ben griffiths
an insight into the mind of a genius

Posts Tagged ‘shimokitazawa’

5 weeks of my life lost

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

I’ve been getting bugged to update this - and now I must be 5 weeks behind. Writing a complete run down will be impossible. So let’s just do a summary….

Week one - went to Roppongi (see slight update below)
Week two - went to Disneyland with Keiko
Week three - went to Osaka to see Haruka
Week four - took Keiko for her first trip to Roppongi

Below is a run down of week one.

Welcome to the weekly update :) Yes, another week has passed, and once again there are many things to say, been quite eventful (and expensive) the week just gone, but all in the name of fun - so no worries :)
First up, say hello to my new language exchange friend - Keiko, as per usual, her english is pretty good - but not so fantastic enough that I feel too shy to use Japanese. She does always reply in English though, so whilst I get to practise speaking, my listening isn’t really going to hot up too much.

We met up on Friday after work and went to an izakaya in Shimokitazawa, where basically we just talked and drank until about 12:30 when it was time for her last train (don’t get me started on the transport system again :D)

I got home at about 1:30am or so, and after doing a little bit of company work, went to bed. Only to be woken at about 4am by Takashi (Seiko’s guy from last week) calling. I wasn’t in the mood to answer (nor do I think I could have, he didn’t speak English) so ignored it. A few minutes later, it rang again, and then again and again….! Eventually I just turned it off - come the morning, I spoke to Seiko and he had indeed been ringing her too, then calling me when he couldn’t get through.

Nor does the story end there - throughout Saturday we combined received a total of 37 more calls!?! By now, Seiko had of course decided she definately didn’t want to see him again (duh!)

Dinner time arrived and we headed to Shibuya to grab a curry at the *good* Indian curry place (making sure we didn’t overstuff outselves as we had last christmas) before doing the usual of jumping into a taxi (yes, trains are no good for us anymore :D) and heading off to Roppongi.

Now I know every week, we post we are bored of doing the same old things over and over, and of course this weekend was no exception. So we actually decided to do something about it! Shock horror! Whilst looking up and down the street, a sudden inspiration came to me…. why not go to TGI Fridays, but just sit in the bar?? Of course, this would normally be an expensive night out, but wait!!! We are in Roppongi where the drinks cost more in the normal bars anyway…

So wait a minute, we can sit in a top quality bar, decent music, awesome cocktails AND yummy food - for CHEAPER than going to a a trashy r’bar….. just WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST YEAR?!?! haha…. it will therefore come as no suprise to you that a few minutes later, we were perched on some bar stools watching bar tenders juggle bottles, spin cocktail shakers and generally having a great time. :)
Of course, the night could not go perfectly - and there was a slightly dicey moment when Takashi appeared outside and sat down outside the window on his phone! Should he have turned his head, Seiko would probably have been in a little bit of trouble :D But after we stared the opposite way for a few minutes until he had finished his call - he eventually left :D
………. DOH!

It’s Wednesday…. woooo!

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006

Hello chums, thought I’d drop in an update as all i ever seem to do is just waste time otherwise.

Just to quickly update on the Sunday night staff party… it went like this :)
5pm or so: Woke up
7pm or so: Got ready
7:30pm: Started on the voda
8pm: One bottle of vodka, i head off to Shimokitazawa.

Arriving there though, i couldn’t reach anyone as all their phones reported “No signal” (except Jimmy’s which just rang and rang) - not quite sure what to do, i waited until about 10pm when finally Haruna called (she had got my message) to say it had been cancelled and she was in Shibuya with a friend :eek:
Nuts, ah well, I decided I might as well go and eat out at the “all you can eat” Indian place, so set off down the road. Passing Asso, I had a brief look inside and, lo and behold, there was Jimmy! I popped my head in through the window to ask what had happened, and why hadn’t he answered his phone.

“Oh that was you, sorry mate… i thought it was the credit card people, so I ignored it” - damn you, thanks a lot :p Could have saved me a long wait, anyway, he’s put my number in his phone book now - so this won’t happen again.

