Shinjuku Can Be Fun

Today's plan was to go to another party put on by the Tokyo SNSD fan club.  t turned into more of an adventure than it originally could have, and provided the opportunity to see lots of nice city scenes.

We started by meeting Colin and Shohei again at Shinjuku Station.  On the train to Ikebukuro, a woman who had been sitting next to Wesley started asking us we're from and stuff, but it had taken her most of the hour she'd been there to work up the courage to ask.  By that time, we were one stop away, so she didn't get to talk to us much and the train ride went by much more slowly than it apparently could've.
So anyway, once we met Colin and Shohei we spent a bit of time sitting and trying to figure out somewhere to go.  We decided on McDonald's, because it's Japan and therefore much better for you.  Over here, you don't still taste the grease when you're done with it.  The drink pictured is also the largest size available.

Here's everyone at McDonald's in the process of lovin' it.

Shinjuku has several built-in associations when mentioned in conversation here.  The first is business, and that was most definitely true judging by the number of tall buildings.  The second is yakuza (Japanese mafia), and I have no way to verify that part.  The third is homeless people, and this is true in that I saw more homeless people here than I've seen anywhere else in Japan.  One guy on a blanket.

We eventually wandered into a Yamada Electronics store, which was about nine floors high and had any sort of electronic device you could want.  We only went to the floor with the games and CDs, though the selection was small enouh that we didn't stay very long.  However, from the elevator we could see this T-ara billboard advertising their new CD.  it's still exciting for me to see these public displays of things I actually understand.

We made it to a book store in between anime shops, and there was this huge display of Zetman stuff that I photographed because my friend Kassie would like it.

I also have a friend who has been wondering about the status of Dungeons and Dragons in Japan, and today I actually found some clues.  On one hand, this is a whole lot of Dungeons and Dragons books, but on the other hand, they're all still on the shelf.  Not sure how to read that;  it's not like they're all brand-new or anything.

We went to Animate, Gamers, and Sofmap as far as anime stores go, and the first of those had a very realistic, very expensive figure of Jotaro from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.  I didn't buy it because I don't need Jotaro, and especially not for that much, but it was still enjoyable to see.

THIS IS THE GIANT EYE OF SHINJUKU.  IT SEES WHAT CANNOT BE SEEN; IT KNOWS WHAT CANNOT BE KNOWN.  ALL PEDESTRIANS ARE REQUIRED TO MAKE ONE OFFERING TO THE GIANT EYE IN ORDER TO PASS UN-VAPORIZED.
Okay, not really.

This is just a nice little bit of artwork that was on the other side of the tunnel The Giant Eye guards.

And here's this nice little road.

And this nice little plaza, tucked so far behind a tall building that I can't imagine the Vietnamese restaurant is doing too well.  No one would be able to find it.

In this next picture, I'm either looking up a tall building or down a REALLY tall building.  You decide!

Colin had a bus to catch for Nagoya, so we let him head on out around 4:00.

Here is Colin's face.

And here's the ceiling of the hotel where the bus stop was.

This crazy-looking building in the middle is in one of my Shin-Ookubo pictures from yesterday.

After Colin and Shohei left, Wesley and I found some of the people we were supposed to meet and waited with them.  Most of them w'd already met by now, so fun times were had.  Once everyone was there, we headed off to the party place.  On the way there, traditional Latin-American folk music happened.  Not sure why.

The place was not something I thought existed.  It was... a K-pop izakaya.  If you don't know what that is, it's a bit like a combination of a bar and a restaurant.  This one just happened to be K-pop-themed.

It had a balcony the size of a closet, which is unusual so I took a picture.

Here's how big the place was.

And here's all the vaguely Korean food we had.  Not the most authentic, but not bad at all.  Overall, very satisfied with the dining experience.

Someone had collected a bunch of bottles of this healthy drink SNSD advertised for, so their pictures are on the bottles.

Here's another thing they brought us.

Eventually, it was time for  Seohyun's birthday cake (today was a party for her).  The staff brought it out.

Behind me the whole time there was a DVD player.  They kept playing SNSD videos, songs, and concert footage, so it was lots of fun.

There was a rock-paper-scissors tournament at which I won some pretty good stuff.  Here's most of what they had to give away.

Here's the street after dark\.

Here's the stuff I bought/received today!.  The top row is two mini posters of Tiffany from SNSD and Girl's Day in general.  Between them are some After School post cards, given to me by one of the Japanese people we met.  We have met him a t events for all three of those groups, so it was nice that he took the time to do that.  Also there, from left to right in the middle row:  Rainbow's Over the Rainbow, a figure of Alexander the Great as he appears in Fate/Zero, some T-ara star cards, Nana Mizuki's Time Space EP, and the card that came with it.  The bottom is a birthday thing for Seohyun and then Secret's Moving in Secret.

And here's an update on the CD collection.  Two more and I'll be at forty.