Before I start writing about this, I apologise in advance for the appalling quality of some of the outdoor shots. My night time photography skills leave a lot to be desired.
So yes, last night I went out into Shibuya with Melissa, an American girl from my Japanese course, who I also live at Big Rose 21 with, and her friend Alonna. Shibuya is one of the big nightlife centres of Tokyo, and has what I believe to be the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world; there are plenty of photos and videos of the huge volume of people crossing every minute, so just type "Shibuya Crossing" into Youtube and you'll get an idea of it!
After getting the train from Higashi-Koganei to Shinjuku Station, and changing there, we took a different train one more stop to Shibuya Station. Once outside, we had a bit of an explore whilst we looked for a place to have some food. Even just walking around Shibuya is an amazing experience, what with all the neon and the sights and the sounds. If you picture Tokyo in your head and imagine the big neon signs and bustling streets, that's exactly what Shibuya's like.
On the way to find some food we came across a concentration of 'Love Hotels'. If you've never heard of them before or you somehow hadn't worked out their function from the euphemistic name, there's a fairly, ahem, comprehensive article on them on Wikipedia.
There were tens of them on this one little street, from the predictably named "Hotel Silk" to the more worryingly named "Blood". The place we chose to eat at was actually at the bottom of this street (although in no way connected to its neighbours!), at a little place where we could sit and have a drink as well as get some food. On the specials board there was an offer on a sashimi platter for three people which, considering there were three of us, we decided to get! I'm glad we did; it was delicious.
Sashimi consists of slices of raw fish on some crunchy refreshing salad, with wasabi and soy sauce. This was the first proper sashimi I've had since coming to Japan, and it was the best I've ever eaten. The fish was really thick and meaty, and the wasabi was the best I've ever had, too. It wasn't too badly priced either, nor were the drinks; I had two big glasses of Asahi. The whole experience was a very nice, civilised way to start the evening! The only thing I was a bit miffed about was that we only found after receiving the bill that there was a 300 yen entrance fee per person. I think that's a bit rich, as you're paying them for the food and drinks anyway, which they must make a profit on. I can understand an entrance fee for clubs and places like that, where you pay for the music and the work of the DJs and all that, but paying to enter a place where you again pay for food and drink? I think that's a bit cheeky.
But anyway, afterwards we went in search of a bar. Whilst walking down a side street we were startled to see a very excited little Japanese man come running at us from inside a bar shouting "hai, hai, hai, douzo, douzo, irasshaimase, irasshaimase" (yes, yes, yes, come in, come in, welcome, welcome). After having a look at the menu we thought it seemed pretty reasonable, so decided to stay there! Then we saw on the menu an option for 飲み放題, nomihoudai, or all you can drink. Ahh, the Japanese nomihoudai. They are much more prolific here than in the UK and pretty much the only viable option for a student going out into Tokyo. We paid about £10 for an hour's 飲み放題, in most small bars it's about £5-6 a pint, so this was definitely worth it. When Japanese people select the nomihoudai they seem to just get a couple of drinks over the course of the whole hour, which seems a little bit pointless. Of course, hulking great Westerners like myself certainly get their money's worth! I had four pints of Suntory beer and a G&T in the hour, which worked out at £2 a drink. In the centre of Tokyo, the most expensive city in the world!
It was in this bar that we met a group of drunk, funny Japanese people. None of them really spoke any English, so it was a great chance to practice our Japanese!
My Japanese seems to dramatically improve after a few drinks, or perhaps everything that comes out of my mouth then is just rubbish. Whichever the case, we exchanged email addresses and agreed to meet up in Kichijoji next Friday night. I was originally meant to go to Kichijoji with ICU people on Friday night, but everyone ended up being busy, so we're due to go tomorrow night instead!
I'm certainly enjoying my nights out in Tokyo :)
James
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