Tokyo: Day 7

As you might have noticed, I stopped updating the blog everyday in Tokyo, so I'm batch-updating now.

I woke up and met Jun in the onsen section and had a quick soak before checking out from the hotel, then we went to the Korean town which is really close to Shinjuku. Jun loves Korean food so we went to a restaurant and had breakfast/lunch. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera had died the day before, so I charged it at the restaurant, therefore no food porn of my lunch.

After we had eaten, we walked through Korean town, and slowly back to Shinjuku. It was really good weather, so we went to a cafe and sat in the sunshine outside. I was still a bit tired and I realized suddenly that I was sleeping. Very comfortable, almost like a fine summer day.

A happy, cute rabbit found on the walk

Back in Shinjuku he went home, and I went back to the hotel for some reclining. I was really tired, so when I received a message from Umi-chan, that she was going to be a bit late I was relieved. Instead of 15, we ended up meeting at 17 at Shinjuku east exit. She brought three Swedish friends and we went together to a restaurant and had okonomiyaki and monja. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savory pancake containing a variety of ingredients, and monja is a runnier version of okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki engulfed in mayonnaise

Closeup

After that we bought beer and went to one of the Swedish guys, Jimmie, and had a pre-party. Two other Swedes arrived, and later Jimmies girlfriend. Poor Umi-chan, surrounded by Swedes. As she had to work the day after she left a bit earlier.

Where did we go after the pre-party?
アルプス！
A lot of beer and food was consumed and we had a really fun time and a lot of intriguing conversations (yes, I'm citing you Tatsuki Momose).

Half of the Swedes at アルプス

The other half

More cheesy food porn

We felt that we wanted to party some more, and a part of the group wanted to sing, so we went  to a karaoke place that had soft drink nomihoudai until 10 in the morning. Well, acually there was some alcohol involved. Like 700 ml of Nikka Whiskey bought from the family mart nearby (mohahaha!). There was a lot of singing, and Elin, Jimmies girlfriend knew a lot of Japanese songs which was awesome. I tried one that I had almost learned two years ago, but I had forgotten quite a bit. Or I was too drunk. Probably an evil combination of memory-loss and alcohol. Other than that, I did my usual lineup of Soundgarden and a couple of others, but as I only know songs that they don't have in the karaoke places, I had to choose songs that I don't know that well. That combined with drunk is a bad idea. And as usual when you go to karaoke, interactions with rooms nearby also occured.

Because it was free drinks I felt like experimenting: melon soda with whiskey. Please, whatever you do, don't try this. It was abhorrently horrible (At last I could squeeze in that beautiful word in a sentence, abhorrent).

Fun at karaoke. You can see my almost untouched melon soda / whiskey. It was also time for some coffee

So kawaiiiiiiii

Suddenly a wild seven a'clock in the morning appeared and we said goodbye to each other.

Conclusion: I think I will have to learn a few Japanese songs.

Tokyo: Day 6

After a long nights sleep I was genki again (genki = healthy; stamina; spirit; courage) and went to Yoshinoya for lunch. It is a place where you buy a bowl of rice with meat on top of it, very delicious. It becomes even more delicious, in my opinion, if you add red pickled ginger, like a lot. I mean like a mountain damn it. I love that ginger! In Japanese, its called benishouga. Remember that kids.

Gyudon with a mountain of benishouga

I also decided to do something fun that evening, so I hooked up with a Japanese friend who lives in Tokyo, Jun, and he took me to Kanda and a restaurant that have nomihoudai (drink all you want for a fixed time for a fixed price) but instead of the cheaper Japanese beers, this was with Belgian beer!

The place was a bit fancy, and on weekdays it's usually packed with people due to the high percentage of salarymen in the area, but because it was Saturday it was not that crowded. Amazingly, it was also no smoking, thanks for that.

We chose the 4000 yen alternative with seven kinds of beer and started drinking from the top down. The beers was like 1200 yen each, so we reckoned if we drank more than five or six, we would make a huge profit! They also had a great variety of food, and we ordered quite a bit. Very tasty indeed (oh yes, incoming food porn. Brace yourselves!).

Salad with smoked salmon

Oh yes, this is a 36 month cured ham from Spain, and the most exclusive one. I present to you the jamón ibérico de bellota! Bellota = acorn, and the name originates from that the pigs only eat acorns during the last period.

This was the chefs choice this week, a hamburger in tomato curry. Really tasty as well

One of the beers. It was a cherry one, so it was average

Venison stew. This. was. AWESOME! Just look at that tasty bone. Doesn't that make you wanna dig in and eat like a pre-historical caveman, ripping the meat from the bone with your teeth?

It sure made me want to do it

A map of Belgium was plastered on the wall as well. 

