quintessential japanese date...sort of.

yesterday i spent the day with a friend of mine from college back in ohio. we both studied abroad in tokyo as juniors and came to japan after graduation. he as a JET on a small island in okinawa, me back to tokyo. he finished 2 years in okinawa and headed home for a bit before coming back in late september for what he thought would be about 10 months. then jobs didn't appeal to him, he didn't want to bother with visa troubles, he realized he actually missed being "home" and he's antsy about going back to school. so, he'll be heading home in a couple weeks. so he's got time on his hands and i had the day off. we headed to Tokyo Dome City, more specifically, the amusement park area.

we finally met up (the area has a hundred train lines and exits, pick somewhere inside tokyo dome city, like the starbucks on the 2nd level terrace.) and made our way to thunder dolphin (1000yen). the coaster actually goes through a hole in the building, which is kind of cool. the ride is fairly decent in the world of roller coasters, but i grew up on Cedar Point, so i've been spoiled by world class roller coasters. i was also partially distracted by my desire to get a photo going through the hole.



next was the ferris wheel, the big o (800yen). it's the world's first centerless ferris wheel, though i feel like they could have come up with a more creative (and appropriate?) name.

before we got on, they took our photo. being the christmas season in japan, we were handed fake christmas presents to pose with. cheese factor, 10. we got into the car, and there was music playing! each little car had its own mp3 player with speakers. there was a selection of, you guessed it, christmas songs. we flipped through them all, but were mostly just impressed with the view of tokyo, trying to figure out where was where (is that ueno? see, the marui building? oh, and that's shinjuku. wow, they seem much closer than they usually feel. etc etc.) and taking photos as the sun began its descent behind the shinjuku skyscrapers.


the lighting was really cool in the evening and i got a couple of other pretty photos.


after that, we wandered into the stores of tokyo dome city. we spent a good while in village vanguard, a variety shop with a hodge podge of this that and everything in between. i bought a banana case and a lunch box shaped like a hamburger. just for fun stuff.

it was too early for dinner, so we decided on baskin robbins for ice cream. i had apple sorbet and it was wonderful. we sat under the illuminated trees, watching high school couples holding hands, taking photos with their cell phones and sharing ice cream. the leaves on the trees are still green or just barely orange, but are already strung with christmas lights. it's beautiful, but somehow strange. i grew up with brilliant oranges and yellows, pumpkins and the smell of fall, followed by a snow covered ground and trees with icicles hanging off their branches, sparkling from the christmas lights trapped under ice. anyway, i digress...

we called Bee, who had earlier asked what i was up to that night. we headed over toward shinjuku, had some happy hour drinks while waiting for Bee to get off work. we still had time to kill so we went to karaoke for an hour. in the beginning, we put in a couple japanese songs and then, for the novelty of it, we decided to see if we could make it a whole hour singing only japanese songs. we actually did it.

a sample of the playlist:
もう君がいない by FUNKY MONKEY BABYS
チェリッシュ by NEWS
粉雪 by レミオロメン
Best Friend by Kiroro

(side note: amusement park complete with ferris wheel ride, window shopping, ice cream under illuminated trees, karaoke...am i missing any of the stereotypical date activities?!)

after an hour, we headed out and met up with Bee. Bee started a new job a couple weeks ago so he invited two of his new coworkers too. we went to the restaurant, our favorite yakitori place, and it was full. with 4 groups on a waiting list ahead of us, we decided to wait. we got drinks from the convenience store and parked ourselves on the railing outside. an hour later, we were still there, hungry. we rock paper scissored for who had to go buy nikumans from the convenience store. Bee lost the first time. about 20 minutes later we played again. i lost. one of the guys insisted that since i was the only girl, there was no way i should have to buy 4 guys' food. but i lost fair and square, so off i went to find nikumans. i had to try 2 stores before i found one that had 5! haha. we actually had a great time, just standing on the sidewalk, talking and laughing and eating our nikumans.

we finally got into the restaurant just before 11pm and continued drinking, eating and having a great time. Bee's coworkers were really funny and it was a great day to end a blah week.

...maybe next time i can ride the ferris wheel on a real date.