a mission to find too, we were wrecked and really just wanted to be back in bed), making it back home at maybe 8:30 (darnit! really can’t remember that…), but at least we were back! yatta! now we could sleep until about 2 or so, ready to clear our room by 4 ….

KNOCK KNOCK!

Bleugh… sleepy… sleep sleep…

KNOCK KNOCK!

Wtf?!? Who’s knocking on our door, its only 12… fuck off!

KNOCK KNOCK - scratching …. door opens, people come in, apologise and walk out!?!?

Neither Justin or myself were paying any attention (true!) so didn’t know what was going on, but Chiakiy who did see them said it was the same Korean people who had looked at the room before…

Confused… I’ll say… when suddenly - KNOCK KNOCK! “Phone for you, its Sakura House” - ah goddamit, so i got up and went upstairs to see what they wanted…

“Sorry to bother you, and I know you were moving out at 4, but can you do it sooner instead??!?” - was very annoyed, as the whole point of the later check out was so we could sleep in! Not for them to call us and wake us up anyway!!! Went back downstairs and explained it all, can’t remember if we went back to sleep, (too long ago.. sorry!) - however when we did start to pack, we realised maybe we hadn’t given ourselves long enough!! whoops!

The guy from Sakura house also turned up early (we were worried we would get in trouble for Chiakiy staying over, but he seemed cool / didn’t know / let us off whatever!) and helped us out a bit… We even got out of washing the bed sheets and hoovering as there wasn’t time result!! What we were left with the problem of though was trying to quickly get all of our stuff into our suitcases… not so much a problem for me as i had bought very little, however Mr J had, well lets just say… TONNEESSS!!! After putting everything in his case, it was at least 4 times as high as it should have been lol… serv him right for having too much money to buy things…

We had been given our deposit money back now, and although we felt bad, Chiakiy and me left for Harajuku for Kiddieland, leaving Mr J with a very puzzled expression on his face as to how he was going to pack everything …

Me and Chiakiy spent a happy afternoon (though perhaps a bit stressful) trying to find gifts for everyone (which was a lot harder than it seemed) and then realising that everything i wanted to get was in Asakusa… dilema… was there time to go there… unfortunately no, but i hoped that Shibuya might have everything.. we were to go there when we met up with Justin (about 20 mins or so…)

Except time dragged on, and on… we were waiting at Harajuku station, but Mr J had gone AWOL in kiddieland again… Seiko was telling us “he’s buying everything!!”, which was mad seeing the state of his suitcase to start with… however, we got some food and we sat on a wall, so not too miffed… (too tired to worry too much!)

When he finally turned up with a billion or so more bags, we just kept quiet …

So it was now off to Shibuya to look for some lucky cats for presents and anything else that might be needed. I’m not too sure of the details now, but I think at this point we split up, Justin to buy his records and myself to find lucky cats.

Chiakiy and I did however find the greatest food stand in the world (just outside the station also! unless you count the cream puff shop also at shibuya station, but thats more a shop :)) - the Grilled Cow Tongue on a Stick Stand… £2 per skewer, but worth every penny (or Yen :)), in a special sauce and tasting absolutely perfect… they were wonderful, mmm….

Anyway, I digress… So we were off to the Penguin Supermarket (* ASK CHIAKIY NAME *) to find the lucky cats… except you can’t get them… heck.. nor did they have anything else worth buying for presents… this was pretty awful for me as I had put a lot of faith in the good old penguin… alas…

Met up with TT at the station, not quite happy everything was complete… “PORN!” - nuts, had forgotten Haroons present… it was either disappoint a friend, or make the effort… Never to dissapoint, we left the others at Yoyogi station and stayed on the train to Shinjuku (me + C) to find the perfect gift….

Now this was funny… if you imagine again the shops mentioned before, but this time really busy, me taking a very embarrassed girl into them, asking her to translate and point things out… hahaha… especially funny was when we went to the ‘underground’ shops, full of businessmen and *very* hardcore porn, for them all to look and stare at Chiakiy as she walked around (covering her eyes for most of the time!! lol)

After about 30 minutes, finally found something (just about) worthy as a gift (it seems all the Japanese Gals that do HC are quite minging, the nice ones stick to the SC stuff… ah well…) , so that was it… back to the apartment to get ready for clubbing at ‘Womb’.

However after returning, it was apparent we weren’t going clubbing that night as Mr J was still trying to pack his case!! Lol… repacked my case with everything we had bought into it, so all was perfect ready for the flight. It weighed in perfectly, which was good, but also rather upsetting, as there was so much i had wanted to buy, but just cou;dnt bring back due to the weight… ah well, Chiakiy said she would send what was needed, or i could get the rest next year… (a plan!)

Not wanting to spend the whole night in, me + C left to go back to Shibuya… long story, lots of walking, get some money out at Citibank (god bless you!) ……

We ended off with some food at the really nice curry house, Justin me and Seiko had gone to before, staying there until the trains started and we could make the journey back to Yoyogi. We had wanted to stay out longer, but Mr J was very defiant that we get to the airport early, so go back we did….

Sunday the 18th -

Got back to our apartment (although I guess you can’t call it ours anymore!! :() at around 6 to find Mr J still trying to pack his case! Aparently it had been going on all night and required lots of throwing away of clothes. I wont go into too much, as i think J is writng about it, but you can see from the photos the fun that was had trying to fit everything in. I had quick shower (very quick, as there wasn’t much time, so no soap or the like, just a quick wash) and i was (very proud of myself also) ready on time… yatta!

