Tokyo, Japan

Firstly, good news. I managed to get a new rail card so no money wasted. Hooray! How I got it back is another matter completely (basically it involved a pair of scissors, a ruler, a pen, tippex a stapler and a colour photocopier ;) ).

So, karaoke. Thursday night met up with some guys in the hostel and piled into a place called Roppongi which is where all the ex-pats and westerners go to drink. Went to a bar called Gas Panic (little dodgy I thought considering the Tokyo subway attacks yeas ago). Got nicely lubed there and started some mi me mos ready for karaoke.

It appears that all karaoke bars have these african guys hustling you to go into them (theres a lot) so it was strangely like going to the bar strips in spanish tourist spots with all the touts going "Where you going to night guys". Anyway got in one and haggled a price which is set for the length of time you spend there but you can drink as much as you can (uh oh). You get ushered down a corridor into your cramped little room which has a load on sofas in, a table and a massive TV and Karaoke system. Type in your number and away you go. The video plays some cheesey american romance scene while the words are displayed.

As always the words never quite follow the rhythm of the song so unless you know the song really well youll stumble at some point. Meanwhile 2 jugs of beer and 2 jugs of Gin and Tonic get ordered in. As time goes on, the singing gets louder, more slurred and more off key but good fun. Its easy to get hooked on it and stay past your alotted time (which we did). When we were done we got the first subway home at 5am and promptly fell asleep. I got woken up by the Canadian girl next to me to tell me that she was gonna be sick. Which she was. All over me. How nice. I must have that effect on girls :(

Spent the next day asleep. On the Friday met some other guys from the hostel who were doing the same thing so I thought why the hell not? Turns out one of the guys has family in Pontypool and also knows some of the boys from back in Pontyclun (Camper, Peahead, Big Fol)!! Small world eh? Wouldnt like to paint it mind! So more karaoke anorchy was had however this time it seemed we were screaming into the mic rather than actually singing.

Had a little incident on the way home again. This time, I took a picture of the guy I was with sitting opposite me on the subway. Unfortunately he was sitting next to this big Afican American pimp guy who promptly snatched the camera off me and went off on a whole "God damn mother fucker!! Why you taking god damn mother fucking pictures of me!?! Did I say you could take my mother fucking photo!! Shit do you know who the fuck I am!!?!?" We all sat there litterally gob smacked but as he had pretty much stolen my camera it was time for some quick diplomacy. I slowly explained to him it was an accident and Ill delete the photo. After what seemed like ages I managed to calm him down and deleted the photo. He then literally walked to the other end of the carriage and sat down all crossed armed sulking!! What a looney!

The two bodyguards he had with him seemed a lot more chilled and chatted with us saying he'd had a bad night. Anyway, the whole carriage had some terrible vibrations going on so we got off at the next stop and wandered round. Got so completely lost and ended up riding all sorts of trains home. Eventually got home 4 hours later after going round and round in circles. Last night in Tokyo tonight so might go out for a few quiet ones but nothing too big as have to leave in the morning. Next stop, Nagoya to meet the Riddler!

Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:36 pm