Back to Reality

Okay, looks like you guys weren't all that impressed by my attempt at making our trip seem more exciting, so it's back to our much less interesting adventures.

Sunday, we met up with the girls (Courtney, Sara and Katie) again at 7:30 way out in the middle of nowhere (or rather, Hachioji - about 45 minutes outside of Tokyo) for yakiniku! And getting there was an experience in itself. Almost as soon as we had left the station and Courtney declared "At least it's not raining," - you guessed it - it started raining. And it turns out we had gone in the wrong direction from the station, so what should've been a 2 minute walk turned into a 45 minute walk.

But we finally got there! It was a much bigger restaurant than I had been expecting, and even had its own parking lot! (Yes, in Tokyo, this is uncommon. Usually if places have parking, it's in a parking garage). So here we are at Den Yakiniku.

As you may have guessed, it is the kind of establishment where you have to take your shoes off upon entering. It definitely feels weird to be eating out at a restaurant with no shoes on. We had to wait a while to get a table (what with Meat Day being so popular and all), but finally it was time for food! Good thing too, since it was already nearly 9pm.

Here's Courtney showing us how it's done. Basically, your table has this little grill in the middle, already fired up and ready to go. All you have to do is push some buttons on a little electronic screen and a waiter will come and bring you whatever kind of meat (or side dishes) you request! You only have to get up to get your drink. And there are tons of different types of meat you can choose from - pork, roast beef, chicken thigh, sausage, sirloin, even chicken hearts and cow tongue! We stayed away from those.

The little tray on the right has dipping sauces in it: original, sweet, and ponzu. I liked the original and sweet best, as the ponzu was a little sour/tart.

Cinnamon and Courtney are both helping out with the grill, and you can see the little electronic screen there between them.

By about 10:30, we decided we had had enough meat (and there's a 90 minute time limit), so we figured we had better head back to the station so we could be sure to catch the last train. Of course, it was still raining, and someone had taken Courtney's umbrella, so she was forced to make due with a smaller one. But we took the proper way back to the station this time, so it only took a few minutes.

The next night, Monday, we had a party! We went shopping in Ikebukuro in the afternoon (the two of us, plus the other 3 girls), and then all convened at Coco Ichiban-ya in Shibuya at about 6:30.

It's a curry restaurant! And they serve up some super, super delicious curry. I got a half portion of hirekatsu curry, which is breaded, fried pork tenderloin, in case you were wondering.

Susa joined us for this occasion, and we all 6 crammed into one booth in this tiny little restaurant. But it was worth it - and very cheap, too! You get a lot of food for about $7.

Afterward, we headed upstairs for 3 hours of karaoke!

In Japan, you get your own little box in which to sing, so there's less embarrassment than the American type where you're forced to sing in front of a bunch of strangers.

Yes, they even supply you with tambourines! And there are a ton of songs to choose from (as you can see by the phone book-sized catalog of songs there under the little electronic song-choosing device. ...It's under Susa's arm.) They had both Japanese and English songs, but the majority were in Japanese.

And this is precisely why Cinnamon has no idea what's going on. And here I told her to learn at least one song in Japanese in preparation for this, too. But doesn't she look stylish in her new fedora? Also, I don't know what I'm looking at. Probably Courtney, who was holding the other mic.

But after three hours of this, it was getting late, so we all headed back home for the night.

Only to meet up again Tuesday evening for HapiPani 7! If you're wondering what that is, it's the abbreviation for "Happy *pnish* Birthday 7th." It's a one-time-only event *pnish* has every year on July 1st in commemoration of the day the group was formed. I'll spare you all the details, but it was absolutely spectacular and I wish I could see it again right now.

You can see how excited Cinnamon (aka Gigantor) is about her very cool new *pnish* tote bag. It is filled with awesome things, and I also have one... filled with even more awesome things. After the show and demachi, we all parted ways at about 11pm, though Cinnamon and I didn't turn in until much, much later since we were so wired after such an awesome performance. (Yes, you heard that correctly. Cinnamon willingly stayed up until 3am!)

Courtney headed back to Hikone in the morning, since she had to go to work, but we decided to meet up with Katie to help her shop for souvenirs, as it was her last day in Japan. So we took her to one of the big 100 yen shops we had been to, and she went to town~ Then we took the train back to Akihabara, Tokyo's "Electric Town", to look for a few other things.

Then we got hungry, so it was down to Gotanda to Coco Ichi's again for more delicious curry. And to top it off, we hit up Harajuku and had crepes!

Katie and I had "ice cream, chocolate and whipped cream" and Cinnamon had "banana, caramel and whipped cream." They were super good, super filling and also pretty cheap. I will definitely be eating those again.

The picture's pretty self-explanatory, I think. Mmm... crepes. Also in Harajuku, I bought a cute new pair of sandals for about $30, and they're working out so far! I was sick of wearing tennis shoes. They don't go well with skirts and dresses.

Around the corner from Harajuku, near Aoyama, we walked down by Omotesando Hills. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it before, but it's basically a very upscale shopping mall. Looked pretty neat all lit up, though.

Sadly, it was getting late, so we said our goodbyes to Katie and headed home. Today we took it easy, only going to the grocery store and to Shinjuku to pay rent. Also, we got a leg up on the pile in our room, since it was getting pretty messy. Looks much nicer now. Tomorrow, we're off to visit Roppongi Hills!