First Meetup

So anyway like i said in the last blog went to Tokyo the other weekend, hadn't been there for what seemed like ages. Had joined one of the local Tokyo meet up groups http://www.meetup.com/ a couple of weeks before that, this one was for British Expats. Thought i would give it a go what could i loose the worst that could happen was it would be crap. I was getting a bit bored with weekends spent in Utsunomiya even though i know people there now so am always guaranteed to bump into the same people in the bars i go and can hang around with them, there are only a few western style places to hang out in Utsunomiya after all.

The next meeting of this group was scheduled to be on Saturday the 17th Jan so the plan was to go there see what it was like if i liked it would probably go to another one if not had not lost anything. I was planning to make a night of it as the last train back from Tokyo to Utsunomiya is about 11pm and the first one next morning is 6am, so the last one is way way to early once you have made the trip to Tokyo so after the Meetup thingy finished the plan was to hit Roppongi and get a train back some time early morning. I'd be there on my own but by that time should have had a beer or three so would be able to talk to people no problem, Roponggi is always crawling with westerners and a lot of them would be in the same boat as me, just wish it was the summer and T shirt weather.

So the 17th came round and to be honest was thinking of not going, it was cold outside and and just popping up the road to the Lions Head looked a lot more inviting than getting on a train to Tokyo and staying up until the next morning. Told myself not to be such an old wimp get to Tokyo and try to make the most of being in Japan, so that's what i did got the train to Tokyo.

Didn't leave until about apartment until about 8pm had been thinking i would get the regular train but that takes nearly 2 hours so opted for the Shinkansen as i was late which is only 45min but is twice the price, what the hell it's not like i go every weekend.

The train station which is only 5 minuets from my apartment so set out to get my ticket and got to the platform about 10mis after walking out the door, trains go really regularly so only had to wait about another 10 minuets Couple of photos showing a deserted platform at Utsunomiya station, there were people there but they were all hiding as it was bleeding cold, you can probably tell cos I've taken to wearing a Beanie, good old Primart it was only a quid.

Got to Tokyo before 9pm, train only makes 3 stops so doesn't take long, Tokyo station was just a mass of people from being no one at Utsunomiys station there was just a stream of people and had to get on to the underground, now i know what it must feel like to be a salmon fighting your way up stream.

Finally made it to the underground station caught the train to Ebisu which is where i thought i was going, was looking for a bar called the FootNik http://www.footnik.com/ Turns out though that when i had checked it out on the net there were two and I'd brought the map to the wrong one which is about par for the course, didn't know all this till i went in for a drink though and it looked a bit sparse on the foreigner front so i asked around. Turns out the place i wanted was about three stops down the way, so had a beer and caught the next train to Osaki. The bar was nice and obviously catered for the football watching crowd there were lots of screens and had premiership football on a regular basis. In Japan football is pretty big so you get a mixed clientele it's real popular through Asia especially the English premier league. Food in the bar looked good as well though i didn't try it this time. The bar had a pretty varied menu along with all the old favorites Fish and Chips, Bangers and Mash and something called English Chicken Pie.

Was getting late by this time i finally made it so there was not that many people left, mostly the drinkers of the group but had a good time nevertheless, everyone was friendly so will probably go to another one. Had to keep one eye on the clock as well as i needed to catch the last train to Roponggi the drink was flowing though so gave up on this idea and opted for a Taxi instead, got to the nights final destination about 2am Sunday morning and it was heaving.

Went to quite a few of the bars i went in Ben and Tristan when they were here and a couple of new ones, had a pretty good time and there were plenty of people to talk to and quite a few i didn't want to. It's part of the deal being in Roponggi though you get pestered by touts quite a bit trying to get you to go into their bars, best thing to do is not to make eye contact with them but that's hard for me not to do as i always feel ignorant, it's not too bad though you just have to say no a couple of times as you are walking away.

Just added the photo below of a shop front i passed on my way back to the underground in Roponggi not sure what time it was but must have been late/early as there was no one around anyway i thought it looked good even though i was drunk, am sure it's an expensive place though.

Next thing i knew it was about 8am and i was in McDonald's having breakfast, not sure what it was but it tasted pretty good. After breakfast it was time to head to the underground get back to Tokyo Central and the train back to Utsunomiya. Getting the train on the way back is always a little bit trickier after you've been drinking all night than it is on the way in and you're sober. The other thing you've got to do is try not to fall asleep on the train and miss your stop, got back to the apartment and into bed around 10am, got to say that was a nice feeling it had been a long night come Sunday morning, will probably do it all again in another month or so though.