Out all night........ again

There are only two types of people who ever ride the first train at 5 am on a Saturday morning -- drunks who are making their way home from the bar or club, and hard working citizens on their way to work. I hope to god I am never one of those citizens!

Last night was one of those nights that end with you crawling into bed at 6 am. I work in the evenings, so sometimes on a Friday I decide to paint the town red all night since the trains stop at 12.30ish. First, I met with some lovely people in densely overpopulated Shibuya for some karaoke. Rich, Jon and Tomomi had all been at nomihodai - all you can drink - and were already quite happy, so I had some catching up to do.

Four drinks and a lot of bad singing of 4 Non Blondes, Elvis, and Japanese pop boy-band sensation SMAP, we jumped on the Yamanote line's 12.30 train and got off at Shinjuku to go to the notorious Ni-Chome gay bar district. We barely made it, after a very drunk Tomomi kept trying to put money onto her phone card instead of her train pass.

I love the gay bars. Gorgeous men dancing in tiny shirts? Total eye candy.
Rich spent most of the night talking to Tomomi and avoiding the gay guys, but Jon got a lot of attention. Jon is a very cute Kiwi of Malaysian descent so he could pass for Japanese, and with short spiky black hair and a cute bod, it is no wonder so many guys came and hit on him. In fact, quite a few came and asked me 'whose your friend? is he single?' I think Jon was flattered. Can't say I blame him.

We left the club around 4 am, and stumbled to one of the many 24-hour eateries that serve up hot, tasty food for Tokyo's many night owls. We feasted on bowls of rice, tonkatsu (pork cutlet), chicken, and beef, and sat around for about an hour, talking shit, rehydrating ourselves with glasses of water, and sobering up.

Finally, as the sun came up, we walked to the station and saw a brilliant full moon gently dipping behind Tokyo's skyscrapers as the sun was coming up. Then it was a lot of goodbye hugs, and onto the train. I always feel kinda funny sitting there, tired, red eyed, smelling like an ashtray, opposite some fresh salaryman in his pressed suit heading to work. Poor dudes. Anyways, in the bitter morning cold I rode my bicycle home and went directly into bed. Another successful deviant night out on the town! Mission accomplished.