Shibuya

Last night, after getting lost in Komagome for an hour or so and doing a lot of walking, I went out in Shibuya with this kid Todd I met in the States. He's studying at the University of Tokyo also, but is working on a different campus than I am. We met up at Shibuya station and then went to meet some of his colleagues from the lab and his professor from the University of Washington.

The restaurant was in the lower level of a building right in Shibuya. I got to walk through the big intersection called Shibuya crossing that they drift through in Tokyo Drift.

So at the restaurant, we had to remove our shoes of course and sat at this table that at first I though you sort of crouched at, but then realized that there was a space under table to put your feet down into. I sat next to a Turkish guy named Cidi (not sure how to spell it but it sounds like chid eye). He was a PhD student and spoke completely fluent Japanese. There were also a few other students there, two of whom had to leave to go home since they were only in Tokyo for the day. The others were Daisuke and Christoph. Daisuke was great. We talked a bit about baseball and a lot of other things. Christoph, who is half Japanese, is also French or lived in France. So when he spoke English it was with a fairly heavy French accent. It was sort of funny to listen to, but not unlike my friend Nico, who is Bavarian but speaks English with an Irish accent.

So we sat there for 3 hours or so and ate and drank. Cidi kept ordering more food and then making Todd and I try it. I passed on the plate of chicken parts, which included heart and livers. I did eat a bunch of fish and some other stuff. At one point, I ate some form of tentacle and a ring of some sort, it seemed like cartilage. I also ate some chicken skin later. Todd and I both got complimented on our chop stick usage, which apparently was pretty proficient.

The waiter was pretty funny. He kept using an exaggerated English accent in such a way that it was hard to tell if he was making fun of himself or the terrible Engrish that many Japanese speak.

I also encountered my first run in with bathrooms marked only in Japanese. As it turns out, I picked the women's room. It wasn't a big deal, at least it wasn't to me, because it was just a single toilet and sink with a lockable door. There was a woman waiting to use it after me when I went out though. I also hadn't bothered to put my shoes on to go to the bathroom, because I wasn't quite sure where they had ended up. I realize now that not putting my shoes on completely defeated the purpose of taking them off, namely, to keep the area by the table clean from debris. On my next trip to the bathroom, I fared much better, both using shoes and going to the men's room.

We were more or less kicked out of our table as soon as our reservation was up, because in Japan when you reserve a table for a certain period of time, you have that table for just that amount of time. There may have been people waiting to get in and sit there, but we didn't really see any.

So we left, with Cidi leading the way. He took us straight in to this fancy looking building that seemed more like a hotel than what it really was, a karaoke place. Cidi gets us our spot, which as it turns out is on the 9th floor of the building. In Japan karaoke isn't like in the US, you get your own room and waiter. You get to sing in private and can pick up a phone to call the waiter or to ask for more time, which Daisuke kept doing despite the fact that we were all hoarse from singing. We were there for about 2 hours, during which time, I'm trying to mind the time, since trains back to Komagome stop running around 12:30 or so.

We sang a ton of cliche American hits. As soon as I walked into the room, I was forced to sing Bon Jovi's "It's My Life". Many more followed and since Todd and I were American and knew the words to most of the songs, we were tasked with most of the singing. We were also given two tambourines and some maracas to keep the beat with. Todd's professor, Karl, is from Germany, so I looked through the book and found 99 Luftballoons by Nena. So we put that on and sang that in German. He later put on a Scorpions song, but I think he was the only one who knew the words.

The night continued on in basically the same way. Songs kept coming on that I knew the words and melody to so I kept singing. I learned that whoever programs karaoke has most likely never heard the actual songs, because they scroll the words with really odd cadences. Christoph's girlfriend joined us later in the night. And with her there, more songs were sung in Japanese. Poupee de Cir, Poupee de Son came on at Christoph's request and despite my complete ignorance of French, I sang that too because I had heard it many times performed by Wizo as a cover.

