Hello Tokyo?

Well, it took me almost five months, but I finally ventured into Tokyo by myself for a weekend of debauchery and shenanigans. While most people want to escape city life, I crave it and relish in it. I dig the human traffic, the rude people, the crowded trains and the restaurants!

I was picked up at the train station late Saturday night by Shingo, Sadatomo (see Blog entry Welcome to Tokyo) and Yuuki Imamura, three former students at KGIC Toronto. I was surprised to see Yuuki, as I didn’t know he had moved to Tokyo from the Osaka area.

Yuuki Imamura and me

We met up with Araya Solomon, my friend from home, who is currently working in Tokyo. Araya was drinking with some Dutch and Australian friends at a bar slightly bigger than an oversized walk-in closet, which took us forever to find. Something about Tokyo: Everything is impossible to find!!!

It’s always great to see Araya. He’s been a part of our family since the early 90s when he went to school in Montreal with my brother’s ex-girlfriend Ryhna. He later was our sister’s roommate for 3 years.

We all ended up going to a popular dance club called Yellow in the Rappongi area of Tokyo. It was packed with foreigners all trying to pick each other up, but I had a great time regardless.

I crashed out at Sadatomo place for a couple hours before he had to go on a business trip and left me to discover the incredible Train and Subway system of the greater Tokyo area until my lunch appointment with Ayumi Kaihatsu, Sakiko Onoda, Kotaro Watanabe, all also former students from KGIC.

The very cool and stylish Sakiko Onoda

After lunch we went to Akihabara to try and find a new adapter for my laptop, but being a North American model, I had Yuuki (who joined us after lunch) and Kotaro looking everywhere for it, to no avail.

We capped off the busy Sunday with a Cherry Blossom Party. Ayumi’s friend Mikio Koike invited us out to Tokyo’s famed Yoyogi Park, where his pals had a keg and a BBQ going. It was a lot of fun: getting drunk, speaking Japanese and watching a magician perform card tricks.

Me and the Cherry Blossoms in Yoyogi Park

After a late dinner with Ayumi, Yuuki and Kotaro, I ended up crashing at Mikio’s place, where he broke out the beer and imported Sherry before bedtime.

As I was getting on a Monday morning Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Shizuoka for work that afternoon, I remember thinking that Sunday was one of the longest, yet one of the most enjoyable, days I’ve had since coming to Japan.

I am planning to go to Tokyo again this weekend to house sit for Araya, while he goes on vacation.