I tried to console myself for the failed weekend by stuffing as much food into my face as possible, but, whilst it was indeed very delicious - it didn’t beat going out to a club :(
So what else have I been up to? Well my main task of late which has taken pretty much all my time up, whilst being really nerdy, should benefit my website loads (fiatforum.com) - I’ve been working on SEOing it. Basically optimising it so it’s rated as high as possible in the search engines - my aim is that by the end of June, if you type “fiat” into Google, the FIAT Forum will come up in the first page! :eek: - here’s hoping :)
What else: Well, as I posted, I was fed up of relying on Seiko all the time for everything, so in a fit of madness (possibly) I sent out loads of random emails to people on the penpal site who seemed the kinda person I would get on with. The upshot of this is, I’m meeting up with a girl called Aya tomorrow in Shibuya.

I don’t actually have any information other than she is 19, likes all kinds of music (though doesn’t know what trance is) and has long hair…. a bit of a mystery meet then :)
I’ve arranged to meet her at 1, which gives me 3 hours or so to get to know her, and an excuse to leave if things aren’t going so well ;) lollage…

The weather has been very hit and miss recently, I was woken up this morning by a massive storm, with another one the other week (apparently an electrical storm as everything turned yellow :eek: - very bizarre) - but then blazing sunshine a few hours later (when I woke up again the second time ;))

AAHHHH! I’ve just seen the time, I better go to bed (or at least ring mum first) - otherwise I’ll never get up for 11:30 tomorrow morning!!!

Night!

Weekend, right?

Sunday, April 30th, 2006

Yes, it’s the weekend but i’m sitting here, home at 1:30am - why you ask?

Well, I was supposed to be out with Seiko tonite (as well as last night) - but she now sleeping in the frontroom. She’s been doing manic sleeping recently, like just 3 or 4 hours a day, and is wondering why she’s tired?!?

Tonite I’m a bit annoyed though, she had work this morning from 4am-midday, then was supposed to come home and sleep so we could go out tonite, but instead went out with some friends, coming back at 5pm, which of course come 8, there was no way she was awake enough….

I think I need to make an effort to start hanging out with some new people, as I can’t rely on her for everything. Shortest case, I only have 14 weekends left, I don’t need to be wasting them like this.

To comfort myself, I went to the supermarket and bought a box of Coco Pops :) (£3 though for a tiny box!) - and instead of wasting all the night, I thought I should finish writing up the events of last week….

Then, I reckon, I’ll slip back into rant mode and start grumbling again…

Anyway, where was I - ah yes, part three - the last week of Nesa and up to now…. hmmm… we probably did a few things during the week, but alas I can’t remember - I do know about the weekend though - so let me begin.

Oh no wait, i wanted to post this picture up…. taken on a packed train :)
[IMG=720]

Anyway, back to the weekend! :D
Friday, Nesa had gone to Hakone for the day - which I suspected would tire her out, and indeed it did - this left just me and Seiko to go to Roppongi together (or at least meet her there).

In usual me fashion, I was also hideously late and in real danger of missing the train, which meant I had to run all the way to Sangenjaya, meaning by the time I got on the train, I was sweating quite badly …. YUK! I hadn’t forgotten however to fill a plastic bottle with vodka, so at Aoyama Ichome station, I bought an orange juice to top it up…. quality :D
Not wanting to break tradition, first stop was Hub (hooray for Hub) however we only stayed for a single drink as Seiko was quite hungry, so we soon left and made our way to Jonathans (wow it’s been a long time since I went there) where we stayed for an hour or so.

Walking back down the Roppongi strip, it suddenly dawned on us, how we just did the same things over and over (same places each week), however not really liking any of the other clubs caused a certain issue here… haha….

Instead of clubbing therefore, we decided to do a bit of shopping (yes, at 3am in the morning) and headed into the large Donkihote stop where we just browsed random bits and pieces until there was nothing left to see.

