After four hours of long and nice sleep we had to get up in order to avoid the anger of the management of our hostel since it there is a lock-out between 11 and 16. Which is very irritating but for several other reasons the hostel is quite nice.

We tried to get some cash since Ulf’s master card stopped working on friday. Which proved to be a bit of timing since my Visa card decided that it wouldn’t ‘verify my pin-code’. I guess last day’s sacrifice to Mammon in Roppongi Hills wasn’t that well appreciated, which should perhaps try to consume more in order to satisfy him? When I tried to login to my bank via internet I got the message that they were updating some systems or similar so I couldn’t log in. And if I had questions regarding my personal account I should log in it said on the contacts page.

It worked again after the service was done though, my card that is. Ulf’s still refuses to work in any way, he’s quite happy that he didn’t travel alone. We met up Megumi again, the reason for her early departure was that she had wounded her knee and needed rest. We didn’t know this but she had plans for us anyways. We would check out a festival in Azuba Juban, a part of Tokyo. Lot of folk dancing and people herding each other on streets cramped with food stalls. Sounded like something cultural as well as fun.

We took some photos, and Megumi told us that the reason for us seeing people wearing kimonos quite often is that this period is as big as new year in comparison. Apparently the ancestors of the japanese people come and visit them during this week and this is saluted in different ways (like the fireworks in Miyajima we saw earlier). Our timing was good as always. The folk dancing was mostly local japanese songs but they did some dancing to reggae from Hawaii as well. Quite interesting to see.

After that we decided to check out a place that Megumi said had really nice BBQ. This was an understatement. It was really really good and the the owner / main chef seemed enthusiastic about having two gaijins there and asked us if we liked the beef rare since he thought that was best. We agreed (he was the chef, who would know better?) and he prepared it for us at our table to show how rare it should be. The concept was that we were given pieces of raw meat and then grilled it ourself at the table. Very nice and tasty.

We did some more walking around at the festival and then strolled towards Roppongi Hills. During the walk we mentioned our experiences with the girls offering massage yesterday and while Sho was a bit shy on the subject Megumi explained laughing what was considered to be included and that it was very popular and common among salary men. But it was for guys only, after some thought I’m not sure that the japanese distinction between sex and massage is incorrect (and the Swedish correct).

I do think that the openness they have towards sex and pleasure in general is healthy but it seems like it’s quite focused on the male part of the population. But when we were at Roppongi hills and received some evidence on the contrary, some give-away fans that we thought was advertisement for hair dye. Megumi explained that it in fact it was advertisement for a sort of male escort firm supporting girls with guys. I am not sure if there was a hidden message in the fact that the girl gave those fans to us.

We reached Roppongi Hills and decided to watch a movie at the cinema there, the others hadn’t seen Pirates of the Caribbean 2 so that was the choice. That it was in english and only subbed to japanese and was the only sane alternative also played a role in the decision of which movie to see. After the movie we thanked Megumi for the evening and left for home.

Megumi would try to schedule up a night of Karaoke for us later in the week and show us, or give us the name of, a famous sushi-restaurant we should try. What a great guide and a fun girl. I guess it was good timing that she had hurt her knee so she couldn’t train Tae-kwon-do as she usually does a lot.

The started off with us heading for Roppongi Hills, which could be one of the most expensive places to live I assume. We strolled around and I found a really really nice pair of jeans. Which, of course, wasn’t cheap. After some consideration I bought them and I will not reveal the price but the clerk gave me the jeans in a bag and carried the bag for me to the entrance of the store and I got the recite in a small envelope.

After that splurge we ate some african food since it was a theme or something, Ulf ordered ostrich which tasted really good. After some relaxing in the nice weather and browsing stores with way to expensive clothing we went to our backpacker hostel which would serve as base camp for the rest of our journey. We did some laundry and found out that Megumi, a friend of a friend to Ulf was happy to show us around in Tokyo. We decided we should meet her at starbucks in Shibuya at 21.

