Can't sleep....clown will eat me.

J82 Thursday, July 5th 2007

Happy 4th of July to the other side of the world! For me, the 4th was yesterday. No celebrations were had here, but in my heart I thanked America for being so awesome, even if the current state of affairs is a bit mucky. I also wore my blue shirt and a red tie, so I was 2/3 patriotic.

Yet another fun-filled weekend was had last weekend. I'm getting closer to actually making more than one post a week. It's tricky to get into the habit of writing every day.

Saturday the 30th (of June)
G-Bros was hosting a private party, so the Gang had no where to go! Well, that's not true at all. Hitachi is crammed full of bars, you just need to know where to look. K found a nice place called The Second Earth. It had a little of everything. The front of the store was like a party-themed conbini, with drinks and snacks and widgets available for purchase before or after one came to the bar. The bar was nice, a solid thing of blonde pine, but the Gang opted to settle in one of the tables squeezed in the back.

As an aside, if you ever decide to come to Japan, realize that you will devote a lot of your brain power to wondering how they managed to do things. How did they move that huge table into this tiny space? Those decorations, are they purposefully set there, or have they accumulated by some bar-logic of kitch-growth?

Ahem. The Gang had already ordered food by the time I got in, but I had made dinner for myself before I left, so it was all good. We all had milkshakes, not wanting to get too blitzed before the night truly began at Bros. I had a berry blend, after sampling some of Claire's (Scottish girl) which was heavenly.

We stayed at Second Earth for a few hours, talking about this and that. My bike's rear tire had deflated (and still is, as of this writing, flat) due to a technical mixup I had with a recently-acquired bike pump. That conversation was fun. I can't recall much else of what we talked about. The upcoming trip to Tokyo, for Clive's birthday, was discussed briefly.

Around 11:30 or so we relocated to G-Bros. On the way out, while we settled our tab, one of the Gang, Matt, bought a truly ridiculously massive jar of peanut butter, citing the lack of said ridiculous size anywhere else in Japan, and his love for the stuff. Go Matt.

We got a back table at Bros and the preliminary birthday celebrations were had. Actually, if I recall, the Clive and (Amity) Mike both had their birthdays on Saturday, with the Tokyo trip being a post-birthday bash of extraordinary magnitude. Cake was had, the G-Bros tradition of having a champaign cork shot at your backside was carried out in good humor, and a good time was had by all.

I was introduced to Toni, another Amity teacher. She and I quickly entered Geek Out mode and spent the next two hours communicating at near-light speed about a wide variety of topics. Always delighted to make a new geeky friend, we called the evening quits around the same time and walked each other home, until we had to go our separate ways, chatting all the time.

Back at home, I settled into sleep, eager to start the next day's journeys.

Sunday July 1st
Made myself some breakfast after a leisurely wake up and walked to the train. Clive caught up with me on the way in, and we realized we were cutting it a little close. As we neared the station, K phoned us and informed us of the impending departure of our train. We dashed with renewed vigor, myself being unable to hit the ATM on the way out of Hitachi, and managed to get to the platform on time.

The ride down was fairly sedate and uneventful. Fun conversation was had, about not much at all (mostly catching one another up on world events, rumor, and discussion). Myself, K, M-sensei, and Clive were the passengers on this, the first wave of the Gang down to Tokyo.

We decided to spend our pre-party hours in Akihabara, nerd-mecca of the Earth. This marked my 5th time in the district where anything, and I do mean anything, devoted to Nerdism may be bought, sold, traded, or stolen. I add stolen merely to bring awareness of the plight of the modern Akihabara-goer, who is plagued by many the cutpurse, sneakthief, or otherwise dastardly and uncouth rogue keen to lighten the shopping bags of the unsuspecting otaku.

The first order of business was food, as many of us had grown peckish on the ride down. The attempt to locate a suitable food joint was to prove somewhat frustrating, given the sheer diversity of our group (a midwesterner, a westerner/southerner, a south-Londer and a manchesterman) gave us all different appetites. After a solid half hour of wandering (past a large number of places that smelled superbly delicious) we settled on a kebab stand in what felt like the heart of Akihabara.

