The City That Never Sleeps

For our last Saturday night abroad we made sure to live it up as best we could. Because we had been to Roppongi the last two days, we decided it was time to give Shibuya a try. The night started out like most other nights...with a sushi dinner. I think my favorite kind of sushi is now toro, which is fatty tuna. Sounds gross, tastes great.

In Shibuya we went to an English pub called hub. I liked hub a lot, but I would say the only similarities between an English pup and hub, is that the both serve beer. But the drinks were cheap, and we met these three Japanese guys, who really liked practicing their English with us. The bought some beer, so we of course let them practice all they wanted. One in particular named Shu was loving hanging out with us and he asked if he could come out and translate for us. And since no one in Japan speaks much English we gladly accepted his invitation. Jed said he read about a little lounge that played good music, so we headed to a place called Womb.

As soon as we got to Womb we all realized this was not some little lounge, this was the most popular club in Tokyo. It cost 4000Y to get in, but went in we did. We met some Brits in line, and they told us there was some super famous DJ playing tonight, so we were in for a treat. It ended up being a really great night! The DJ was named Magda, and she played nothing but hard trance, and house, which was a welcome break to all the hip-hop we've been hearing. We had fun dancing the night away, talked or attempted to talk to many Japanese girls, and drank a enough to make the night fly by. Around 4:40 we figured we had had enough, and got to see the sun come up for the third day in the row.

Needless to say it was not easy to wake up this morning. After hitting snooze plenty of times we made it up, got some breakfast, and headed to Harajuku for some people watching, especially to see the infamous "Harujuku girls". It was kind of neat, all these younger girls in the craziest costumes, most of the wore Gothic nurse outfits, or Victorian maid outfits. Besides the "Harajuku girls" there were also the "Rockabillies" which were basically Japanese guys dressed as greasers dancing to rock and roll. Yes kind of weird. I think Japanese culture is just too cute for words.

After Harajuku we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. For our last night aboard we got a traditional Japanese dinner, where you had to take your shoes off. It was a good dinner. I think its a safe bet to say we ate pretty well this trip.

Now were back at the hotel, packing, and getting ready for the 13 hours ride home tomorrow afternoon. Wrap up post to follow soon!

Bright Lights, Big City

After we got back to the hotel room, we decided to have a low key night, and save our energy (and money) for the weekend. So we walked around Shinjuku, enjoyed the neon lights, and called it a night.

We woke up the next morning at ten, and hit the ground running. We started off with a walking tour of Shinjuku, and saw some pretty cool architecture. We also found a foreign language bookstore and bought a Tokyo guide, which has come in handy all ready so it was a good buy. While in Shinjuku we went to the "golden gai" which is 4 small blocks full of bars, that only sit about 6-10 people each. I thought it was really cool.

After we had thoroughly explored Shinjuku we caught the Yamanote line, and headed to Harujuku! Harajuku has a way different vibe than Shinjuku and it surrounded by a beautiful park. We visited the Meji Shine, which was very ummmm large. After all the shrines, and temples we have seen on this trip, it really didn't stand out.

The park was well shaded with ancient Japanese cypress trees, and I am excited to go back there on Sunday to gawk at the Harujuku girls. From there we explored Harajuku street, which reminded me of St. Marks Street in NYC. Basically thousands of high schoolers all running to what they think are trendy shops. After a quick Bento lunch we made our way to the Watari-Um Museum of Contemporary Art. It ended up being an exhibition of one artists work, who I didn't like at all. Even Jed was disappointed, so we didn't stay for too long.

Went back to the hotel, showered, and went to dinner. We may or may not have eaten more sushi for dinner. From dinner we went to see Harry Potter! It was different seeing it with a Japanese audience, because they didn't laugh at the funny parts, but they got really scared at the "scary" parts. The girl next to Jed had to close her eyes for like 10 minutes. Which in itself is pretty funny. After the movie we head back to "Golden Gai" and decided not to drink there. They charge you at least 500Y just to sit down, and the drinks are really expensive.

So walking to the next bar we saw some fellow travelers, and we all went to get drinks together. The night got really fun from there, we drank, swamped our tales of traveling, and attempted to talk to Japanese girls. We met a few who spoke a little English, and we went with the to Roppongi for more drinks and dancing. I was wearing tevas, so I had to buy shoes before I could go in. Thankfully there was a dollar store next door, but although cheap they biggest size shoe they had was 3 sizes to small! Needless to say my dogs were barking by the end of the night. It was an awesome night, but we stayed out too late, and had to take a 30 dollar taxi home because the trains stop running. Which is kind of a good problem to have.