Tokyo Drift :)

Konnichiha! I am back and I have decided out of the few countries I've been to, I, without a doubt, like Japan the best! Okay I may be exaggerating a bit but I did like it very very much. Anyway here are some pictures who'll do half the talking.

One highlight of the trip - I got a chance to meet our very own ruolngulworld! I also got to meet his lovely family. They took me to church - A bit of sightseeing - (Tokyo Tower)
And his lovely wife helped me shop, and then they took me to this little restaurant where I had the best meal of my life. Ever. I'm not exaggerating. Kobe beef, darlings, is everything it's hyped up to be and more! In fact, I think I'm a little sad because now that I know how utterly amazing Kobe beef is, I will feel its absence from my life that much more strongly, knowing that I have to live my life missing out on the best meat in the world :(

Also another highlight - I got to celebrate my birthday in Tokyo! And it was a birthday I will never ever forget in my life. My friends insisted we had to usher my birthday in properly so I got my ass dragged to Roppongi (famous as home to the rich Roppongi Hills area and an active night club scene, says Wiki) And wonder of wonders! Guess what we found when we got there? It was ladies night! A little unlike our ladies nights here because they give you free Champagne all night long :)

I have an obsession with blue flowers, I can even spend hours Googling pictures of blue flowers. It's great to have friends that know you well, because at midnight I got the bluest, prettiest flower I've ever seen in real life. I wanted to bring it back home with me, but it was merely a corpse by the time we left. And all the bling bling on the hair were also gifts from people who know about my new passion with hair ornaments.

(Also note the tinyness of the corriders of our hotel room. And all these times when people would talk about real estate issues in Japan, I always thought they were kidding!)

Luckily, we got to move in to our much more nicer, company-paid hotel the next day. So on my birthday I checked in to my hotel room, and ta-da! Now this one had plenty and plenty of space as you can see :)

And the view from my room wasn't too bad either :P

To be honest, my room was so amazing I actually wondered if the organisers made a mistake and thought I was some big shot Googler and gave me the best room in the hotel :)

Anyway, after basking in the comfort of our hotel room's linen, we went to this place I'll just call the Samurai village. The entry fee was pretty steep, a little over 2000 Yens. But once you get in, wow! They make you remove all your clothing, then they make you choose a kimono, then they make you choose a sash you want to wear with your kimono. Well they were more like Yukatas than kimonos but it's all the same to me anyhow.

Then you enter the village, where everyone is dressed in traditional Japanese clothing, complete with Japanese folk music and everything. Little stalls, restaurants, hot springs, gardens - it was almost like traveling into the past and being in a real Japanese village. And oh, I have to mention all of these were indoors.

This was out in the gardens where we had our hot foot bath.

We tried everything - hot stone baths, Japanese head spas, Sake...It was the best birthday I've ever had by far! (Until it was time to leave the village and you see your check and it says 16,000 yens :P - and this doesn't include the entry fee!). But where else in the world would I get a chance to loll about all day wearing a kimono. And look, I even tied my belt myself. Pretty good job for a first timer don't you think?
We hunted for a Karaoke bar around the hotel area all dressed up later at night but we were unsuccessful. Instead we found a bunch of friendly locals who took us to a bowling alley and we hung out with them all night instead.Oh I should also mention this park near our hotel where Shirley was stalked by a cat one evening. Pretty as hell, but so quiet and foreboding we'd get all jumpy and nervous and keep turning around to see if there's someone walking behind us (but there's never anyone). And conversations would turn to 'Samara' and other dark characters and we'd all freak out. But the thing is, it's really pretty and we can sit there undisturbed and practise our 'Kawai' poses, like so :) And then we had the company Glo party where everyone glowed the night away...

Everyone headed off to Roppongi once again after the Glo party was over. It was kind of funny running into different colleagues every few metres at 3:00 AM on the streets.

Here's Shirley on our way back to the hotel after the party -
And yes, Japan is truly the land of the rising sun. It was around 4-ish when we were leaving and the sun was already up or something...:P

And I'm going to go on forever so my last picture - just to show off. I finally got all the stuff I wanted after much running around - my very own Yukata, Geisha hair ornaments, and very kawai, pink, frilly, lacey sandals :P And I also saw the real Hachiko's statue!

Well this was really long but this was just a summary. I want to post pictures of food, and write about a couple of 'Ladies changing room' and 'Ladies shower' incidents. And yes yes, of course I'll dedicate the latter part to you Kim Kim :P