So, what's been up lately? :)
Thursday Dee and Keith got here and brought me a big bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I love my friends. Mmmm! Dee unfortunately wasn't feeling too well, but we met up shortly after they got to the hotel and went to the Tokyo Tower. Keith and I got a bite to eat, but Dee wasn't up for it. I hope she's feeling better now.
Pat arrived on Friday. I met him at the apartment, then we ran over to our company hanami. It's basically an excuse to sit outside and get really fucked up drinking too much, but the flowers are nice. Fortunately quite a few flowers were still on three and they were really pretty when the wind blew and it looked like it was raining petals. After that we went bar hopping in Shibuya and Ebisu until about 2am and had a great time. First was Tight, then an little outdoor bar in a tent (where I left my bag with cameras in it), then to Ebisu were we went to Q and one other place I think. We crashed a home. When I woke up I had 4 calls from someone at 4am and I couldn't figure out why. I did meet them before. It happened to be someone I met at that bar a week ago and they saw my ID when looking at the bag and brought it to the police station. It didn't click until I was looking for it and found it missing. We met up with him though, got my bag back after a lot of paper work then off to Kamakura. We saw the large temple there and the Daibutsu, a large Buddha statue that's probably one of the most famous things there. We got some interesting food then ran off to Enoshima which is a little island you can walk across a bridge to and went up to see the shrine and sunset there. Then back to Yokohama where we walked around Chinatown and got kind of ripped off at our restaurant. More kind of my fault, but it wasn't what we expected.
Sunday, we were supposed to go to Studio Ghibli in the morning, but couldn't. Instead we went to go see Meiji jingu (The largest Shinto in Tokyo) then off to Yoyogi Park, Harajuku and Omotesando. Kind of the fashion districts. We got to see a few of the weird kids that hang out there, but I think it was still a little early and they were probably drinking under the cherry trees anyway. Some friends of mine were having a hanami that day, so we headed over to the station and bought some drinks and KFC on the way. Partway there we saw a little neighborhood hanami. They had a small kodo group playing and the kids were making bird houses. We hung out for a few minutes then continued on to the park which turned out to be a lot further then I expected. I talked to a couple partway there and we took the bus the rest of the way. After finally finding my friend we joined the about 20 people there and ended up staying later then we had planned, because it was so much fun. We ended up going out to drink with them for a bit afterwards, but that was probably a mistake. A little too much Japanese for Pat, so we split early went home and feel asleep.
Pat will have you tell you about Monday, but I met him at the Go center after work. We went to the Tokyo Tower and went up to the top level. I can finally say I've been there, done that. (^_^) It is a really nice view, but too expensive I think. Then we went to Tsukishima which is famous for monjayaki. It's kind of of like Okonomiyaki, but it looks like something someone threw up. I'm not kidding! We had planned on Okonomiyaki (the restaurants have both since it's so similar), but we got Taro (pork, fish and something else) and Hanako (two types of mushrooms, shrimp, squid and something else) monjayaki. Pat did an excellent job making the second one and we talked some with the guys at the next table. Then we met up with a couple friends at a bar we wanted to try then got home way too late (little after 1).
We woke up about 5:40 this morning, took and quick shower and went to Ryogoku to see some sumo practices. It actually turned out to be quite interesting. We were the first there and it made us a little nervous, but probably 12 other people showed up while we were there. Maybe 2.5 hours total. I'm back at work and hopefully almost ready to leave. I'm debating what to go eat tonight. Mmm. Probably won't stay out too late tonight though. I think the lack of sleep is going to catch up with us tonight, but it's nothing Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Starbucks Coffee with lots of sugar can't fix.
(actually, as I write that, I realized I haven't had any coffee today. How the hell am I still awake?!)