On the way out however, we spotted a sign for the newly opened top floor “Cosplay” department, so jumped in the lift to the 7th floor. Cosplay if you haven’t guessed is an abbreviation for “Costume Play”, and on stepping out the lift, we were greeted with the sight of hundreds of different costumes - schoolgirls, nurses, cheerleaders, policewomen - pretty much anything (including “Sexy Gymnast Costume” lol…) - oh to have a j-girlfriend … ;)
Not to be left out, they also had a section for men, though I think it served more as a comedy section rather than a serious “sexy” dept…

Finally, the clock struck 5am, which meant that “Maxim” was open, so we scuttled away over the road to our (my? ;)) favourite club, meaning i could finally get a good dance in… hurrah!

The night was not so much different from usual as far as the music went, except today we had the typical “extremely drunk ugly” man, trying his hand with everyone in the place. He started on Seiko at first, but after explaining she was my girlfriend (which he wouldnt believe until we had kissed…) - he finally left, only to start trying it on with our friend (who we don’t even know the name of :eek:) - by now i had used my “Boyfriend” card, so I was unable to help out too much here…

Luckily, he soon got tired of the constant rejection, so went off to try his luck with someone else. You know, I really don’t understand people like that - how they can possibly think they are going to get somewhere… and then to just ignore rejection… man, people like that give us guys a bad name… :p
We left around 7:30 or so and headed off to the local “Subway” to get some breakfast, before finally hitting the train home… and … sleeeeeep :) zzzzz

Saturday and first off was a meeting with Toshi and his friend for us all to eat in Shibuya. Things started off ok, we decided to go to the mexican place - though arriving there, there was a 30 minute wait - so it was off to find somewhere else.

45 minutes later, we still hadn’t found somewhere (doh!) - until finally we found an izakaya style place. Problem was, both Nesa and I were very hungry and we just knew the food would be small - which indeed it was, ah well, there’s always First Kitchen ;)
One thing that must be mentioned was what occured at the end of the meal. We all got up to leave, but the staff then informed us that we still had one dish to come (infact it had just arrived) - A YakiSobaOmelette (imagine yakisoba covered with an omelette) - by now everyone had got to the door (Except me, nesa and toshi) - but me and nesa decided it was a shame to waste it, toshi therefore went to tell the others what was going on.

We realised the implications of time here, so had to take drastic action. Splitting into two equal halves, we then devoured the whole thing in under 3 bites each :eek: I must say, I’m quite impressed with our achievement there, and indeed Toshi couldn’t believe it when he got back from telling the others (all of a minute or so at most) to find us all done…. haha….

(Dammit, I’ve just gone and made another bowl of Coco Pops, thats my third this evening, soon they will all be gone :eek:)

[IMG=721]

It was then that the split occured, everyone departed leaving just me and Nesa to do the night alone… first stop therefore, Sunkus (convenience store) to buy a 2 litre bottle of orange juice and a 785ml bottle of vodka. Finding an “out the way” seating area, we then proceded to mix up (and mix *very* well) a vodka and orange, before (ultimately) drinking all of it :)
That done, we were ready for our final (or so we thought) destination of the night, a very welcome return to “Atom” - hurrah! Nesa’s last night out clubbing in Tokyo had to go with a bang.

As we didn’t have a flyer, entry this time was 3000yen (with one drink), though at the payment counter, Nesa expertly negotiated an extra one each (go Nesa! yay!) - and finally, we were back in paradise.

It was exactly as before, just a massive club full of the most gorgeous girls you can ever imagine. I would have taken a photo, but cameras had already been removed at the door (what a stupid rule) - and although i had managed to keep mine on me, i was now scared to use it incase we got thrown out.

The music this time was better than before, with it actually getting quite hard at one point - and it was safe to say, Nesa and I had a f*&king awesome time…. so good, we didn’t want to leave - but the fact it was about 1000 degrees and my hair was starting to flop badly, meant it was time to go :) hehe… I’ll return again once my hair is cut, haha…

Last stop of the night (after returning to our drinking point from the night before to retrieve the not-quite-finished bottle of vodka - i know, really pikey , but I DON’T CARE… haha) was “Little Spoon” to grab a morning curry, with extra hamburger, cheese and croque potato… :D
Sunday, for me at least was long lie in day, though Nesa got up around 11 or so :eek: to go and meet her friend Brandon.

