Our first morning in Japan! Hooray! We made a quick trip to what tourists refer to as the Donkey (actually the Don Quijote, a loud obnoxious department store with almost everything one might need or want). We needed a few things but chose to browse the four multiple floors of stuff, stuff, and more stuff. Overwhelming? Definitely! On the way to the store, I was struck by the fact that almost every commuter had a white shirt and black pants or skirt (sometimes with tie). I was also caught up in the river of people all headed into the different parts of the city. I mean this figuratively of course although one could easily get swept away in this river and end up in parts unknown. There was very little conversation and all were if not friendly, polite to a fault. Of course our big ol’ tall and chunky American selves were headed upriver much like salmon swimming up stream. I can definitely see the criticisms that Japan can be so crowded but so isolating. It is an introverts dream city (shout out to Yosiell).
Shinjuku is crowded all of the time so we headed to another neighborhood Koeji.This is a neighborhood pretty close by train but what seems to be a much more manageable pace. We enjoyed an awesome lunch at an incredibly reasonable price, with a terrific waiter who was as excited to try out his English as we were to try out our three phrases in Japanese, a very funny kind man happy to serve ice cold beer to us grateful hot and humid Americans. Then off to Monster Cookie for a mint chocolate chip cookie (a la Girl Scouts Thin Mints) at an establishment owned by an ex pat friend of Yosiell’s. We will definitely come back to Keoji to stay as it seems a good place to find refuge in a busy city, especially since we weren’t able to see Yosiell’s friend.
Our first day in Japan ended with experiencing the night life of Shinjuku, our prefecture for the next couple of nights. We went to the Tokyo Eagle Blue, the largest gay bar in Japan. Hmmmm, the largest? Maybe but really we’re talking about 1,200 square feel at best. We were fortunate enough to be there for a drag hosted viewing of RuPaul’s Drag Race Allstars. The bar quickly filled up with Japanese gays and an odd international asssortment of people as well. All friendly and all fairly young. The hostess drag queen, Natt Mara (Swedish for nightmare) was as odd as they come and we were enthralled. The Swedes are weird but fun. Even with only a single number after the show, a good time was had by all.
After, a bite to eat was needed, we went to a basement bar filled with young Japanese revellers. It’s odd to contrast the same people pretty much wearing the same outfits (white short, black pants or black skirt) from work partying and laughing and carrying on like college students at a frat party, Definitely different to the sea of people we saw in the busiest train station in the world, Shinjuku station. At 10:00 the bars and restaurants were full. Too late for our blood, but fun to watch.
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