I'm a B Boy

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving. No big ALT dinner this year like last year, so I'll probably eat sushi.

Decided late Monday night to head down to Tokyo with Lopaka and Debs on Tuesday night, and meet up with a couple people there. We had no real aims other than to drive to Tokyo and be in the city since we had Wednesday off work (for the Japanese version of Labor Day).

First of all, it is SO easy to drive to Tokyo from here. Why did I never know this? We parked at Lopaka's in Nakasato which is 30 minutes from my house, and from his place it was 2 hours and 30 minutes into the suburbs of Tokyo. All in all, 3 hours to drive to the biggest metropolis in the universe. Lopaka was very proud that is was only 3 turns from his house...turn onto the road near his place, head over the hills and turn onto the expressway, and it's one shot from there into Nerima where we took a quick 15 minute subway into the center of the city.

We headed straight for Shibuya, same part of Tokyo I was in last time, where the average age is probably 20. Once about every 100 people, you might see someone that looks over 30. So I probably stood out cuz Japanese people think I'm ancient, but at least I felt young there.

We met up with a guy named Hiroshi after a mellow dinner, and drank rum in the streets on the way to Club Harlem, Tokyo's famous trend-setting hip hop club. Club Harlem is where all the coolest and most serious Japanese B boys and B girls bump away, trying out the coolest dance moves they saw in the coolest new rap video, meticulously dressed to make sure they are following the coolest of urban fashion trends. I obviously stood out a little. Not only were we the only foreigners, but I was 3 feet taller than everyone, and I was either doing the Robot or the Roger Rabbit. What I should have done was donned a gold chain and a Yankees hoodie and smoked a cigarette and bobbed my head up and down told people I was Eminem's brother, but I didn't. Either way, I felt like a B boy even if I didn't look the part. Eventually had to teach Debbie and Lopaka a few sweet dance moves...they were SO clueless. We hipped and hopped until about 4 am and then headed back to Hiroshi's house, a pretty nice place in Shibuya.

The next day involved about 3 things: walking, shopping and avoiding getting trampled by the intense T0kyo crowds. We cruised Shibuya and found a luscious TGI Friday's where I had a luscious bacon cheeseburger, and then we met Kaori and headed out to Harajuku. Lots of browsing, cruising, munching and chatting, then headed back home around 10 PM, got into bed by 2 am. I'm beat.

Funny thing is, I'm going back to Tokyo tomorrow. Not gonna admit why I'm going, but it starts with Disney and ends with Land.