Tokyo Trip (Drinking Edition)

I recently made another trip up to Tokyo during the summer vacation. This time, however, was different from other times I’ve gone because my reason for going wasn’t for sight-seeing and whatnot. This time I went to visit some friends and to go to the Summer Sonic concert. Like I did with my last post, I’ll give a day by day breakdown of what I did.

August 9^th: I went by shinkansen in the morning, and got there in the afternoon. I met my friend Anna (she’s the one who came to visit me before. I’ve written a post about it) at the hostel we were staying at for two nights in Asakusa-Tokyo. We met at college and became friends then. We both are now in the JET Programme, but she lives in Hokkaido. There were three reasons we met in Tokyo. First, it’s the central point between Osaka and Hokkaido. Second, we were going to see the Summer Sonic concert together in Tokyo (the concert also took place in Osaka, but we didn’t meet in Osaka for the third reason). Third, we were also going to Tokyo to meet our mutual friend, Laura, from college who just got a job at an eikaiwa (English conversation) company in Tokyo. So that’s why we met in Tokyo.

Like I was saying, I met Anna at the hostel in the afternoon. Her friend who also lived in Hokkaido (he was returning home to New Zealand) was staying at the hostel and going to the concert too. So I met him, and then shortly after, we met Laura in Ueno to go to an izakaya. The night’s goal was to party (but not too hard because we had the concert in the morning (except Laura)). You’ll soon find out that the point of my Tokyo trip was to party with friends. That’s what made this trip different from the rest.

At the izakaya we ate a lot and had a few drinks. Laura and I were kind of boy crazy the whole trip (for clarity purposes, I was not (and still am not) in a relationship with Travis anymore). Our waiter was one of the cutest guys I’ve ever seen, so every time he came to the table, I got all flustered. I looked at his nametag, and it said “Tokyo.” What kind of Japanese name was that!? So I began to look at him more closely, and to me, he looked pretty similar to Daesung from Big Bang. I made the assumption from his strange name and his physique (he was pretty tall)/facial features that he was Korean. So, when he came to the table again, I asked him in Japanese if his name was really “Tokyo.” Then he said no and told me his real name and that he is Korean! I knew it haha! I thought he was so cool! We talked a little bit, and I told him I went to Korea recently. When our time was up (we could only stay for two hours at the izakaya), I sadly left. I tried to say goodbye to “Tokyo” as I left, but I thought he didn’t see me, but then he popped his head out of the kitchen to say bye to me as I walked out the door, and he didn’t realize that I saw him say goodbye to me…it was bad timing and a really sad event for me, especially since I wasn’t sober. p_q I’ll never forget you “Tokyo!!!”

After that, we went to the HUB (which becameanother theme of this trip). We chilled there for a bit and chatted and drank until Laura decided that she wanted to ask someone for a cigarette. So she and Anna took off to search for guys while I chilled with Anna’s friend at the table. They were gone for a while, so I was wondering where they went (the pub wasn’t that big). I went to the back and peeked around the corner to find them sitting with four salary men drinking and chatting away! Laura had her cigarette haha! So, we joined them and hung out. They started buying us tequila shots! It wasn’t long before I saw Laura and Anna the most drunk I’ve ever seen them haha…in a good way! For whatever reason, the alcohol wasn’t really affecting me that night. I was almost sober (even after a tequila shot and wine! D:). I was fine with it though because I was really entertained.

Friends reunited.

Salary man fun!

The men decided to leave because they wanted to get home and whatnot. We stepped outside and decided it was our new mission to do purikura. Laura was chatting with like every person that walked by on the street, so it was easier said than done! There were these two young guys sitting in the middle of the street, shitfaced. We realized that they had also been inside the HUB. So Laura went up to them and asked them for a cigarette lol. They happily started talking with us, and we invited them to do purikura with us. We meandered in the alleys of Ueno until we found an arcade. On the walk there, there were a lot of silly conversations. Remember, I’m like completely sober at this point, and every else (besides Anna’s friend) is wasted. One of the boys (I swear he looked like he was like 17 or 18) was all like, “You must be popular with the opposite sex.” Bahaha! I didn’t realize what he said (because he was speaking Japanese), but I figured it out later. I laugh now because at the time, I was thinking about how young he looked and how I was in no way attracted to him! Laura kept calling him Mizutama-sama which meant “Lord Polka-dots” because she couldn’t remember his name, and he was wearing a polka-dot shirt. We all did purikura together and called it a night. We put Laura on her last train, but she never made it home that night. Instead, she met a friend in Shinjuku, and stayed out all night! The rest of us went back to the hostel and slept because we had to get up kind of early for the concert.

