8/12

It's 2am Wednesday. Besides meaning that I've already been in this hotel room for 7 nights, it also means that I only have 7 more nights to spend in Japan. The next 4 nights will be spen in the Taito Ryokan in Asakusa. Then I'll probably spend 2 nights in the Capsules in Akihabara and the last night in I forget the name Ryokan in Suidobashi with my friends Minako and Minami. I've already been in Japan for 3 weeks. It kind of feels like it has been that long but still feels mega short. From the first day I got here, I feel like I couldn't have picked better people to spend my time with.

I went the the craziest izakaya tonight with my friend Yuki. But I'm really tired so I'll talk about it tomorrow.

8/14

Because I have time. . . I guess.

Even though I'm cho (super) tired, I'd rather stay awake than catch up on sleep. My eyes are bloodshot almost all the time but its not like I go to sleep late everynight. It's just that I have to wake up at fricking 7am everyday. The last time I had to wake up that early on a regular basis was 3 years ago in high school. So for me to get enought sleep, I would need to go to sleep at around 10pm, which is impossible. I'll just endure until I return to San Francisco and sleep until classes begin.

I just looked at my last post and forgot that I was supposed to talk about the izakaya that I went to with my friend Yuki. Izakaya is a food establishment that serves small dishes and drinks. I used to always associate it with business men winding down after work but learned here that younger people go to izakayas and don't drink alcohol all the time. Well, the one I went to a couple of days was a prison/horror movie themed one called Lockup and was close to Shinjuku Station. The food wasn't the best and neither were the drinks but you don't really go there for that. Right when the elevator doors open, it's like your going to enter a haunted house. To open the door you put your wrist into a small guillotine and then a scantily dressed guard lady handcuffs you and escorts you to your table. The tables are like small rooms with the doors, of course, being metal sliding prison bar doors. The whole place itself is not really well lit, which is why I didn't take any pictures. Everything in the menu follows the theme, like a drink I got used a huge syringe or the salad dressing had dry ice in it to make it smoky looking. Blah blah, the best part is when you're eating and suddenly all the lights go off and a loud siren goes off. Then people dressed up rather scarily run around the place, that is only illuminated by black and strobe lights, and scare the shit out of people. First of all, you don't really see the people before they get to your "cell" as it is set in the walls. Also, it doesn't help that you can here the milk curdling screams of Japanese girls and banging on the metal doors as they get closer and closer. Then when they do get to you, they literally rip the door open and get right, like literally right in your face. It goes on for at least a couple of minutes and me and Yuki stayed long enough to experience it twice. Ya ya it sounds and is corny but come on, you know what you're getting yourself into right when the elevator doors open. I think everyone who goes there has a good time and I thought that it was super fun. I really wish I had pictures but didn't want to ruin the ambience with my mega bright flash and none on the internet do the place justice. Just trust me. It was fun.

Today I went to another themed izakaya with Minami and Minako. It was called Ninja Akasaka and if you can't assume from the name, was ninja themed and in Akasaka. This place was more like a restaurant than an izakaya as the food was soo different and presented so nicely. It was kind of expensive and we only got a couple of dishes but it was sooooooooooooooo fun!. The entrance was really small and compared to other food places with their neon signs, really inconspicuous. Well you enter and this girl, everyone is dressed like ninjas and has ninja names, explains the story of ninjas and stuff and leads you down pitch black passageway that's supposed to make it feel like your in a cave. It's pretty dangerous, with fricking super low ceilings and the fact that you can't see shit but it was cool. The menus are ninja scrolls and drinks ninja named. Don't ask me what ninja names are because I have no idea. The food was expensive but soooo cool! The coolest was soba that was disguised as pasta, what it said in the English menu, and was soba noodles but with tomato shaved ice. Oishikatta! Probably the coolest part was when this ninja magician came to our table and did a little magic show. It was like cool hands on street magic and because of my child like mind, was blown away. I guess it's a popular place as there were a couple of gaijin (foreigners) and where we sat, was small plaque that said Steven Speilberg and the date that he came. Everyone was so fricking nice and cool and BEST PART RIGHT HERE. When we left the place, one of the ninja ladies came out into the sidewalk, kneeled and pulled apart a scroll that said "Thank You Come Again!" I was like, "How nice of you embarrassing yourself for my sake!" It was in English too! It was soooo friggin cool. I wish I was rich so that I could eat more of their food. If I ever come back to Tokyo, I'm going to Ninja Akasak again.

I realize that this entry is cho long but it's only because I have the time right now. I haven't even uploaded any albums onto facebook! So busy all the time. I wanna say that I don't want to go home but I think that it would be more accurate to say that I don't want to leave my friends because if they left, even though I'm in Tokyo, it would be impossible to have as much fun as I'm having right now.