Locked Up

So here is a more legitimate update.

The past few days have been incredibly fun, and I've been meeting a lot of people. A few days ago, several friends and I joined the Waseda International Club (WIC) on a trip to Odaiba. It takes over an hour to get there by train, but the view from the monorail is great! There were maybe 20 kids in my group, and after having a picnic with food bought from a convenience store (Japanese convenience stores have many more choices of things to eat than American ones), we visited the Fuji Television Station (my host family's son also works there). We also saw a guy exhibiting his trained monkey. I don't like monkeys.

After returning to Takadanobaba Station, several of us joined a combined WIC and Niji-no-Kai (the name means Rainbow Club, but it's really an International Communications Club) for a Nomikai (which is like a drinking party). After the place closed, we all went to a park to mingle for a few hours, before being asked by the police to leave.

The next day, I went to Harajuku for the first time with my friend. It's a pretty cool place, and I think so far it's my favorite place in Tokyo. You have one street with most of the big brands: Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Bvlgari, etc. But then the side streets are filled with interesting little shops and boutiques like an entire store dedicated to Tintin. I thought I'd get my haircut in Harajuku, because this is the place to go for haircuts apparently, but I was too intimidated by all the hair salons.

The next day, I did get my haircut around Takadanobaba Station. I had no idea what the woman cutting my hair was saying, which was kind of awkward. But she gave me a good haircut (costing about 5000 yen - average price I think).

Later in the evening, I went with my two friends and two Japanese girls to an Izakaya (place where you can order drinks and order food) in Shibuya. It was a very interesting place...to say the least. It was monster prison themed, and the hostesses (as in Restaurant hostesses) wore "sexy Policemen bondage" outfits. We also were handcuffed and then led to our table, which was behind prison bars. Every so often the place turned off all the lights, and Japanese men dressed in Halloween masks would come around and try and frighten everyone.

After leaving this place (called Locked Up), we went to a club in Shibuya because we missed the last train. And so we "clubbed" for 5 hours before the next train came.