One more post for the road...
...well, I may not be able to update for quite a while here, so I'm gonna post once more before I head to Yokohama and then back to the Osaka area.
Last leg of the Tokyo Tour included Shibooya, Roppongi, and Shinjuku. Damn, I really wanted to go to Harajuku but I was short on time so I had to pass it by. Roppongi had some great buildings and mos def was not short on foreigners. They owned about a quarter of the restaurants there! Everything from a cafe run by a couple of Americans, an authentic Indian restaurant, and even an English Pub dubbed the Grail, complete with the Monty Python reference too, heh.
Walked down to Shibuya, where I stumbled across a HUGE mess of people. It still shocks me on how many people were out there. Sundays are also a big day to chill, relax, and go out on the town so again I was overwhelmed by the crowds there. A really nice place, plenty of entertainment there, enough restaurants and fast food to feed the entire country of Brunei, and some very interesting stores to shop. And saw the daily music rankings on the big ass display the in middle the square. God, Yuna Ito looks hot on the big screen in that "Mahaloha" clip! Hah, and I stumbled across the Condomania store there, and it was pretty cool. I wasn't allowed to take pics inside, but the inside is like, let's say Taboo Tabou, and it's as colorful and varied in selection as the paint section at Home Depot. No, I did not buy anything, heh, but in retrospect I probably should've, hahaha.
Then I had to haul ass to Shinjuku to meet up with Tama and Nodoka. Did have some extra time to look around first though, and my god, what can I say...! It's like having the entire Woodfield Mall area thrice crammed into a 5 block radius. Malls a plenty, everything from the electronics center, to the Odakyu Department Store, spanning the distance of two stations, both on ground level and below ground. I mean, the same mall has two huge buildings to it, is about 10 floors high and goes five floors below to B5F, and has almost everything that you can think of, whether it be toys, designer labels like Gucci and Bvlgari, electronics to dazz the mind, and three of the floors are completely dedicated to food! But for some reason, the security guards kept stopping me, of all people from takings pics inside, BLAH!
So after getting lost and finally meeting up with Tama and Nodoka, we went to an Izakaya (bar/grill equivalent in Japan) that they seemed to frequent. Good food, even moreso since I haven't eaten in all day. The classic food they have there really hit the spot, everything from fried chicken, chicken and beef skewers, sashimi, and even a good salad and veggies as well. Drinks were relatively cheap too. Hell, I bought some Scotch to start the night cause a friggin order of Suntory 18 yr. on the rocks was $5?! Only problem was that the drinks were not catered to American tastes so I wasn'(t even getting buzzed after about 7-8 drinks. Their strongest mixed drink was some dubbed down Long Island they called "Dragon Soda". T'was good, but still not very strong at all, heheh.
Anyways, a little later, Yuuta and Tama's friend Deanna joined us up and we talked, drank, and ate for four straight hours. I think everyone was happy to be able to speak English again. Actually, so was I, living with my uncle and aunt for the time being doesn't facilitate and use of the English language so I was afraid I was losing it a bit, heh. And Lee, yes, I DID tell him, "だから BE CAREFUL" when Koda Kumi and Chicago came in convo, heheh.
After a long stay there, we decided then it was time to karaoke. Some great stuff we sang there, including HY's "Am11:00", Simple Plan, m-flo, and even that SEX MACHINEGUNS song, hehe. Yuuta sounded really gay when he sang T.M. Revolution, but still it was quite entertaining to watch, hahaha. And for those that know Bemani... I was really hoping a few of you people were there, cause none of them would know these, but they had "月光蝶" (Gekkou Chou), a couple of Sana songs, and get this... STRONG WOMAN feat. DABO (not to mention the MONEY CASH HOES song by DABO). HAHAHAHA, that would've been a blast if I could've done it!!! But after ripping out our vocal cords singing, we regretfully parted ways and promised to all meet back in Chicago sometime.
Fun times with all. I wish I had more time here, but alas, things must be done. Hopefully I can do a quickie update sometime soon, hopefully within two weeks or so and keep you all updated. Until then, take care everyone, peace outta!