We therefore arranged to meet at about 7:30 at Shimokitazawa to go for the “Final Meal” - again back at Bochi Bochi. It also gave me a chance to meet up with Brandon, a cool guy, and a friend of Nesa’s who works for Nokia. Shimpei turned up as well, making the circle complete.

[IMG=722]

After “Bochi Bochi” - we then headed for “Dot”, Shimpei’s favourite bar (haha .. NOT! though I don;t know why) - where we stayed for an hour and a half or so, in which time Shimpei complained about pretty much everything on the planet. I think dad would get on well with him ;) :p
Finally, tiredness was too much for Nesa, so we made the treck home. Unfortunately this meant we didn’t have time for karaoke, nor did we remember to do the obligatory japanese Photo-Me booths…. doh!

(Jumping forward a night —>)

Come 7:30am or so and it was time for Nesa to go. She didn’t even say goodbye (pah! her excuse was something about letting me sleep) - but luckily I had not bothered to go to bed, so once I heard the door go I ran out after her :)
And then she was gone, my English speaking household sharing member had departed, oh how I cried…. :D
Thus brings us to the start of last week, during which was just pretty much work and not a lot else. I need to save a bit of cash ready for Kyoto on Thursday, so I guess it’s not such a bad thing.

Tomorrow is the “new work staff” party, which will probably be a quiet affair, so I might liven things up a bit, by getting wasted first …. :) lol… welcome indeed… haha…

So phew, there you have it, up to date - I appreciate it’s not the most exciting read, but I just needed to get everything down. Once again, I promise not to fall so far behind again - which I am sure I will break sooner or later, but hey, at least you got photos! :)
I have a few other bits and pieces to add, though I’ll do these another time, it’s now 3:30, which means I have been typing this (on and off) for 2 hours - I DON’T WANT TO WRITE ANYMORE !!! pah! :p
Nite!

Memory loss

Wednesday, April 26th, 2006

Well it’s got to the point, the blog is so far behind, that catching it all up has pretty much become an impossibility. I’ve decided therefore to cut my loses and start again from now.. otherwise, it would just slip and slip, and become not much use to anyone.

So, lets do a real quick summary of the weeks gone past…

The first weekend after Kyoto was also Yumi’s last night in Tokyo, so we went out to a new “all you can drink” place in Shimokitazawa. To cut a long story short, Shiho got absolutely wasted (she never drinks, remember!) and at one point it looked like we were going to have to take her home…. however, she pulled through and made it out to the Karaoke afterwards :)
So there you have it, bye bye Yumi - we shall miss you :p
[IMG=691]

The next weekend, it was decided that we would head out on Friday to Roppongi. After the usual “Hub” starter drinks, we headed to “Hideout” where we stayed until about 5am when it was decided we should check out “i-Louge” over the road (which had now changed it’s name to “Maxim”).

Entrance was 1000yen, however once inside and realising it actually played decent music (it was actually pretty banging, w00t!) - plus the fact you got a free drink, it didn’t seem so bad.

Seiko had now done a usual and got pretty smashed (so was propping up the bar) leaving me on my own to jump around manicly to the very good music. After a while, I was joined by a group of girls and, I guess due to the influx of alcohol inside me, suddenly had the confidence to start talking to them (in Japanese…. duh!) - I can’t remember the girl’s name, but she was originally from Thailand, spoke no English, but really liked the club.

I stayed talking with her for about an hour and a half, before, situations over at the bar meant I had to intervene. Seiko had managed to find herself not one, but TWO guys, who were intent on dragging her off home with them :eek: - I know she might have wanted this, but the fact she seemed to keep passing out on the bar and being propped back up by them, kinda suggested she didn’t know what she wanted!!!

