Wow. Firstly, let me say that if you have never been to Tokyo – come here! Also, if this is the first Japan blog that you have read from me, please scroll down and read the other one first cos this one might flow on. Anyway with that out the way, let me see where I should start. The Tokyo Tower? Roppongi nightlife? The sushi? The temples? The sizzling hot, stylish japanese women? (Did I mention them already?) Josh and I have seen so much in the last 5 days it’s kind of hard to write it all down. And plus you’d be here forever reading it. But if you want something substantial to read then you’ve come to the right place because will take longer than your lunch break!

On our first night, Josh and I decided it would be better to just get acquainted with our locality. Check out some food. Maybe see what the neighbourhood was like. Our second night? Well, that was a friday. And you can’t have two members of the ex-sethdesigns, holy trinity drinking team in the world’s largest city and not grab a beer. But we really didn’t know what to expect when we popped into the first place for a “quiet one”. Upon consulting the lonely planet (we call it the bible), we decided that Shimo-Kitazawa would be a good place to start our exploration. The bible said it was an arty district located outside of the usual tourst spots and that was reason enough for us to have a squiz. The station exit lead us directly into a maze of small winding streets. Each street had any number of little shops, sushi bars, noodle joints and bars that lined every available bit of real estate. Most places in Tokyo are like that. As we walked through these foreign streets we decided to take a punt on a place named “Trouble Peach”. The sign was an orange and green neon with a cartoon leopard with a speech bubble stating simply “Eat a peach”. This place was dripping with class. The tiny, red doorway lead us through to a stairway that was so steep it resembled a ladder. At the top was a small, dark bar with small tables and late 70’s decor. The low lamps had painted light bulbs, dimming them to a point where it was hard to see your friends and the red refrigerator only helped to reinforce the mood of this retro little place. The walls were lined with a mixture of crazy Japanese posters and old cardboard record covers. The only thing missing was the joint in my hand as our super-cool barman/dj cranked out original vinyls of Bob Marley Live and Dolly Parton. It was a truly cool place. We ordered a few beers and then thought better of the delicious but Tokyo-steep beer prices (like $10 each!) and continued our walk. Within minutes we cruised by a place that seemed to be very happening. A place where young japanese and gaijin (whiteys) alike were revelling in a multi-levelled binge of beers and satay. Should we go in? I was hesitant, but Josh twisted my arm by pointing to the $3 beer sign. Yes please. In we went. We were shown to the second level where tatami mats lined the floors and everyone was sitting, shoeless, at the short tables. Now this looked like the kind of place I came to Japan for! More beers ensued and then, by chance, I bumped in a guy at the urinal (not in a gay way, okay?). After the mandatory “Where are you from?” conversation he told me he was from Chile. He said they were on the third floor if we wanted to join them. So we did. He was there with his Peruvian-Japanese (?) friend and a bunch of people that had met from a half Japanese facebook group (I know – it’s even random for Tokyo!). We chatted for a while until we were invited to go to a Latino club with them. Didn’t need thinking music for that one! Straight to Roppongi. Basically the touristy/club district of Tokyo. Apparently locals avoid it like the plague, but I had to find out why. It didn’t take me long.

The $30 taxi that we took from some place 2km down the road was my first taste of Tokyo nightlife. Quickly followed by a tirade of African spruikers that wanted to know if I wanted to see a strip show. These dudes were everywhere. On every corner there was a man asking if I wanted to go to his club. Seeing as though we had a set destination it was easier to fend most of them off. But at one point I did look behind me only to catch a glimpse of Josh, cornered by overzealous promoters, with a woman tugging on his arm trying to drag him into her club. I just kept walking. Josh is a big boy. So by the time we reached our club it somehow filtered down to us non-japanese speakers that the cover charge was around $30. More Tokyo-ness. But somehow one of the South Americans got us in for free. The club was going off. There were latinos and japanese cutting that dancefloor to bits! Our Chilean friend wasted no time in getting some scotch into us and the remainder that we paid for were all half price because of our South American connections. The drinks flowed until such time as we caught the yiros bug. But in Japan it’s like the beef and rice bug (please refer to the fotos section for a visual). We thanked our friends profusely before leaving and headed over to Yoshinoya. The place that has earnt a spot in our hearts for its fast food style Japanese cuisine. Boozed up, full up and thoroughly ready for sleep, we headed for the subway. One interesting thing about this place is that even though it’s the biggest city on the planet, the trains stop running at 12am. The service resumes at 5:45am and thank god for that because we were so ready to get home. All in all it was a crazy night. And that was Friday.

Saturday was little more tame. We went to a place called the Samurai Bar. Which I can’t really tell whether it’s cool or kitsch, but the people were real friendly and the setup was cool. The night started with some new random traveller friends from England and Canada and a few more Asahi’s. The night ended with Josh and I skolling beers with some Japanese people who barely spoke English. Beer, eh? It’s like the international language. It almost works as well as Bon Jovi songs!

Anyway, today we cruised around looking for some more obscure places. We found some gardens with amazing red maple trees and giant carp in the nearby ponds. The fading afternoon sun illuminated the leaves of the trees to their brightest reds, yellows and greens. Their drooping multi-coloured branches swayed in the gentle, winter breeze as giant carp kissed the waters surface. I found it hard to believe I was in Tokyo!

Tonight we capped things off with a visit to Tokyo’s highest observation tower at the Tokyo Tower. The place was packed. We didn’t even realise that it was it’s 50th anniversary. Either way it was an awesome view. 250m above ground level we could see the urban sprawl almost touching the sky on the horizon. It’s hard to explain the look of the lights against the blackness of the night, but looking out and seeing them disappear into the distance really was amazing. Like stars on the ground or something.

I’m sorry it was so long winded, but I had to sit down and get it all out! The craziest thing is that that’s not even all of it. Hopefully it wasn’t too hard to get through though. All I’m trying to say is that I am having the greatest time here and I can only hope for more when we head to the country tomorrow. We will be over in Takayama for a few days (near Nagano and Nagoya) to get some fresh air and castles into us. Then it’s on to Kyoto!