After that place we went to Shinjuku and アルプス (Alps, do you remember?) because it has become my favourite place so I want to go there like, a lot. When I was there during the new years holiday, we went there three days straight, and the waitress commented "are you here today as well?" so I thought she would remember me, but she didn't. So sad.

We had a variety of snacks there as well, and a lot of beer. I was really surprised that Jun could keep up with my pace. He was a bit more drunk than me, but hey, we had like eight beers at the restaurant in Kanda, and probably five or six at アルプス (do you remember the translation?).

Gyoza (dumplings)

I think this was some kind of fries with cheese

And it's not food porn in Japanese style unless you "open the food" and hold ut up in front of the camera. mmm, cheese

It was getting late and he decided to stay at the capsule hotel as well, so we had a good soak before bed.

Tokyo: Day 5

This day was a day of rest.
Slept until 12, walked around in Shinjuku to try and find some interesting restaurants or stores, but ended up spending two hours at a book off, looking at manga and stuff.

I had lunch at coco house, and then I went back to the capsule hotel for some reclining. I was really out of it so I did nothing the whole day. Got hungry around 22 or something and went for a ramen, then sleep.

Overview of the awesomeness. paripari chicken curry with sausages and a boiled egg. Spiciness degree 4

Food porn macro

Tokyo: Day 4

I started my day at Italian Tomato Cafe Jr. with a carbonara and lots of parmesan. The sauce was a bit on the thin side this time as well, but it was good anyway. After breakfast I headed to the game center again, to increase the size of my blister on my finger.

The daily Food Porn

After gaming, I went for an adventurous stroll around Shinjuku before I checked in at three. My only plan for the day was to attend the weekly Go! Go! Nihon - event they have on Thursdays at the british pub HUB in takadanobaba. I met Hans at 6.30 pm and went for dinner at a yakitori place called ban ban pretty close to the hotel. A guy recommended that place last time I was in Tokyo and it was pretty good. You really can't compare it to torigoya though, but they had ume sasami (the ume was not mixed with mayonnaise unfortunately). They didn't have tomato bacon, but they had asparagus rolled in pork (not bacon) and that was really awesome.

 After dinner we took the train to takadanobaba, and directly walked in the wrong direction. I remebered that HUB was located to the side of McDonalds, but it was Burger King, on the other side of the station.
When we arrived, I went for the happy hour menu, but directly got informed that it was only valid between 5-7. And I thought it was 7-9. Big disappointment. But I went for the jumbo sized Cuba Libre anyway.
It was a lot of people there as usual; Japanese, Swedish, Italian, American and so on. A really nice mix of people. Ko-hei came around 8:30, but unfortunately he couldn't stay that long. The harsh reality as a Japanese freelance designer.

Around 11, me and Hans decided to leave, which probably was a good idea because he was becoming really drunk. Out of respect, I won't post the awesome pics I have of him ;). When I got back to Shinjuku I wanted to party a bit more, so I loooked for a nice bar. On my way through Kabukichou no less than five black guys tried to lure me to a shady place.
- Hey, where are you going? What do you look for? Do you like boobs?

I found a nice looking bar literally 10 meters from the capsule hotel. It looked a bit fancy, but I noticed they had Hoegaarden there, so I decided to give it a shot. I started to talk to two guys there and the bartenders and I really had a blast so I probably will go there again. I think I left around 4 or 5, and I killed my wallet (the bill was 8600 yen. Hoegaarden: 1500 each). But if it's fun it can't be helped.

Yummy!

She recieved special make up from the bartender when she came to the bar

Enjoying the awesomeness

I hanged out with these guys and had a blast. Arm wrestling (damn I suck) and a lot of slapping each other in the head 

One of the bartenders 

Oh, and btw, I saw a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk with his leg spread out, peeing.

Tokyo: Day 3

I was a bit tired from the day before, so I decided to pay 1000 yen extra and check out at 12 instead of 10. Then I immediately went to Doutor and ate my awesome breakfast, a chicken and egg sandwich.
After breakfast I went to the TAITO-gaming center across the street, to increase my skill at Jubeat (Albin, beware. I'm gonna kick your butt so bad in august).

This is how your finger becomes after playing exessive amounts of Jubeat. I pretty much get C on all level 8 extreme now, even if it is the first time I play it

At three a clock, I checked in to the hotel again and started my favorite hobby, reclining. I slept like a baby for a good two hours, and then browsed interwebs until it was time to make myself pretty.

I had some ramen at a place near the hotel, and it was quite good. karamiso tonkotsu ramen (spicy misoramen made of pig bone). Then I went to Shibuya and Legato for the monthly "little saturday" that YCN arranges. A lot of fun, and I made a lot of new acquaintances with both Swedish, American and Japanese people. It was a good deal of fun.