After some phone calls we found each other, the fact that we didn’t have any cell phone and that none of us knew how the others would look complicated the whole procedure a bit. We decided to eat on a restaurant a few stories above Starbucks and it was very very nice food. I guess having a japanese guide really helps to pick out the raisins from the cake as well.

After some stronger Shochu we were wondering if we should go out clubbing or split up. Megumi decided to catch her last subway home, we needed and transfer and would thus be stranded anyway so we decided to do some clubbing. Besides it was Ulf’s birthday. We checked out Gas Panic. Both of them. There are two clubs in the same area with the same name and concept.

The concept is simple. No entry but you must have a drink in your hands at all times. They played hip hop which was ok but not that good. There was some Gaijins there who really made me look like a sober and nice guy. Desperately hitting on the japanese girls, it was quite ugly. We now and then took breaks to check other clubs but decided we didn’t want to pay entrance fee at another place so strolled back and forth a while.

We got approached by girls offering us massage at several times and we decided we should not let our prejudices rule us but asked for the price and what kind of massage. Let us say that there are no longer any doubts of what was included in the massage. It would illegal to barter those services in Sweden. Around five the music stopped and we took the subway which just opened to our hostel and fell asleep.

Waking up in my little capsule was not that bad at all, we could probably do this tonight as well. We had managed to make reservations from the 19th and forward at Tokyo Backpackers, which we stayed at last time we were in Tokyo. Cheap, free internet and no curfew, and a little healthy dose of slum.

Ueno station which we are just a decent throw of a rock from seems like a living part of the city. In all possible senses. It was centre for the black market during the war and obviously remained a popular marketplace. There are food stalls, clothing stores like a flea market where the merchants try to out-shout each other. Not my style of shopping to be honest but worth a visit. And we managed to sneak into a regular department store for some shopping as well. Since we saw a sign for internet just outside our hotel I didn’t bring my laptop with me but thought I could check mail and so on there.

When we got there we were asked if we spoke japanese, which we don’t. They then pointed to a sign explained that in order to use the computers for internet you had to speak japanese and have an ID. This made no sense at all, but we took a picture of the sign and left the building. I guess it wasn’t racism since it was based on knowledge but still it’s strange that they have signs in english on the outside and then only allow people speaking japanese entrance.

After some strolling/shopping and food we decided that we would backtrace and but two bags we had been checking out earlier. This proved a bit difficult since the streets seem to have re-arranged themselves with all the food stalls coming and going.

We decided to go for the capsule hotel again since that also gave us some chance to dry/wash our Fuji-gear which still was in a moldering state. I guess I saved some clothing but my shoes are in a critical state, we will see how they look and smell tomorrow. We have notified the locals we have had mailed to so hopefully the following week will include some new japanese friends. For the evening after some blogging and futile attempts to use the coin-tumbler at the capsule we went searching for food and internet as usual.

Since we recall the location of the the internet café where we were let in I didn’t bring my laptop this time either. Now all food stalls where gone and most shops had closed so our signs for navigating through this maze were gone with the wind. Instead lots of drunken japanese people were strolling around and we were asked by two women, far from good looking if we wanted massage. We kindly declined and debated if it was only massage or not, since only massage would be nice but to explain this in limited english seemed quite risky.

After checking our mails for any answers without luck we decided that we would get some food, perhaps a beer and go back to the capsule hotel. We found a restaurant that served pizza and realized that we hadn’t tried these so we gave it a try. Pizza is more expensive than other, more common dishes, in places as classy as this, as compared to Sweden where it usually is considered quite cheap in comparison to e.g. sushi. Anyways the pizza itself wasn’t that tasty but well drenched in cheese. We concluded the night with some japanese whiskey in a nice bar in the area.

Tomorrow we are planning on clubbing, we will see what Lady Fortune has prepared for us. There is also a few shopping districts that we need to cover…