It was heaven. Delicious, juicy steak bits atop rice. The other fellows had a larger set, with half a chicken in addition to their rice/meat combo. We savored our delicious, protein-filled lunches. Three of us got items to go, and proceeded to investigate the shopping district for various and sundry purchases. M-sensei was in search of an MP3 player. Clive was looking for PSP media. K sought an adapter cable for a hard drive and a DS.

We walked up and down the strip, aided in our ambulations (ahh, alliteration) by the fact that most of the roads had been closed to road traffic, allowing pedestrians to cross at their leisure. After a few shops, I guided the group to the Yellow Submarine shop I'd found my last time here, with E.J. We met another group of Psi Us, against all probability, who included in our quick dialog directions to a tabletop gaming store. We had been there before, and had marveled at the row upon row of RPG books, in Japanese and (to our amazement) English.

This time around it was the other's turn to gawk at the tiny dollop of gaming squeezed into a space slightly larger than my apartment. I perused the English book section and found that they had a copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide for Edition 3.5. It's price was a steal; only 2,500 yen. Converted to US Dollars, that is slightly over $20. After a short period of consideration, I snapped it up, realizing that a) I had no paper copies of *any* D&D books here, b) I don't even have the 3.5 DMG in America, and c) it was stupid cheap.

My backpack aglow with creative power and my new purchase, we strove ahead to Yodabashi Camera, stopping briefly to take in an adult novelty shop that was 4 stories high (that will be a tale to tell in person, as this is a family-friendly blog). Yodabashi Camera is, quite possibly, the biggest electronics store in the world. It's footprint is massive, easily several acres, and it's 7 or 8 stories tall. Huge.

We all came in, but after seeing the lines M-sensei and Clive decided to head outside to relax while K and I searched for his purchases. In the end, after lots of wandering and questioning and waiting in lines, we emerged victorious. K purchased a pink DS Lite and the perfect adapter cable (Serial ATA to something) for his system.

And then, we decided to go to Hiro-o, the location of the evening's main attraction; the Tokyo Absolut Ice Bar.

The Absolut Ice Bar is a bar, wherein one can purchase and enjoy adult beverages, that is made of ice. It is run by the makers of Absolut vodka. Shockingly, the adult beverages you enjoy at the Absolut Ice Bar are only those made by Absolut. Everything is ice; the walls, the furniture, the bar, even your glass, is made of clear ice. It is Flipping Sweet. Also, very cold. The whole place is kept at a toasty 5 degrees below zero, give or take, so long-term exposure is not advised. The bar staff provides you with a super-awesome space blanket poncho, complete with thick gloves and fur-lined hood, to keep you from dying of exposure. You enter the bar via a small airlock, really just a closet-sized room with two doors, so as to minimize heat bleeding.

As I said before, you can't spend too long in the ice bar, or else your body starts to become too cold. More immediately (to the hip, globe-trotting jetsetter mindset) is the limited amount of space within the bar itself. The constant refrigeration cost must be staggering, and thus the bar itself is quite small, perhaps twice the size of my apartment in square footage. This all boils down to two simple facts. One, you must have a reservation for the Ice Bar, 45 minutes max. Two, it's quite expensive. 3,500 yen gets you in the door and gives you one drink (and one ice-glass. If yours breaks or melts, you have to buy a new one to drink any more). Additional drinks are at a whopping 1,200 yen a pop, easily double the price of a beer at a normal bar.

Enough technicalities! We had a blast! My initial group arrived first, and spent a few minutes outside waiting for the rest of our group to show up. As our time window opened, we decided to go on in and wait for them inside. We paid the staff, slipped into our silvery ponchos, and headed into a frozen wonderland.

The ice is very clear. I'm not sure how one makes ice this clear, but there's no mistaking the clarity. There's a few cracks, some air bubbles and other signs of impurities, sure, but you can see through all of the ice. Really pretty. The bar was lit with soft white and blue lights diffused and filtered through the walls of ice, casting a soft, almost twilight glow through the small room. It was quiet, too; there was club music, but it was kept at a low level. The tables and chairs are all low to the ground, mostly to help with structural integrity I suppose, but there was a human-sized ice sculpture in the middle of the room to enjoy. Built into the walls were several modular ice sheets that had been engraved from the other side. What one sees, looking at these ice sheets from the bar side, is a reverse bas-relief. In ice. Quite beautiful. The sculptors included an ice-plaque, declaring that they also were responsible for one of the Ice Hotels. (Imagine the ice bar mentality enlarged, as if by a mad genius, into a hotel. Where you can sleep.)

