Meaf's Adventures Abroad

The third installment of the Ziemianski-Sullivan Overseas Extravaganza was yet another bout of ridiculousness. This time, we were joined by Benji's long lonst Austrian brother, Hannes. I say that because the resemblance is remarkable for those of you who know Mr. Bumji Mucas. Arriving a day earlier than planned, they wandered around a couple of Tokyo's many hubs (Chiyoda-ku and Shibuya) while I finished up at work and rode the rails to meet them. After the standard greetings were made, we wandered around the neon ant-colony that is Shibuya until we found "A Peaceful Oasis in the Heart of Shibuya." This is both the title of the restaurant and an accurate description of its atmosphere. There we snacked on uber-expensive cheese (as is most cheese in Japan,) and took turns pouring 3/4 foam beers for each other. Anyhow, since I had to work the next day, we caught a late train home. Although it wasn't the last train, the boy's first experience of rush-hour train rides in Tokyo was enough to turn them both off attempting it ever again. Only Hannes, who followed my advice to a "T", grabbed himself a seat. Dan and I were left to wallow in the sea of humanity, which ebbs and flows with every sway of the train. So we grabbed a few beers from the "conbini" (convenience store) and chilled in my apartment. The next day I headed off to work after setting them upon a station-by-station tour of Tokyo. Had they gone in, I'm sure they would have been impressed with the Tokyo-Edo Museum, but instead they decided it looked nothing like the picture in Hannes' book and more like a "dead transformer." So they went to the Sumo Museum next door instead. After that, in true Dan/Hannes/Meaf style, they decided to walk instead of take the train. Included in their 15km or so hike was Asakusa and Sensoji temple, Akihabara and Ochanomizu. I cannot recount their adventures in detail, since I wasn't present, but I recommend looking at their pictoral account of the walk, they're friggin' hilarious. That night we met up in Shinjuku for beers, naturally, but none of us had the energy for spending the entire night out, which is the consequence of missing the last train home. So we basically repeated the previous night's activity of chillin' and having drinks, which is great considering how in Burlington thats pretty much what we do everyweekend, if not before the bars, then the whole night. In retrospect, it turned out to be the wisest choice, given how Sunday, Sunday night and Monday morning were smudged together by round after round of drinks.
Sunday started late, but after a meal of pancakes with superior Quebecois, amber maple syrup (which I don't just share with anybody,) we headed to my school's hanami party at Kinshi Park. It was a beautiful day for a picnic under the cherry blossoms and I was pleased with the turn-out. All-in-all, I think the numbers approached 30. The booze flowed aplenty and it didn't take long for frisbee and badminton to break out. Tomoko, my girl of choice, brought a couple friends and, as she promised the first night we met, a "birthday ball." I forget the Japanese name and maybe it doesn't sound very exciting, but I'd been waiting in anticipation of this for more than 2 months. Its simply a golden ball with a sting that when tugged, opens the ball and releases streamers and a small banner saying "happy birthday" in Japanese. Its hilarious. Its hard to explain why without describing my first encounter with it. Anyhow, a great time was had by all, drinking, eating and playing as the blossoms fell from the trees like fragrant snowflakes. Following hanami, half the gaijin (foreigner) gang went to a concert in Odaiba and the other decided to do karaoke for a few hours. Dan, Hannes and I decided that karaoke wasn't exactly at the top of our list of things to do at 7pm, so we took some stuff back to my school in Kameido (one stop over) then decided to do what we do best and play drinking games for 3 hours. Now imagine this... you and your friends find yourself in a room with beer and sake in-hand and a plethora of props and toys for children's games... giant dice, self-propelled toy cars, a ticking bomb and among other things, the versatile white board and sticky-ball. Needless to say, hilarity ensued. So much so, we had to make a booze-run part-way through. Following that, we went to meet up with some friends in Shibuya, the part of Tokyo you picture in your imagination and where things consistently get messy. That night continued the trend. We met in a place called "The Elephant Lounge" which was a classy joint with wicked decor. After the meet and greet, we made our way to an indy Japanese hip-hop night at "the Eggman." It was hilarious and surprisingly good. The Japanese language is made for rap. With only 5 vowel sounds, pretty much everything rhymes. But it wasn't for everybody, so we moved on to the next place which was "Gaspanic," a kind of trashy bar frequented by foreigners. But on a Sunday night, the place was pretty much ours. Several drinks later it was time to dance and dance we did. We kicked it with AC/DC, we put our hands in the air with Jurassic 5 and after a night of ridiculous antics, we capped it of by watching my friend Diana have a dance off with a local who was baffled by this white chick shakin' her booty and pretty much rockin' his world. He did however compose himself and strike back with some killer moves. A perfect ending to the night, but the party wasn't over. It was 5am and Hannes was dead-set on checking out Tsukiji fish market, one of the largest of its kind in the world and the supplier of a large portion of Japan's fishing industry. Considering no one eats as much fish as the Japanese you can imagine the magnitude of this place. Tsukiji market was a surprise nonetheless. All sorts of ocean-delights were for sale, some recognizable, some almost incomprehensible they were so strange. Some were alive, some half-dead, some being filletted, others already frozen. For the tourist there were infinite photo opportunities if you could manage to dodge the bustling vendors and buyers who drove nascar-style with shark-sized tuna or mackeral or whatever in tow. It was a sight to be seen and the raw salmon I bought for sashimi/sushi were like little red slices of seafood heaven.