Travelling alone has it's pro's and cons. One big downside is sampling the night life which means having to stand alone like a sad twat squirming in a quiet corner of a bar trying not to be identified as "alone" - but you just knew people were going "ohh what a shame he's on his own - go and say hello"...and there's me fidgeting with a tour book, trying to look everywhere except across the bar, resorting to studying every last detail of the ceiling of the bar - including the intricate spiders web of wiring which by some miracle managed to light the place up - I say miracle because it was all held in place by crusty old blue gaffer tape and celotape that had seen better days..it was so old it was almost fossil like. ...what a firehazard!
I had found myself in Advocates which is no bigger than my hotel room and the clientele spill out onto the st...because that is all they can do when only 10 peope can squeeze into the bar at any one time. ..and that is the same story for the other 300 bars in the Shinjuku district although they appear to operate a strict door policy. There is a bar for everyone - bear bars, young bars; thin bars, fat bars, old bars, love you long time bars.. christ its complicated......basically if you don't look the part - you don't get in...how humilating - "NO - you no go in -you to fat". Yikes!
Avocates, had been celebrating it's 9th birthday and Friday was going to be party night but they cancelled it because of the weather... nevertheless by the time I got to my second asahi beer, I had been warmly introduced to an ex pat group with each having their own story to tell about how they happened to stumble upon a life in Tokyo and why they would never go home. Some had been living in Tokyo 19 -20 years, and had learned the language and had really made an effort to fit in although that was no mean feat for the 9ft Australian who did stick out just a tad.
They were a very closed nit group who politely deflected unwelcome questions like "What do you do here"? I'm not sure why that was so tricky but for some it was - maybe they thought I was an immigration spy and they were reluctant to advertise the fact that they had overstayed on their tourist visa by 18 years and 9 months! I got the impression it was partly that..Anyway whatever their "issues", I didn't intend to spend all night talking about them nor did I intend staying out too long - I had a big day planned for Saturday - I had decided to go to Nikko so after saying my good byes I headed back to the hotel, pleased with myself that I had been brave enough to go...although when I got back to the hotel I had realised that somehow I had lost 50,000 yen or £300 which made me bloody angry! More Tomorrow.