A swift intervention later (which rather bizarely involved me shouting out “they are bad men, they are bad men” - which they could of course hear) and we had Seiko on the way home. Rather worryingly, not 10 minutes after we had left, I mentioned to Seiko that “you really need to be careful”, to which she replied “Why? What happened??” :eek: She wouldn’t believe me at all until I told her to check in her pocket where the guy’s phone number had been put!!

We got back to Wakabayashi station at about 9am (after taking a strange detour through a graveyard - much to the amusement of the gardener) when suddenly Seiko shouts out “Ah, I have work now!! I have to catch this train…” - and off she went!?!?!

Needless to say, we didn’t go out on Saturday night! :)
Monday after, Vanessa arrived - so we did the official “welcome to Japan” evening out, by taking her to Bochi Bochi (any excuse ;)) - she then left for Kyoto on the Tuesday, returning on the Saturday.

Friday night was Ryoko’s birthday, so once I had finished work, I headed off to Roppongi to meet up with her, seiko, shiho and toshi. No prizes for guessing our first point of call ;)
We did find this strange drunk guy though …. :D
[IMG=703]

Final stop was club “Vanilla”, a swanky place just up the road. It was a bit of fun and games at first though….

Clubs and bars here don’t have cloakrooms, but just lockers. This is generally a good idea, until you have a massive club, with no where near enough lockers to cater for everyone. So picture the scene, Saturday night in a really hot club with loads of coats and bags, but no lockers.

We stand around for a bit, before deciding this just isn’t going to work and we’re better off just holding on to everything, until suddenly a group of people standing around the lockers leave and suddenly some locker keys are glistening in the club light…..

Going on instinct, we charge for the lockers and not a moment too soon before suddenly all hell breaks lose and a huge crowd of people start rushing towards us. It was total carnage with everyone pushing a shoving everyone out the way to try and secure their locker!!! :eek:
Once all sorted, we headed to the R’n'B room, which had nice comfy sofas - where we actually just sat until the end of the night just chatting and having a good laugh :)
So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYOKO!! :D
[IMG=707]
[IMG=711]

Once the club had come to an end, we headed to the Turkish restaurant to get some kebabs (and a bottle of wine ;)) - before, at about 8am or so, heading back home to get some rest in ready for the night ahead… (and Vanessa’s return…)

The weekend has landed….

Thursday, March 16th, 2006

Wow! Next day sure takes a long time to arrive! :) Why haven’t I updated since last Wednesday, well, the easiest answer is that I haven’t yet actually been home!! Or at least, if I have been, not really been in a fit state of mind to type something insightful (though thinking about it, it would probably quite insightful into how I was feeling at the time… haha)

So let’s begin with the Wednesday night then and Vanessa’s leaving party.

After work, due to everyone finishing at different times, we all met up at the nearby Seigo Fraidos (or however you say it) before moving to the first main stop of the night - a local izakaya, whose manager is actually a Nova student! (though I didn’t know this at the time) Once there, it was basically the usual izakaya experience (order drinks, then snack food - usually fried potato, fried chicken etc) - though i remember the umeshuu was particularly good :D
That done, we had about an hour and a half until last trains - so it was decided to head out to karaoke, for “one last sing song” as it were. The place chosen was smack opposite the train station, making quick exits possible and, whilst looking pretty grim from the corridoors, had pretty ok rooms. One extra cool thing was the “song pick computer”, unlike the usual karaoke affair, this one had a full colour screen and even let you play space invaders on it!

As is usually the case when alcohol is involved, the plans were soon changed, as come last train - no one wanted to head back “just yet”. This however left the agonising question - “reluctantly finish the night off now” or “stay out until first train at 5am”. Admitedly, it wasn’t such a big deal for me due to my late starting times anyway - though for the others it was more of an issue. However, the “all nighter” was the chosen option, made even better by the arrival of Hisako (the new Yumi) - you only need to check the photo gallery to see how good a time was had by all ;) With the drinks flowing all night (and some hilarious poses shown off by Mark!!)

[IMG=590]

I got home by about 6am or so - then a wonderful sleep in until around 3pm, when it was time to get back into work. Hisako had to start at 10, and when I arrived at Nova - it was pretty plain to see she hadn’t had much sleep :) “Late night?” ….. lol.

