Where Is Joey Today?

Rising sun

After Disney we settled called it a night with the intention of waking up early. That we did, about 0430. Our roommate (a Swedish girl) was out hanging with a couple of English guys when she decides to head back to the hostel. She was apparently quite drunk when she hailed a cab in Akihabara. That should be a short ride (30 minutes at most). She said he drove her around for almost two hours not letting her out and demanded 10000 yen when she finally got out otherwise he would have called the police. It shows you bad stuff can happen to you when you are drunk, female and alone... even in Japan. We thought she should have called his bluff, not paid him anything and allowed the police to arrive. He would be in a lot of trouble. Although since she was mispronouncing the name of the area as Asah-Koo-sa instead of Asock-sah he may have thought she was trying to go to Akasasa which could take that amount of time. It would also have taken her through Roppongi the "unsafe" area of Tokyo. Of course all of that doesn't explain why he was touching her leg.

SumoMasen

With that craziness the night before we didn't get up until about noon. We woke up and began arranging our Sunday night's stay. The hotel was in Narita so we would probably have to leave around 4p to beat nightfall. As we started talking we found out that we could probably reclaim the points to have another night in Tokyo. Capsule hotel here I come. With that same late start we weren't able to buy Sumo wrestling tickets but we did see some of the participants outside.

Em suggested we head to the Tokyo tower in Roppongi which is featured heavily in Anime. It began the start of our Japanized European Icons tour of the night.

The Tokyo Tower, stands 13m, or roughly one nanny-nanny-boo-boo, taller than its Parisian counterpart.



In Shinjuku, they have a skyscraper clock looking just slightly like Big Ben.



Of course in Asakusa you have the Tourist board Seiko Glockenspiel.


Em wanted the extra night to go to a Jpop club. Should be easy enough right? I mean this is Tokyo. Our guide book (Let's Go) suggested the Jpop cafe. Perfect! The directions led us a bit astray as it uses landmarks rather than streets for guiding you in. We arrived a full 30 minutes before it closed. I think. Upstairs it was entirely empty save for two Japanese girls smoking in a dimly lit room.

Hard to call Shibuya a bust that night. We found a bizarre store specializing in unusual condoms, a Tshirt store that has an "if-it-is-in-English-we'll-sell-it-regardless-of-how -nonsensical-it-is" attitude, and an arcade with a video game that is best described as a drum version of Dance Dance Revolution.

We took the 2nd to last train from Shibuya up the Ginza to Asakusa. Capsule hotels for the uninitiated are places for drunk business men to fall asleep when they miss their last train out for the night. At roughly 25 bucks a night, they don't come that cheap but are frequently an indication of a helluva good evening. Since most are segregated based on sex and Em's tendancy towards claustrophobia, I was on my own. It was surprisingly comfortable considering I was essentially sleeping in a decent sized refrigerator.

--Joey