Lephty Lucy & Wrighty Tidy

It has been an eventful week. The river drinking has become an almost ever Sunday affair and is frequently filled with fireworks. It is clutch as summer starts rolling in from now.

Last Wednesday Paul, my Bronx friend, and I took a trip to the Electronic Town of Akihabara. It was my first time and it was really interesting seeing so many geeks together in such close proximity, but the novelty wore off after about an hour and we headed back to Shibuya to meet one of his lady friends and then to Futako for river beers. It was a relaxing day off.

Friday Helene, one of my French friends who I used to work with, came over after work to shoot some pictures of me for her upcoming photo exhibition. The whole thing is going to be about the lives of Tokyoites coming home after work and their feelings. I am really excited she chose me as one of her models. Well, after we were finished with that, one of her friends Nils, also French, came through and we went for drinks in my neighborhood spot, Potluck. After a few drinks they convinced me that going out all night to ‘La Fabrique’ was a really good idea, so we caught the last train of the Den En Toshi line bound for Shibuya. It was blast, they were right. Helene’s boyfriend got us all in for a discounted price and we raged until around 5am.

I was still drunk almost all day on Saturday from the previous night’ s escapades, but I got an invite from my buddy Toshi to see his band, Sunset Drive, so I headed to the Ruby Room after work and proceeded to nibble on a late strand of doggy hair. I saw some old faces and met some new ones. It was another cool night.

Sunday I almost passed out after work, but I held on and went out with my two good Futako friends, Kiyo and Baba. We drank at Potluck and then at Kiyo’s place for awhile before we went for sushi at another local spot that I had no idea existed (like so many others in my neighborhood). It turns out that another friend from Potluck is the sushi master/owner of the place and he hooked us up rather nicely. We were getting pretty drunk and they kept tricking me into eating the most spicy shit like wasabi rolls and the whole root of ginger, when in walks in a very important looking older dude. He looked really important because he was old and the woman who followed was about half his age and had a stacked rack. Kiyo elbows me and says, ‘He is famous man.’ He was actually the drummer of an old greaser rock band called ‘Yokohama Gimbai’ and when I mentioned that I was drinking with him the next day to some of my students they were quite impressed. Anyway, his wife gave me some sake and they seemed generally interested in my presence. It was cool. We went back to Potluck for more drinks and were fucking drunk after that. Bed time.

I was once again shitty for work on Monday, but for some reason I had an incredibly fun day. Who would have thought? After work I jetted to Yoyogi park to meet some coworkers, Ash, Rohan, Betty, and Dan, for the tail end of their picnic. We drank and played Black Jack and 31 for a few hours then changed spots and played a game Circle of Death. 31 and Circle of Death are my two favorite card games ever. After a bit, Dan peaced out, then Ash took off with his lady, leaving Rohan, Betty, and I to ponder the meaning of life. We soon were on foot back to Shibuya for sushi. After sushi, Betty headed her way on the Yamanote line and Rohan and I caught the Den En Toshi. I was about to flop from so many days of drinking, but I convinced Rohan to come for a beer at Potluck. We ended up chillin in Potluck for two hours playing 31 again. I won 500 yen off Rohan and we called it a night. Chalked up one more solid day.

Tuesday night Ashley and I hit a familiar watering hole in Shibuya, Jinpachi. The place is famous for its cheap ‘nami hodai,’ or all you can drink, which is only 1300 yen for 2 hours. I thought it would be dead because it was a Tuesday night, but as we entered our ears were filled with the cries of screaming idiots. It was cool at first, because it seemed like such a lax, party atmosphere, but we were quickly annoyed by some random salary men trying to talk with us. Whatever. We shooed them away and got our fill of beer. There were no women to look at in there that night, so we proceeded to have pretty deep discussion about our current situations in life and what we intend to do to make them better. Thanks Ash, I needed that talk.

Now I am looking forward to next week. I have 4 party invites and I am counting on next week being better than this last one. Hit ‘em up, gun ‘em down.