Travel Journal – Wednesday 14/4 – 2010
Disturbing calls, a belt and strip clubs.
Today will be a relatively short post I think. We haven’t done much today so there isn’t that much to write about either. But even so some things has happened that mark this day as different and special in its own way so completely uneventful is not quite true. I think that I will use the “Years Before” today to referring to the post posted precicely two years ago from my first visit in Japan. But first, a resume of what has happened today.
To begin with I like to say that we ended Tuesday with watching Sherlock Holmes on my computer and didn’t go to bed before around 03:00 Japanese time. So it was quite late and not to mention that all the travelling and walking around had exhausted both of us. So after our first Japanese movie night we went to sleep. But about 07:30 Miiko called, all excited and all. I had a really good regular controlled dream that I had just conjured and had got going about the Cats and spending time with people I enjoy just spending time with when she called me from my slumber.
I woke as usual, but all tired and tried to speak with her. In this state my Japanese was more than crappy so it was mostly “Hai”1 and “Iie”2 and “Sou…”3 and similar things. She obviously had some exciting news and asked if she could come and when. I tried to organize my brain and put out my dream which took a while and finally was able to form the sentence for that it was okay if she came at 12. She agreed and then hung up. I turned around and forced myself back to sleep since I was very, very tired and my body was very tired.
But at 09:15 I got another call from an Japanese lady that spoke very good English that came from the Higuchi company and asked us if we wanted to participate in a charity event with the company when the WALK 100km in Tokyo for 3 days. It would cost us too, about 5000 yen for each day but as I understood it water and food and a bed to sleep on in a hotel would be included in this or something. I said I get back to her, I couldn’t really think at the moment but when I woke I thought; “Hell no! It’s fucking 10 Swedish miles!”. I know I have done some crazy things in my days but this Tokyo Marathon is not what I want to do. It doesn’t even sound fun or pleasant at all. So we will refuse politely tomorrow.
In any way I then got back to my disturbed sleep which had made me mentally even more tired by this waking and sleeping all the time when I woke up when Miiko arrived. Then I got up and completely discarded the idea of getting any better sleep. I wouldn’t sleep away a whole day without a good reason anyway and my body was rested enough so I let her in and she told us of the small changes in the schedule she had made us. We will meet her “Temple Parent”4 the 19th instead of the 28th and go to the Main Temple then too. And she kind of moved forward our temple meetings with about half an hour. Not that it will give us more time to sleep (not that we even need to, or at least I doesn’t) since we still need to keep a good rhythm and also have a margin for errors.
After she had left we kind of just ate breakfast went out to our internet spot to send some e-mails, check the e-mail and various pages and to update our journals. My battery though died on my writing computer5 so I couldn’t update my journal. Those I send my Journal too though got it since I prepare that before I go to the internet spot. So I took the time though to download Office and install it on the other laptop and write another entry about RPG instead and do some other kind of worthless stuff. I was by the computer at around 8:30 Swedish time so nobody was at their computer and nobody had commented either. Well, well…
After this we went back to put away the computers and to get going to look around the city before we went to Roppongi to party as we had planned for yesterday. By the way this entry will be longer than I thought I see now. But you all know me, I always write these lengthy texts. I’m simply just like that. Anyway we prepared and went away. I don’t need to go into all the details about our travelling into the city but in we got there, looked around and finally got something to eat where you barbeque slices of meat over a grill or whatever it’s called and eat it as you cook it. I did this before but this was much more fun when one wasn’t alone and this place too felt like it was cheaper in some ways than the other place I went to here in Kita Urawa on my last days.
After that we went in search for a belt for Drak. We soon found one for 1995 JPY6 that he bought. About 500 meters afterwards we saw belts for half the price and then yet another couple of hundred meters we saw belts for 500 and Drak sighted belts for 300. We found this very funny, or at least I did. I myself is in search of shoes – my shoes are STILL wet from Sunday – and almost found a pair for a good price only that they didn’t fit. I could have bought them and they would have worked…ish but I’m more reserved when it comes to buy things. I mean last time I only bought ONE thing for myself if you doesn’t count food and transportation and such.
This time though I have almost promised myself to get shoes… I only need to find shoes for a good price, which doesn’t seem hard, that I like and that fits. Well, I will get there I think. But the prices I’m looking at and considering OK is always under 6000 JPY7 and more like 3000 JPY8. I found shoes for 3500 and 4000 JPY today but they were a bit too small and the one that fitted, the one for 3500 was more a combination of sandal and shoe. And I want shoes like I have now that I can use all year. But well, it will come.
Well after we had found the belt we decided to get to Roppongi to see if we could find some fun. Once again travel details with train are not only unnecessary but outright boring to write about. We got there, even though we were forced by the men at JR Rail to take the metro – where our rail passes isn’t valid. We walked around there for a while looking for clubs and pubs and bars. I have virtually no memory from Roppongi since like some of you might now I was wasted beyond wasted when I was here last time.
We found the bars and such after a while and almost directly we found where everything was a guy that works with throwing people into a bar comes to us and talks about Tokyo’s biggest strip club. And offers us to come up to have a peek for free and tells us about the fee and the drinks included in the fee and everything. We are both very sceptical to this, well I don’t know really why Drak was so sceptical to it, but I assume it was of the same reasons as I. Not that I didn’t trust it was a legit place, only that I do not feel really comfortable in a place where girls are dancing, stripping and doing things like that naked. That urks me more rather than appeal to me, not that I don’t like women. I just doesn’t like the nature of that. But I’m sure you understand.
When we said we wanted to find a club or something he was okay with it and told us about the bars and pubs and clubs of Roppongi and where everything was. On weekdays though it seemed quite dead in most places and hard to find something lively like a party which was what we were after. We walked a bit afterwards and found that what he was saying was true. The people coming here was mostly going to concerts, or meeting up for casual beer or drinks in bars but nothing more. So we went home instead with our new superfast method with Shinkansen which proved really effective.
The plan though was to go to internet tonight but since we started talking and working with computers and such the evening seems to be ending now with me sitting on the floor writing this while Drak has fallen asleep in bed. He was kind of cranky last time he woke up but I guess it’s mostly just his sleepiness that’s talking now. The clock in Sweden is now 19:10 but here it’s 02:10. So I think I will end this and tomorrow we’ll go the internet spot after our cult-meeting and I’ll post this entry and three more plus we might add some pictures.
Best Regards,
Herid Fel
ストリップショー!! ：D