Where were we...

Oh yeah, we were in Harajuku and the Imperial gardens. That means we're about to finish off our last full day in Japan.

We hit "Old Tokyo", which we read was supposed to preserve the character of the old city. I guess that means a crowded raucous pedestrian shopping mall, where you can get any kind of junk you want:

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...

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We were pretty much shopped-out by then, though. So, back to the hotel for a nap for the wife and some blogging for myself (I probably did the Kyoto post then). Then it was out for our final night.

We went to the last section of Tokyo we wanted to see: Roppongi. It was described in the Lonely Plant book as almost a "mardi gras" atmosphere. Well, it was nothing like that. It was another tall, bustling district, jam-packed full of shops and restaraunts. No floats or beads. But, it was hopping.

When we walked up out of the subway station, a serious windstorms was blowing through, and we didn't know exactly where we were or where we needed to go to get to ther restaraunt we were planning on: a Thai place, some blocks from the subway station. So, we flailed around in the bitter-cold wind for a bit before giving up on the Thai place and trying to find a spot a bit closer. We wandered around for a while but didn't find anything that grabbed us. Well, there was a store called, ahem, Freak Brothers that was pretty interesting - it more about the lifestyle of the Freak Brothers than the comics. But after that, we still needed some food. There was this combo:

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...but we declined.

Finally, desperate, we decided to go to an Irish pub (the fourth). It was crowed, small, tacky and deafeningly loud. We lasted less than a minute before slouching out the door, cold, hungry and cranky. After a bit of indecision we decided on a place that had "grilled beef" on its otherwise all-Kanji sign. It turned out to be a Japanese "BBQ" place, where you sit at a counter with a big hole in it, they bring a bucket of hot coals, and you order small plates of raw food that you then cook yourself. It was both fun, and delicious! Success!

Then we went to the Geronimo Shot Bar:

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They serve shots.

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We had two each. Which wasn't anywhere near enough to get us on the monthly list (I think the leader was up over 200). The all-time leader was in the 2,000's, if I recall correctly. I think the shots were a little weak.

Then it was off to do karaoke, Japanese-style. That's where you rent a private room and get to sing whatever you want. They had a little notice that said "Big Echo is not a shot bar!" Don't know why they needed that. Since I utterly hate my voice, I refuse to sing. So, I stuck my wife doing it all by herself.

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It was still fun. Then, it was off to find another bar. We wandered for a bit, then my wife spotted a sign for a bar called Agave, a tequila bar. They had four hundred different tequilas:

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...

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...and Cuban cigars.

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Delicious! If the next day wasn't the day of the plane, we would've stayed all night.

So, back to the hotel...

I woke up at dawn and tried to get some sunrise pictures, but I was too sleepy to bother with trying to hold the camera steady.

Nikon D100, 18-35mm

.

And then we woke up, bummed around for the morning and started our trip home. We got to hang out in the first class lounge while waiting for the plane (free booze and chips!). Then an 11-hour flight to Chicago, on which I watched a surprisingly touching little documentary about the New York Dolls reunion.

When we got to Chicago, we immedately noticed the same thing: Americans are really fat. Then we noticed that McDonalds' hamburgers are really salty.

And three hours later, we were home again.