Our time ran out and we finally left around 1 am or so. Having missed my train, I was now stranded in Shibuya and would not get to spend my first night in my apartment, actually in my apartment. I was having such a good time at the point that it didn't matter. Todd was going to head back and sleep on campus in a "rest" room anyway and as long as no one else was there taking up the second bed, I was welcome to go sleep there as well. So with my sleeping arrangement taken care of, we got back to our Friday night in Shibuya.

Cidi decided it was time for some burgers and took us to McDonalds. I ordered a double cheeseburger and much to my chagrin it was not on the 100 yen menu. I didn't worry about it, but didn't make the same mistake again when Todd and I decided to go for seconds. We both stuck to the 100 yen menu and got ourselves a couple McPork sandwiches, which tasted like sausage patties from breakfast sandwiches.

Having sated our hunger, we then headed out to get one last beer for the night. This whole time Cidi is trying to convince Todd and I that it's not that late and that if we head to Roppongi we could just stay out all night and get the train when it started running again at 5 am. (Since I'll hopefully get to Roppongi eventually, I'll cover that later, suffice to say it's an area of Tokyo, not just one place). We decide that it's too much trouble to go all the way over there and stay with Cidi, Karl, Daisuke, Christoph and his girlfriend.

Cidi takes us to this random bar that he used to frequent and is greeted by a friend of his at the bar. On the way to the bar we passed by a few "love" hotels, where you can pay to stay for a "rest" or pay to stay. A "rest" is generally a few hours and apparently these hotels will basically given you any amenity you ask for and have rooms with jacuzzi tubs.

The only other patrons in the bar are two couples, who from our estimation were Australian (which they were). The Australian women decide they want to dance and manage to get Todd and Daisuke to dance as well. Their partners just sort of dance for a while as well, but eventually stop and end up talking to Karl and I. Karl and I had been discussing Germany. He is from a small town near Baden Baden, which is where my great-great grandfather was from.

Around 3 am, we head out from this bar to head back to campus. Karl's housing is near there, Cidi had left his bike there, Daisuke was going to sleep in his lab and Todd and I were hoping to find the "rest" room empty. On the walk there, Cidi points out where I'll have to head to get the train in the morning.

Todd and I get to campus and head to where he thinks the room is. It wasn't there. We found a meeting room, the female rest room and walked around in the dark for a while, before finally finding the empty rest room. It's not almost 4 am and the trains will begin again in an hour. We both just lay down and pass out, without much concern for when we'll be waking up.

I wake up and fumble for my glasses and my phone to discover that it's 6 am. I figure that I'd rather be sleeping in my better ventilated apartment, where I can shower and get some breakfast. I collect my things, tell Todd I'd see him later and head for the train. Getting to the train in the daylight was much easier than finding the rest room in the dark. On the way to the train I buy a bottle of water, since I wasn't quite recovered from last night's events. If I had known then how I'd feel on the train, I'd have gotten two bottles.

At the station, I have little trouble buying my ticket and getting on the right train (the Japanese public transportation system thus far as been great and easy to use). I take the train 2 stops to Shibuya, where I need to transfer to the Yamanote line to get back to Komagome. I buy my JR rail ticket and get on the train home. Now last night, I had estimated that the ride from Komagome to Shibuya would be about 20 minutes and it had been. The ride this morning was also only about 20 minutes, but it might as well have been an hour. It felt like it took forever. Midway through the trip, probably just after Shinjukyu, I ran out of water. At that point, getting home was the only thing on my mind. I just wanted to be home and feel the AC and lay down.

Since I'm here writing this entry, I suppose you can tell I made it home OK. I did discover that I'm fairly sure, that if I sleep on this mattress for the next 2 months, I'll come home a cripple. So far it seems worse than a pull out couch mattress.

As for going out in Shibuya, Todd and I at some point intend to make a full night of it and just stay out until the trains start running. If we head out later than 7 pm or so, it shouldn't be difficult to manage.

Now that I've lazed away the afternoon, I think it's about time to go get lost in Tokyo again. I may try to find the campus I'll be working at, but I'm not 100% sure I know which way to head.

If I get any pictures from last night, I'll be sure to post them.