Friday after work, once again it had been arranged to go to “Dot” in Shimo, so when I was able to finally clock off at 7:30, it was direct to the bar we went :) This time, we were joined by Toshi, Ryoko and Shimpei but also the return of Yumi!! Hurrah! It was decided that although we made pretty good use of the nomihodai last time, this time we should do better - so a 15 drink target was applied to the night. I’m also pleased to say that we made this target (and above) and come 11:40, we were well and truly merry. Seiko and Ryoko then wanted to go to a club, however I thought perhaps I should try and save some money, so instead went with the rest of the gang to another izakaya (the one i had gone with Shimpei to previously) - were, yup, more drinks ensued.

We also had a game of “Suishi Roulette” - where basically you order 5 of the same sushi dishes, however one of them is laced with loads of wasabi (hot). I think it’s pretty obvious from this picture who the “unfortunate” was ….

[IMG=620]

Finally, I think at about 3am or so, I couldn’t stay awake, so we all left, splitting up with Yumi half way as she went back to her house, and us to ours :)
Saturday had the obligitary lie in, followed by the obligatory do nothing for the rest of the day (though not much was actually left!) until Seiko got home in the evening, bringing with her a bottle of umeshu for me :) Go Seiko! This actually was nicely timed, as I had just started to do some mixing - and the added alcohol went down a treat. So well in fact, that an hour later when we were due to leave, I was quite drunk ;)
So first stop of the Saturday night was Sangenjaya where we went looking down the “cheap street” for somewhere to grab some food and a few extra drinks. We settled on a really traditional looking izakaya, which had the full “shoes off, tatami mat” experience, and also, had a large selection of drinks.

I ordered the Umeshu Sour (suprise, suprise) and a few minutes later, was greeted with the following sized tankard…! :eek:
[IMG=625]

Yup! That’s not a photoshop, it really was that massive! Seiko opted for the beer, and whilst although there was an equal sized glass available, she instead chose the “more wimpy” pint :D
3 glasses (or pitchers or whatever you call something that size) later, and finally it was time to head out to Roppongi - first stop “Hub” to get in a few drinks, before we really hit the town… lol… no actually, to get a few “cheap” drinks in, before we moved on to an old haunt “Hideout” - which had been recently closed for repairs.

It’s funny I guess, when writing a blog entry about going out clubbing, there really isn’t much you can say. I guess I can say where, and if anything exciting happened, but there’s not really much else one can add. So here, look at some photos of some fire breathing by the bar staff instead! :D
[IMG=627]
[IMG=630]
[IMG=638]

Shortly after all this went off, the amount of alcohol finally got too much for me, and i had to make my excuses and head to the toilets where I stayed for the next hour or so, until i was able to stand (using the word very loosely) and get back to the safe chair by Seiko. By now, trains had started and I really wanted to get back - however Seiko was now getting friendly with some new bloke, so I left them too it and headed off to the cloakroom.

Memory here still a little hazy, though I just remember someone tapping me on the shoulder and saying “come with me”, which seemed like a good idea at the time - so I followed (or rather was led) by a girl out of hideout and into a next bar where more alcohol was had, before then heading to ANOTHER bar!! By this time, I had managed to start on the water, so was feeling a bit better - though still not completely with it.

The girl (whose name was Chie) worked as a hostess in one of the clubs in roppongi and had just finished work when she popped down to the club (she explained) and had just noticed me toterring around by the door :) hehe … anyway, come 8am and i *really* needed to get home, so arranging to meet her on Monday, I made my excuses and left, so stagger home to a much needed sleep! :)
But! It doesn’t end there. Waking up at 5pm, I then had to rush to get ready for Mark’s birthday meal, which was going to be held at the French restaurant we had gone before. Even worse (or better, depending how you want to look at it) was it was another nomihodi :eek: I would have actually liked to have opted out, but due to the fact I had to pay 5000yen to go to it, this hardly seemed like a sensible option ;)
The food at this place is exceptional, I have never had such fancy stuff, but it was all amazing, including something was aparently some exploded liver or stomach or something of a force fed animal, erm, I forget it’s name - something like “Far Gwah”?, but it’s delicious, I don’t care where it came from :) Luckily, some of the others didn’t agree with this, so left there’s… perfect! Oh oh oh! Plus of course, the meal wouldn’t have been complete without the lamb, and let me tell you, it was just as delicious as before, though this time there was more…. MUCH more…

