(Day 14) Helping Johnny Pay His Bills

NYE. The last day of the year. We’ve arrived. It’s a good time to reflect, no? 2010 began with slightly less than a *poof* in my parents farm house in snowy Manitoba. I was reading my old school diaries to my older sister who was laughing so hard I think she almost peed. It was pretty funny. The year itself was fairly uneventful – no job changes, home changes, friend changes – but I did discover where my next major stop in life is going to be. So while 2011 won’t be the year to bring that about either, it will come eventually. Also, I finished school this year, which is monumental. I get a least a few letters behind my name for that. But right now, I’m closing 2010 in this crazy city, so let’s focus on that for today.

We woke up this morning and casually discussed going to the major Johnny Countdown concert at Tokyo Dome tonight. And then we decided that we should go. It was that simple. Now the small matter to find some tickets… But first, ramen in Shibuya.




Oh Ichiran, let me have your babies.

After lunch, I bought the exact sweater I’m wearing as I write this (though it is actually Marty’s) and then we busted over to Harajuku to procure the aforementioned Johnny tickets. And I grabbed a crepe along the way just for the hell of it.





So…after wedging ourselves into Gorakudoh’s ticket shop (glorified scalpers) along with a bucket-load of tweens, we escaped with two overpriced tickets in hand. Instead of crowding around the display case, we went straight to the counter to buy. And so we beat everyone to the bunch. Hah! Suckas. Then we hunkered down for some Sutaba.




Whoooo! Johnny’s Countdown 2011, here we come!

We were still lazy bones, so we killed time at the killing-time parlour again.


Hallucinogenic qualities.

So eventually the hour arrived and we prepped for the long night ahead. Janelle was pondering our opportunities for imbibing alcohol and was attempting a stealthy sneak-in into the arena.


Good hiding spot. They’ll never notice it there.

So we headed to Suidobashi and followed the masses up and out onto the streets. We then had the foresight to grab snacks before heading inside, so we joined the 40-strong queue at Family Mart. But damn, they are fast. We were out in about five minutes. Then, into the dome.





As you can see, our noses were practically bleeding and we were in the first floor stands – there were two sections above us yet! Turns out they don’t care if you bring food and booze in – only cameras. Oh Johnny. The poor, poor girls who landed behind us must have been a total of four and a half feet tall…though they were a step above, we were still taller than them. They kept saying ‘mite nai!’ (‘I can’t see!’) Sorry, girls.





Now let me put things into context. I’ve been watching this countdown on the internet for a few years now and it really is the event of the year for this stable of Japanese male idols. Hence the inflated ticket prices. But this year had lost a certain ‘oomph’ because a bunch of groups weren’t in attendance. The screaming wasn’t any quieter though.




My baby, stuffed away at their concert in Osaka. They really needed to show more of them on the big screen.

The big moment arrived…



There it is – the first moments of 2011, rang in while breathing the same air as 60,000 other people. Yippee! But I was disappointed with the lack of hugging and general goodwill people show when a new year is born. How sterile these people are…but I hugged Janelle with abandon.


The reason for cheaper tickets this year. Thanks for not showing up, Arashi.


Cute!



Aaaaaand, scene. I didn’t get any close-ups of individual hotties because the zoom is really kind of sad on my lovely camera. And they were moving around wildly. And it was dark. And we were far. So, excuses. And then we all shuffled down to the subway to wait in the congestion for the single train that comes each hour. C’mon Tokyo. If you are going to run the trains all night, RUN ALL NIGHT.

Our next stop was Roppongi. Drunkards littered the streets and the train stations bathrooms were the grossest facilities I have ever encountered. And that’s saying a lot. Puke in the sinks, toilet paper and pee on the floor…if you’ve been to a public bathroom in Japan, you’ll know that this is quite a departure from the norm. Oh and ps, I was sick with a crazy-nasty cold that night and so I didn’t drink at all. And so I didn’t even have the alcohol to temper my grossed-outed-ness.

We headed to Lex to find a massive crowd brimming in every direction. I made it as far as the bar before I turned back and headed outside. Not a single person could move inside. Fire hazard! I was kind of crabby and so we just headed home. Well, not quite. We made it back to Akasaka and then searched for food. We found that Matsuya place which is ridiculously cheap, but the food was crap. Oh well. Happy New Year.

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(Day 13) Duh Outlet

I could have not felt more like the walking dead if I was dead. We picked something stupid – like the 8:45 bus. UGGGGHHHHHH. I think we were in bed by, like, 4:30 last night. I’m tired just hearing me talk/write about it. Worst. Shinjuku was still really dead since nothing opens until , like, 11, so we zombie-walked around trying to find food. Janelle wanted curry. What? Let’s just get on the bus and melt into sleep in the stiff seats.


I’m glad to see my ex is still getting work. I ain’t mad atcha Ryuhei!

The ride was a bit short of two hours where we switched buses onto the outlet’s shuttle bus. The shuttle was standing-room only, and somebody kept jamming their bum into mine and someone (else?) kept farting. Worst. The road was also full of twists and turns and so…yeah. You can imagine.



It is so damn cold out here in the middle of Shizuoka. And the strollers were out in full force. Outlet mall = strollers. Again, worst.



So I want to start off by saying I had high hopes for this outlet mall. Very high. Astronomical. There were outlets from a pile of my faves: McQueen, Gucci, Miu Miu, Maison Martin Margiela, Moschino, CA4LA, Tsumori Chisato, Yohji, Vivienne, and the list goes on. But I bought nothing. Do you know why? Because sale prices in Japan SUCK. I know I ranted about this at the Isetan sale, but it really is too bad. Also, the McQueen outlet was a single rack of XS shirts in the back corner of the YSL store. Ugh. Sadness all around. At least I got a closer look at Mt. Fuji, which has been evading me forever. Today too though…damn clouds.