Purikura with strangers hah!

August 10^th: The three of us got up, got ready, and headed to the concert. I’m just going to say now that it was super hot and humid and probably the sweatiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. My clothes were soaked with sweat the whole day! Anyway, from pretty much the beginning, I split off from Anna and her friend because we wanted to see different bands. I basically stayed at the main stage the whole time. The band I was most excited for was Maximum the Hormone which is a Japanese heavy metal band. It was the first time I actually got to see a Japanese band I like! They were the first to play, so that was really cool. After that, I watched Bullet for my Valentine, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, and Metallica. I also took a break from the main stage for a little bit and came across the most amazing beat boxer I’ve ever heard! It was unreal! Linkin Park was the only band I got in the pit for. It was a long process to get inside the standing area, and you weren’t allowed to have drinks. They put on an AMAZING show! I’ve seen them once before, but this time it was even better! Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park tried speaking some in Japanese, and it was so cute haha! Two things I was surprised by at the concert were first of all, many Japanese people had tattoos, and second, there was actually moshing and circle pits! I didn’t think Japanese people did that! I joined in and had a blast! At the end of the day, I met up with Anna and her friend, and we headed to the hostel.

Before the concert...we are pissed because it's
unbelievably hot!!

During the concert...Chester from Linkin Park!

After the concert...sunburnt. D:

 August 11^th: I said my sad goodbye to Anna in the morning because she was heading back to Hokkaido. Then I made my way to Laura’s apartment. She lives in Tachikawa which is a suburb of Tokyo. When I got there, we chilled out for a bit and then head towards the city. Our plan was to party hard that night. I forget what the name of the town we went to was, but we went about halfway between Tachikawa and Shinjuku to walk around before heading even closer to downtown to go to bars. We got coffee and browsed stores a bit. It was fun, except for the fact that I lost my ICOCA which had about 3,000 yen (about $30) on it. Once it got later, we went to an izakaya to eat dinner and pregame. I was worried that the alcohol wouldn’t affect me again (probably due to the fact that I pretty much became an alcoholic over the summer vacation), but for whatever reason (perhaps it was because we were drinking as much as we could as fast as we could or because it was a really nice place, and their drinks were well made) it hit me hard! I was feeling awesome!

Cute Laura!

Feelin' saucy with my chu-hi.

So after the dinner, we went to…you guessed it…the HUB! The reason we kept choosing to go to the HUB was because there are always Japanese people who go there that want to hang out and talk with foreigners since it’s a British pub that many foreigners like it. I should mention that it was a Sunday, and if you remember, we weren’t actually downtown. So when we got to the HUB, there were hardly any people there! We sat at a table with two young guys who looked our age. They were really nice and fun to talk to! I would’ve stayed there all night chatting with them, but since Laura was looking for a possible future boyfriend, she didn’t want to stay. The reason being is that one of the guys was dating the bartender there haha! Plus it was dead, so we left. We decided to go all out and just head to Shinjuku, and what do you know!? …We went to another HUB haha! This time it was decently busy! They sat us at this large community table with a bunch of dudes. Right off the bat we started talking to these two other guys. One guy was studying in America, and he was just home in Japan for summer vacation! Despite this fact, we spoke in Japanese the whole time. I was proud of myself for speaking Japanese with everyone all night in my drunken condition…I thought I did pretty well! We talked a lot and did tequila shots together. I found out that I was actually older than both of the guys! I was so surprised because they didn’t look young at all! I felt it was my duty as an elder to buy a tequila shot for the guy I was talking to haha! I think that was the first time I ever willingly bought a drink for a guy. I had a really good time hanging out and meeting new people. There was actually one guy who is Italian and studying in Japan. He didn’t know English, so we spoke in Japanese! I always think it’s kind of funny when that happens.

