The clubs in Japan are open until 5am and they keep serving drinks until then. A really nice change from Boston's 2 am last call. In addition, the trains only run until 12 am and do not reopen until around 5-6 am. So if you are going to be going out to the clubs, especially in Shibuya, you are most likely going to be out from 10 pm the previous evening until around 8 am the following morning. Taking a cab from Shibuya to Machida would cost you, no lie, an arm and a leg. I was told that a cab ride from Narita airport to Machida (about 2 and half hours) costs the same as a plane ticket to Okinawa. Screw that. That's why I stuck to public transportation.
Before going out to Shibuya, Natasha, some of her friends from NEU, Lulu and I decided that we would try our hand (and fate) on fugu. Fugu is a delicacy in Japan that can kill you. It contains textradoxin which literally paralyzes your muscles so you suffocate to death. Fugu chefs in Japan are regularly tested to make sure that these toxic parts don't land on your plate so death from fugu in restaurants with certified chefs are very rare. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the fugu restarurant in Machida, which was literally a hole in the wall, it was totally filled and we couldn't get a place to sit without being late to meet everyone to go out to Shibuya. We then settled on this Chinese noodle restaurant instead which was fantastic.
We met everyone at the usual meeting place in Machida, kuru-kuru which is the art sculpture outside of Machida station. We decided to head out to Shibuya to a nomihoda (all you can drink) place first so we would be less inclined to spend more money on drinks at the club. I believe in total, there were over 15 of us trying to cram into two tables. We also invited along Naoki, who was our TA in our Japanese tutorial class, with us. It makes it a lot easier to speak to the hostess if you bring a Japanese friend along. We spent most of the time drinking, laughing, and talking. Lulu actually did her special card readings for us, and we were all amazed at how accurate it really was. Around 1:30 am we decided to head over to club Camelot which was not very far from the Shibuya metro stop. Thanks to the drinks, we were warm enough to head over in our club clothes without feeling like we were going to freeze to death.
Now, I've often roamed the streets of Boston after last call, and it's so funny to see other people also stumbbling out of bars, hailing cabs, or try to walk in a straight line down the street. After being in Tokyo, I've found that it's like that everywhere. Watching people walk down toward the club in Shibuya, Japanese people, was a like a flashback to early saturday and sunday morning walks down boylston in Boston. It was so strange and yet sad at the same time. I think this is when it really started to hit: that I would be gone in less than 3 days.
Club Camelot turned out to be one of the best night clubs I have ever been to. The majority of the people there were Japanese so we didn't have to worry about foreign guys who would be a bother to us girls who made up the majority of the party. The music was top hits in the US and we had a blast.
Once the club let out, we decided to grab some breakfast at a typical japanese fast food restaurant. A fast food restaurant in Japan involves sitting a counter, pointing a picture of what you want to eat, and receiving your food within 10 minutes. But the food that they serve is whole good for you food not burgers only. There's curry, various forms of rice and egg dishes with meat. I settled with the curry.
Once we were finished I made the long trek home with the rest of the group. A long 1 hour and half train ride home and 20 minute bus ride from Machida to our apt. ChampVert. We were exhausted but it's one of the nights that I will remember for a very long time to come. I got spend it with some good friends whom I am going to miss dearly and already do.
Natasha "Tasi" was one of the other Northeastern students to also spend a study abroad semester in Tokyo. While I am from MA originally, she is from Guam; a quick 3 hour flight from Japan. Therefore, she decided to book her flight a day before I was to take my flight home. This turned out to be the last day of classes before the short winter break during the fall semester. We both took the same Japanese culture test so were subjected to 2 and half hours of essay writing in order to take the Japanese culture final. I spent so much time prepping for both my Japanese culture final and the two parts to my Japanese language final that I didn't really have enough time to process the brevity of the time that I had left.
That same sunday that we returned from our night out in Shibuya, we decided to have our last meal with Tasi at shabu shabu. Shabu shabu or "chef chef" as it is translated out to be, is a place where you receive a pot of flavored broth on an electric stove. You receive boxes of different kinds of meat and vegetables and you can also place orders for rice and other foods. The purpose is to cooks these foods in the flavored broth at the table. Just like all of the other great Japanese food restaurants, this one was also tabihodi for two and a half hours or all you can eat.
This was considered to be Tasi's last hurrah so we made sure to take a ton of pictures while we were there. We were lucky enough to have some of our Japanese friends, whom we met early on in our time in Tokyo, to accompany us there as well.
That weekend was the best weekend that I have ever had. I got to spend it with some good friends who literally have been like my foster family for the four months that we have been together. Being able to be together and going through the same experiences as foreigners in a different country helped us to bond as a group and become closer as friends. I'm going to miss all of my friends and our unique relationships; especially my neighbors in the ChampVert Leopalace apartments. I'm going to miss listening to Lulu's random comments and my heated but playful verbal arguments with Tobias (I swear he just wanted to get me mad on purpose) while we walk to class together in the mornings. Below is a picture of us from right to left: Tobias "The Bastard Hime," Lulu "The Royal Cook," and me dubbed as "The Royal Bitch of ChampVert" jokingly by Tobias. They are only a few of the people that I am going to miss the most.
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