Needless to say, when we actually got around to leaving, we were late… lol, this was a bit worrying as we wanted to get the bulkhead seats on the plane (after seeing the legroom on the way out, there was no way we were going to sit in a normal seat!!!) so we now had to rush. This was fine until we went to leave the building, or more to the point, Justin tried to lift his suitcase With all the additional items, it certainly wasn’t light, and slowed us down a heck of a lot more.

This was the only point when i was glad i hadn’t bought loads of stuff, as it meant i had a relatively light case to carry, or wheel to use the words correctly…. the trip to Yoyogi was pretty uneventful, and we managed to buy our tickets and get on the train without a problem hahaha… Nippori station was a bit of a different story, as there were a whole lot of steps and 2 heavy suitcases, but after taking a few deep breathes we managed to get up them, where we had to buy the tickets for the remaining part of the journey to Narita.

Here Chiakiy and Seiko were going to leave us, but we couldn’t have that, so a bit of gentle persuation and they joined us on our last train journey of Japan…. (well for this year at least)

As when we had arrived, we had come straight out into arrivals, we hadn’t really seen much of the airport before, so this was a new ‘adventure’ in itself. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time, so it was more a rush through, however one thing that should be mentioned are the escalators.

Now in england, if you want to take your baggage trolley up a floor, how do you do it… a lift (Elevator ;)) right…. well, a major flaw with that is time and you can only get a few people in it at once.. In japan (being the greatest country in the world and all), they’ve got a much better solution. Why not adapt the trolleys so they can go on the escalators?? Ingenious, they have a pivotted set of wheels (Which lock) so you just wheel it on, the front lifts up, then takes the back wheels on a few stairs down… AMAZING but such a simple idea..

Now was check in. Entering the main checkin hall we were greeted with hundreds of people waiting, Great! we thought, however luck was on our side as the desk for Alitalia had only just opened and there was pretty much no queue, I went through the baggage checks no problem, but suddenly… WAIT…

The canister of ‘Gun Power’ that Ming had requested Justin brought back (that he assured him would be ok) had flagged up on the X-Ray and J was told he would have to open his suitcase and take it out… now, baring in mind how long he had taken to get it shut, this was going to be funny….. 10 minutes later, and after fruitless arguements, we weren’t allowed to take it on, but could check in

This went without a hitch, and *BONUS* we still got our bulkhead seats! Yatta!

Then began the painful task of saying goodbye, it was now that realisation kicked in that we were going home. I’m not sure about J, but I really wanted to stay, there was so much we had missed and not done, 3 weeks just wasn’t long enough! Alas, we had a plane to catch, and we needed to get going…. a lot of hugs and goodbyes later, we were finally through security, wondering what all the ‘time delay’ fuss was as had a good 20 minutes to spare (note: the stamp on our ticket made it very clear the gate would *CLOSE* in 20 minutes) - we headed down the stairs, to walk into the largest queue we had seen all day. Apparently we had just been through security, now we had hit immigration?!?! fuck fuck fuck, this was worrying as although it was moving, it wasn’t moving very fast…. luckily, we made it through then made the dash for the plane, getting there with minutes to spare (ok, maybe not, but it sounds a lot more dramatic ;))

Our return seats weren’t like before as in right next to the door, but were the last row before business class started. It meant we didn’t have quite as much leg room (and didn’t have our ‘walk’ area) but was still a lot better than all the other suckers on the plane, as we could stretch our legs out and rest them on the wall in front if we wanted. The plan here was to try and beat jetlag, we’d stayed up all night before. Go to sleep on the plane for about 5/6 hours, then stay awake until we got home to go sleep again… and guess what… we did it! 1 point to us

Worth a mention are the awful air stewardess’s (well maybe they’re not awful, but their response time was) - I didn’t have any headphones, so asked for some… none came… i put on the ‘assistance light’ - 30 minutes later, still no headphones so i fell asleep. 5 hours later, i wake up and *still* no headphones. So call again, they say ok… then forget, finally about 45 minutes later i received my headphones… grrr…

Of course, being as stupid as we are, we had once again forgotten to change any euros for Malpensa airport (Doh!) but this wasn’t too bad as we were only there for 45 minutes this time - greeted with torrential rain… justin commented this was probably what england would be like, i was a bit more optimistic, but it was a far cry from the hot sun of japan….

And indeed, arriving back in England was bleak… a real come down from a great holiday, J was happy to be back, I however would have loved to stay a bit longer, didn’t really get done all the things i wanted to (Especially the mountain with the monkeys!), the massive rollercoasters and to actually go to the sea! (back in PC world, I had a photo on my desk showing a beautiful beach… i want to find it one day….)

This holiday has really been a life changing experience for me, not only has it let me get to know Justin a lot better (and i hope we are better friends because of it, despite all our argueing… lol) it has made me realise how happy it is possible for me to be. I love Japan and everything it symbolises, its such an interesting, fascinating place - the only downside being the lack of decent music clubs (although I’m told frantic do a night out there, just have to find it) and the food (noodle bar food, the rest is ok :)) and all the arcades, just cool! (if you live there, i’m sure there’s a part of you that never grows up…)

We made some good friends, some of whom will be returning to england in the summer, so we can meet up again and some who we will only see if we return, which i will do next year, i just can’t stay away from the place

So thanks Justin for the great idea, cheers for being a good friend and hope to see you around soon!

YATTA!