Last leg of the Tokyo Tour included Shibooya, Roppongi, and Shinjuku. Damn, I really wanted to go to Harajuku but I was short on time so I had to pass it by. Roppongi had some great buildings and mos def was not short on foreigners. They owned about a quarter of the restaurants there! Everything from a cafe run by a couple of Americans, an authentic Indian restaurant, and even an English Pub dubbed the Grail, complete with the Monty Python reference too, heh.
Walked down to Shibuya, where I stumbled across a HUGE mess of people. It still shocks me on how many people were out there. Sundays are also a big day to chill, relax, and go out on the town so again I was overwhelmed by the crowds there. A really nice place, plenty of entertainment there, enough restaurants and fast food to feed the entire country of Brunei, and some very interesting stores to shop. And saw the daily music rankings on the big ass display the in middle the square. God, Yuna Ito looks hot on the big screen in that "Mahaloha" clip! Hah, and I stumbled across the Condomania store there, and it was pretty cool. I wasn't allowed to take pics inside, but the inside is like, let's say Taboo Tabou, and it's as colorful and varied in selection as the paint section at Home Depot. No, I did not buy anything, heh, but in retrospect I probably should've, hahaha.
Then I had to haul ass to Shinjuku to meet up with Tama and Nodoka. Did have some extra time to look around first though, and my god, what can I say...! It's like having the entire Woodfield Mall area thrice crammed into a 5 block radius. Malls a plenty, everything from the electronics center, to the Odakyu Department Store, spanning the distance of two stations, both on ground level and below ground. I mean, the same mall has two huge buildings to it, is about 10 floors high and goes five floors below to B5F, and has almost everything that you can think of, whether it be toys, designer labels like Gucci and Bvlgari, electronics to dazz the mind, and three of the floors are completely dedicated to food! But for some reason, the security guards kept stopping me, of all people from takings pics inside, BLAH!
So after getting lost and finally meeting up with Tama and Nodoka, we went to an Izakaya (bar/grill equivalent in Japan) that they seemed to frequent. Good food, even moreso since I haven't eaten in all day. The classic food they have there really hit the spot, everything from fried chicken, chicken and beef skewers, sashimi, and even a good salad and veggies as well. Drinks were relatively cheap too. Hell, I bought some Scotch to start the night cause a friggin order of Suntory 18 yr. on the rocks was $5?! Only problem was that the drinks were not catered to American tastes so I wasn'(t even getting buzzed after about 7-8 drinks. Their strongest mixed drink was some dubbed down Long Island they called "Dragon Soda". T'was good, but still not very strong at all, heheh.
Anyways, a little later, Yuuta and Tama's friend Deanna joined us up and we talked, drank, and ate for four straight hours. I think everyone was happy to be able to speak English again. Actually, so was I, living with my uncle and aunt for the time being doesn't facilitate and use of the English language so I was afraid I was losing it a bit, heh. And Lee, yes, I DID tell him, "だから BE CAREFUL" when Koda Kumi and Chicago came in convo, heheh.
After a long stay there, we decided then it was time to karaoke. Some great stuff we sang there, including HY's "Am11:00", Simple Plan, m-flo, and even that SEX MACHINEGUNS song, hehe. Yuuta sounded really gay when he sang T.M. Revolution, but still it was quite entertaining to watch, hahaha. And for those that know Bemani... I was really hoping a few of you people were there, cause none of them would know these, but they had "月光蝶" (Gekkou Chou), a couple of Sana songs, and get this... STRONG WOMAN feat. DABO (not to mention the MONEY CASH HOES song by DABO). HAHAHAHA, that would've been a blast if I could've done it!!! But after ripping out our vocal cords singing, we regretfully parted ways and promised to all meet back in Chicago sometime.
Fun times with all. I wish I had more time here, but alas, things must be done. Hopefully I can do a quickie update sometime soon, hopefully within two weeks or so and keep you all updated. Until then, take care everyone, peace outta!