[IMG=639]

Mmmmmmmmmmm….. just thinking about it again is making me hungry :) So the food done and drinks newly topped up, we headed downstairs (the main room was upstairs) where the last task of the night was to give the cake….

HAPPY BIRTHDAY :)
[IMG=640]

At about 10:30, it was time for the poor chef to get some rest (he had opened just for us) - so we headed off to Asso to get some “goodbye” coffees, where the talk went on for an hour or so - after which, it was finally time to say our goodbyes :)
Whew, almost there :)
So Monday, with work being “normal” (I no longer think I need to really write about it anymore - everyday is the same now) - though after I had arranged to meet with Chie, so headed off to Shibuya and Hachiko at about 9:30. As neither of us had eaten, first stop was a restaurant of some sorts. Due to it being absolutely freezing outside and Chie only wearing a light jacket, anywhere close seemed like a good idea - so we settled on “Lockup” (readers of my previous blog will remember it as the place where you get handcuffed and led to your table, which is actually a prison cell). The cells were all full this time though, so we had to make do with the “cave bar” - which I guess needs no explaining (it was a cave). :)
They were running a current special promotion there, which involved a load of new cocktails and “potions” (you got them in test tubes and science beakers). One in particular looked quite interesting, so, despite the warnings from the staff that it was very strong - I decided to order it anyhow. When it arrived, it looked quite harmless. Just a simple clear liquid, however as soon as you smelt it, you realised it was going to bite a lot worse than it could bark :eek:
One sip was all that was required to know that things were going to now get very interesting, no sooner had it started to go down my throat, then it started to burn - and burn a lot! However (and perhaps looking back this was not such a wise decision) not wanting to waste any money, it was decided I should just down it to quickly get rid of it and then follow it up with an umeshu chaser! So I did……. and once the burning had subsided (and the umeshu had taken away all the nasty taste) - we grabbed the bill and headed off back into the night to the nearby “Gas Panic” nightclub to use up the last few hours before the train departed.

And…. here begineth a usual tale…. ;) Once in GP, a round of shots was ordered, followed by some cocktails and then a bottle of champagne (!?!? don’t ask….) and then of course, the drink of before kicked in….. come last train, i was past caring and indeed it was about 3:30 by the time I had regained enough sense to work out where I was :) (and take this photo of the cool tissue dispenser…)

[IMG=642]

I was also now pretty knackered and didn’t want to hang around at the club anymore, so we once again braved the cold and headed out into the (relatively empty) streets of Shibuya. And then froze. So very quickly ran into a nearby karaoke building, hired a room ……. and went to sleep :)
Believe it or not, Tuesday I actually DIDN’T go out ;) Instead, staying an hour or so after work to talk with Haruna about random Nova topics :)
The 14th of March in Japan is actually “White Day” or the woman’s valentines (not sure if I wrote before, but valentines is for men in Japan - they don’t get the woman a gift) - however in our household it was reversed, so when I got back, I had the following waiting for me :)
[IMG=641]

Oishiiiiii! :D Infact, I am just finishing it off now - and jolly nice it is too :)
So, rar, I think I’ve done it - once again up to date. I got paid today (luckily) so am safe in the knowledge that I didn’t overspend toooo much ;) Though I definately don’t have any “over” money, so will have to be very strict this month. I think I will lie low for the rest of the week (yes, all two days of it) - so don’t expect much (if anything) - and i then have just Friday night out, due to work on Sunday…… however, that should be my last Sunday working for a while (fingers crossed).

So all that’s left to say is well done for struggling through this entry, I hope you have enjoyed reading about my week as I did living it :)
Hurrah!