Being a good elder.

When the bar closed (maybe around 2 or 3 am), we left and hoped to go somewhere else with the two guys like another bar or karaoke, but they ended up going home. So Laura and I wondered the streets of Shinjuku for a bit, pulling shenanigans lol! We ended the night (or should I say morning) by getting breakfast at a fast food curry place…BAD IDEA. We eventually made it back to her apartment and went to sleep. However, it didn’t take long before I woke up feeling like crap because of the curry mixed with alcohol.

Pulling shenanigans.

The sun is rising!

August 12^th: I was actually supposed to go to my friend Yuta’s house in the afternoon on this day, but since I felt sick, I told him I would come the next day instead. This actually turned out fine because Yuta was busy finishing up a school assignment, and this gave me some down time with Laura to just chat and bond. I rested up and felt fine at the end of the day.

August 13^th: I got up and headed to Ibaraki Prefecture where my friend Yuta lives after saying goodbye to Laura…another hard goodbye! It had been around 6 months since I saw Yuta last, and I was really excited to see him again! We got to his house and then went out for an early dinner after a little bit (I hadn’t really eaten anything that day). At dinner we caught up and had a nice time. We went to the batting cages after dinner. I sucked so bad lol, but it was fun. J We wanted to get shitfaced that night (I have the best friends haha), so we went to the store and bought drinks. We were chilling at his house, watching TV, and drinking heavily when his aunt showed up and told us that his whole family was going out for a late dinner at an izakaya. We told her that we had eaten earlier, but they insisted on us going. They said they could wait like another hour to help us work up an appetite. We were really drunk and not hungry at all, but we just agreed…because we were drunk probably lol! Plus, I we wanted to spend time with his family. I found out on our way to the izakaya that Yuta has a younger sister who is 20 years old! I was so shocked because I had no idea! Yuta and I ate a little bit at the izakaya but mostly continued drinking. Again, I was sobering up because the alcohol wasn’t strong enough, but Yuta was getting more drunk. It was hilarious! I had fun talking with his family. We headed back to his house with plans to resume hanging out and drinking, but when we got there, his sister called me into her room, and we ended up chatting for like an hour. She was so nice and funny! When I went back into the living room after hanging with Yuta’s sister, I found him asleep! So that was the end of that night. :P

August 14^th: This day we planned to go to Yuta’s grad school in Saitama to have a BBQ party with his friends, and that’s exactly what we did! However, we had a master plan…which was to get everyone drunk, especially two of his friends who are very weak with alcohol…like they get drunk after one drink and turn bright red haha! Yuta kept telling me he wanted the BBQ party to be “American style” which I took to mean like drinking like Americans…which to me means shot gunning beers and taking shots.

So, after getting to his campus, meeting everyone, going shopping, and setting up, the party began! I made the “weak” guys take shots right off the bat! It was incredible how quickly they turned red and were laughing at their own drunkenness! Like literally after 60 seconds! :O For hours we cooked, ate, talked, and drank. I made every guy shot gun a beer, I was mixing drinks for people all the time (which was fun), and making people take shots like every half hour or so haha! People were so funny! I introduced everyone to Captain Morgan which was a big hit! I was buzzed for a bit, but it kind of wore off, and after that, I couldn’t get drunk even if I kept drinking! D: This summer kind of taught me that come the new semester, I needed to keep drinking strictly limited to Fridays and/or Saturdays! Which as of now, I have been succeeding at.

Since there are strict laws in Japan about drinking and driving, we all slept in their students’ office. It was actually pretty comfortable! We stayed up late talking (mostly me teaching them bad words in English hahaha). When we woke up the next day, Yuta and I headed back to his home to have lunch and get cleaned up. Then he took me to the station, and I headed back to Osaka. It was a really fun time seeing all my friends, but it was too short! However, my body probably couldn’t have handled hanging out with them much more!! Good thing the only thing I did with the rest of my summer vacation was party and drink with my Osaka friends… :P ;D

My targets: mission accomplished!

Yuta shot gunning a beer!