We are surely in the sticks.

We boarded the mid-afternoon bus for home and arrived back in the city at dinner. We were still absolutely dead, so we walked a few feet and rested for dinner in some basement at a cheapo pasta joint called La Pausa.



After picking up some goods at Uniqlo, we headed home and did NOTHING this evening. Went to SLEEP. This was short but its fine because tomorrow is NYE…and we’ll be out. Maybe there will be a special New Year’s surprise? Maybe we’ll go to something? Maybe.

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(Day 12) Crazy 88's

The late nights are starting to take their toll. Generally, I look like death most of the time and I’m always starving. So we crawled out of bed and headed out for a late lunch to Lumine in Shinjuku again. We were going to try for Bitter Sweets again (HA!) but they were closing up for the lunch hour so we checked out every damn restaurant on the 7th and 8th floors before decided on Wolfgang Puck’s. The line was the shortest.





After helping us figure out how to buy bus tickets to get to the outlet mall in Gotemba (which is beyond difficult, thanks Odakyu), we had to say goodbye to Yukimi-chan. She is so adorable! It better not be the last time I see her…in life.



Not knowing how in the world to get to Nishi-Azabu, we started our journey early. We took the train to Roppongi and just ended up using our legs to get us there. It worked. On the way we encountered:


I’m not sure what this means.

We found our destination on Azabu crossing and since we were over an hour early, we moseyed up to the coffee shop on the adjacent corner for some sitting and drinks.






This is what a $7 hot chocolate looks like. Then they tried to charge an additional 25 yen. WHAT. I made Janelle make them fix it.

Our buddy Eiji suggested randomly to go to Gonpachi in Nishi-Azabu for dinner. Have you seen ‘Kill Bill’? And how did he know I’ve kind of always wanted to go here? Well, me and the rest of the whities in the restaurant.









To clarify: This restaurant was NOT in the movie This restaurant (heavily) influenced Quentin Tarantino’s version that DID appear in the movie. That was a set. That’s why they could cover it in gallons of blood. Just so we are on the same page.







We ate and ate all this little izakaya junk that they serve and then we hopped in a taxi and booted it over to Shinjuku…were we drank wine in the coolest little bar I’ve ever been in. Like, so rad.





The whole place sat maximum 20-ish people. Quiet, hip, and the waitress wore a tux. It was dark and the toilet lid closed itself. My kind of place.


He’s a regular here.


Some chocolate the waitress just made for us. Right then. Like, a minute or two prior to the photo. And it was good. Ugh! So hip. Eiji kept telling me that there is no visible discernable difference between me and Elin Nordegren. Why yes, he was very drunk – how could you tell?

After imbibing a significant portion of wine and other-ish beverages, I was a little zupped. So then we, of course – say it with me – went home and prepared for another night out in Roppongi.

So tonight is the last in our 4-day stretch. Let’s see…we drank with our new friend Atsu in VIP after he bought us some champagne and then some Zimas! That’s about it. And then we had some nani ramen. Some boys at the ramen shop were very fascinated by us. The one kept kissing my gloved hand saying, “I love you”. HAAAAA this never gets old!

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(Day 11) Bitter Sweets

Last night left us apparently completely incapacitated. We managed to get ourselves presentable enough to leave the house at around 3 PM today. This is getting bad – we come out as the sun goes down. I guess we were tired.



We had time to kill before meeting Yukimi at our station, so we headed into Japan’s #1 time-waster, karaoke.



I love how Karaoke Kan’s rooms are always like an acid trip.






Aw yeah. Singing songs from high school dances circa 1999.

After grabbing Yukimi at the station and dropping her stuff off at our place, we booted it over to Shinjuku for some dinner at the Bitter Sweets Buffet in Lumine.







This place is mint. Like, best casual buffet in my life yet. They had all kinds of wafu pasta, curry, small breaded corn bite things, potato sticks, and, of course, some sweets. But…they weren’t bitter…?


Yukimi-chan






Why yes…those are bejewelled cobwebs on the ceiling.


Of course, this is me taking a picture of myself eating as shown by my reflection in the mirror on the ceiling.



After stuffing ourselves fuller than a Cornish game hen on Cornish game hen day at the cafeteria, we headed home and slowly started gussying ourselves up for another night at the club named after the villain from Superman.





So the night started off harmless enough until I got dragged into VIP by some crony who was scouting for women for his boss or whatever by telling me “BIG MONEY”. He shoved me at this guy in the corner and said ‘ikemen’ (good-looking guy). AWKWARD. I totally sat on the couch farthest from him which earned me an immediate spot on the ikemen’s rejection list. I was then dragged back out of VIP and told to “go dance”. How rude. Did they think I was some kind of prostitute or something? Then later some old guy invited me into VIP to drink with him and I could bring my friends (“Woman OK. Man, not OK”) and so in we went. Whatever. He was a total loser (I mean, of course, right) who kept asking both me and Janelle if he could be our boyfriend. We ditched him and that was pretty much the excitement of the night. Not our best night, to say the least. But that won’t stop us from returning tomorrow. YES. We are crazy.

Also tomorrow we hang out with Eiji from Mistubishi that we met last week. This involves eating at the restaurant from ‘Kill Bill’ (aka Gonpachi in Nishi-Azabu.) And drinks. Those are always fun.

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