The toilet in Legato has a... shower?

 I left around 11 pm, went back to Shinjuku and had sushi for 2000 yen before bed.

Food Porn: Mix of different tuna

Food Porn: Grilled salmon sushi. Just look at the size of  that sucker

Tokyo: Day 2

I checked out from the capsule hotel at 10, and headed towards Akihabara. I was going to meet James (HelpingHans) at 12, so I had approximately one hour to spend. I located the meeting place and went to Book Off, to buy some manga that I could read while eating breakfast (I forgot to bring the ones I had bought earlier, Shingeki no kyojin). I decided to buy the first four volumes of Claymore.

After that I went to McDonalds for some real awesome breakfast. Double cheese burger set with an extra crispy chicken. Yummy.

The first volume of Claymore

Did I say Food porn? Starring Double cheese 

We met up with the Japansese guys at 1 pm and went for some lunch before the LAN (Saizeriya). It is hard, but fun and challenging to eat lunch that close to a double cheese burger set with an extra crispy chicken, but somehow I managed to down a carbonara.

The LAN party was held at an internet cafe in Akihabara, and because it is Japan, we had to get member cards and fill out forms and so on. Anyhow. The computers was apparently Alienware, so they were pretty good. Like all LAN parties, you have to start with installing everything. Steam, Company of Heroes, Autohotkey, script, observermode maps, get on teamspeak and so forth. After everything was installed HelpingHans played the best of the japanese guys there. A pretty intense game, but it ended in a victory for Hans. After that match, I played one who is approximately my level. Really fun match, but I lost in the end. We finished off with a 4v4! As you always should finish with a victory, we won.

An overview picture of the internet cafe

Me and the guys attending the LAN

After some wondering around in Akihabara's stores, we had dinner at a really nice place. A mix of yakitori, salad and a lot of other stuff teleported itself into my stomach. It started to get a bit late at this point, and I had to check in at the capsule hotel before 00:00, so we left the restaurant around 23 and headed for Shinjuku (yes, beer on the menu).

When I got to the hotel it was like FIFTY PEOPLE STANDING IN LINE to the check-in. Bummer.

And the other guys were waiting for me. It probably took like 50 minutes before I was able to join the others, but the check-in went really smooth. And yes, I got it for 2150 JPY. Totally awesome.

So, were did we go?

The one and only, the mighty アルプス! (Alps)

Beer for 180 JPY, and ebi-majo!

What do you do when you are in a bar with CoH-people? You watch CoH!

Food porn with ebi-majo. Just look at its awesomeness

The awesome pyjamas-thingy you get at the capsule hotel

Tokyo: Day 1

Today I took the bus from Sendai to Tokyo (Willers express, only 2500 JPY! with recline and personal screen!). There are two reasons for that:

1. I have a long holiday.

2. I'm going to a Company of Heroes LAN in Akihabara with HelpingHans and the japanese CoH-community tomorrow. Apparently we will be around seven or eight people. I hope that I can learn some awesome stuff, while not being totally outplayed every match by everyone.

I arrived with the bus in Shinjuku around 3pm, and met HelpingHans there. We walked around for a bit before we decided to go to a small yakitori place, had a couple of beers and talked about CoH and anime.
Really fun guy, so it's gonna be awesome to play with him and all the others tomorrow.

At 5, he went to meet some friends and I went to the capsule hotel and checked in. I picked the same capsule hotel as last time I was here: Green Plaza Shinjuku. It's pretty close to Shinjuku East Exit and Kabukichou. The only downside is that if yo are walking in Kabukichou late, there are a lot of black guys aiming for you, trying to get you in to weird places (probably). Not interested Not interested Not interested Not interested Not interested Not interested Not interested Not interested Not interested Not interested.
I tried last time to answer them i Swedish, that is probably a faster way to get rid of them.

Last time I was here, we booked through hostel.com and payed 3150 JPY/night. Because I didn't book, It cost 4300. When I got internet I booked 5 days from tomorrow at a Japanese I was recommended, and it is only 2150 JPY the first three nights, and then 2650 JPY. It will be interesting to see tomorrow if I managed to book the right thing.

Observation: An old man who was on this capsule hotel every day last time, is still here. Does he live here?

After check in, I went directly into the relax room, sat down in reclining position and slept for two good hours. Around 10pm, I was getting a little bit hungry, so I went outside, searching for a ramen place. The one I found was pretty good. A little bit too oily for my taste, so my stomach is probably going to say NO sometime during the night, we'll see.

Look at that goodness

Food Porn (Öppna maten!)

A random picture from this evenings stroll in Shinjuku

Btw, Because I've got a lot of international friends lately, I have decided to continue my blog in English.