The other half of our party arrived a few minutes after we did, and we proceeded to get down with our bad selves. Drinks were had, myself enjoying an Absolut Viking (Absolut vodka with grape juice...mmmm) and an Absolut Polaris (can't remember what was in it, but it went from yellow to blue and tasted like bananas and cream).

Many, many pictures were taken, and many jokes about the cold were told. One of the walls was carved into a mini luge for one's ice glasses, so the occasional brave soul would sling their drink through the wall via a winding downward slope. The glasses would become stuck, from time to time, much to the despair of the luge-ee and the amusement of the audience.

I met a couple in the bar, one of the few patrons not associated with our own birthday celebration. I cannot recall where they were from beyond "Tokyo", but they apparently were sharing their second date together. The male of the duo assured me, in a conspiratorial whisper, that they would enjoy certain adult activities later in the night. Hilarity.

As our time at the Ice Bar drew to a close we found ourselves the only patrons therein. The staff let us stay a little longer, to our simultaneous joy and frigidity. After an hour of freezing cold, we doffed our ponchos and wandered into the heat of a Tokyo summer night. Feeling the difference between the bar and the heat and humidity of the outside world was like being hit by a car made of swamp water. Warm and sticky and thick heat wrapped around us. It was quite a sensation.

It was now Monday.

Monday July 2nd
Our group wandered toward Roppongi Hills, the section of Tokyo where one may find a traditional "night club" scene. Never having attended such places in the States, it was a new experience for me (albeit not one I relished). We walked through and past a new tower, freshly constructed in the heart of Tokyo. It had some interesting neo-Egyptian architecture. Looked like something out of a movie.

Finally, we made it to Roppongi. For those of you who enjoy the night club scene, the next segment may hold particular mirth, given my utter inexperience with such activities. Keep in mind that I have, quite literally, never done this sort of thing before.

We walked along a strip of neon-daylight, propositioned at every street corner by handfuls of club barkers. This club was the best, no that one. This one has food, while this one has girls. The others of our group seemed giddy with choice. I simply saw an endless row of bars wherein there was space to dance. We finally settled on one, called "Club 911". At least the music was nice. We all proceeded to drink and dance, as conversation was impossible given the intense volume of the dance jams. I was flagging, my second wind having come and gone, and entered a sort of fugue state of existence. I recall dancing a few times, to the best of my ability, and enjoying a few (slightly cheaper, but not by much) drinks from the bar.

Several hours passed in this manner, until about 4ish in the morning. We quit the club, and after much hemming and hawing, the group split. My chunk was heading home, whilst the others were heading out to find more clubs and take in the fish market. I would have liked to see the fish market myself, but I was feeling pretty crappy, and I didn't want to do much more than sleep.

What followed was a blur of subway stops as we caught the first trains of the day. We worked our way through the Tokyo Underground, our group shedding numbers as others decided to do their own things while in Tokyo. K and myself were the last of our original "going the hell home now" group left when we finally got to Ueno, gateway station to Hitachi and all points northward.

K and I found a Limited Express train and settled into some booth seats to sleep the way home. Our train departed, and we began our long journey home. We slept and woke intermittently, our bodies demanding sleep but unable to relax completely. I kept waking up at just the right times; when some business men decided to share our booth, when we had to switch trains halfway through our ride, when we finally arrived at Hitachi. Hours after we'd left Ueno, almost a day after we'd set out from Hitachi, K and I made it back home.

K rode his bike home, whilst I caught a cab. I grabbed a quick shower to rinse the club gunk from my body, and collapsed into bed. It was not yet 9 A.M. I slept until 5 P.M. I began to write this blog post, but given the sheer volume of information it contains, it was written over the space of three separate sessions, stretched out over the course of a week's time.

And that is my adventure from last weekend, gentle reader. From June to July, it was a birthday celebration of epic, and quite chilly, proportions.

I shall write the next entry now, for this weekend. Huzzah!