Just saw Keven off at the station. He was staying with us over the
weekend during his 6-day visit in Tokyo. Robyn and I have been touring
around with him this couple of days. It was kind of strange to meet
someone that I know from the internet in person for the first time. In
Japan nonetheless. But we hit it off right away and had a great time.
It was interesting to meet someone outside of our social circle (read:
us) for once. Keven is crazy hilarious. I
think he might have scarred a few Japanese for life during his stay
here. I don't think they'll ever forget Sakura Man.
Our guest arrived on Saturday evening, and we met him at Shinjuku station.
Even though I'd never met him before, I could recognize him right away
when I saw him (I've seen his pictures). It's hard to miss his long
hair and signature hat. We took him to the okonomiyaki place for
dinner. That was the 3rd time Robyn and I have been to that restaurant.
Each time we brought a new visitor of Japan there. We couldn't think of
a better restaurant to take somone who visits Japan for the first time.
I don't think most people have had authentic okonomiyaki outside Japan.
I think Keven enjoyed it, and we had a lot of fun just eating, chatting
and drinking beer. After that, we walked around Shinjuku a bit and had
more drinks at a cool yakitori stall. Then we took Keven back to our place and showed him where he would be sleeping. He had to tough it out in our small living room, but he didn't seem to mind it too much.
On Sunday, Keven wanted to have sushi (as he kept saying even before he came here), so we had sushi for lunch at a sushi bar (回転寿司)
in Kichijooji. Keven The Brave decided to try some nasty unusual sushi there. The sushi he
had looked really disgusting to me .. like brains or something, but he
ate them. He also had this weird squid thing. It appears he will try
ANYTHING.
After lunch, we looked around Loft department store and Keven bought a
ridiculous looking mask called Sakura Man because he took a fancy to
it. Little did we know what he was going to do with it, but that's for
later. We hit Akihabara first to do some otaku
viewing. Again, Akihabara is a must-see place for anyone who is
interested in the anime/manga/porn subculture in Japan. It was a dreary
drizzling Sunday, however, so there weren't that many people prowling
the streets of Akiba. There were only a few cosplay
girls in front of the station. Still, the sight of the otaku taking
pictures of the girls was just as strange as the first time we beheld
it.
It was nothing, however, compared to the
maid cafe
we went to afterwards. Robyn and I have been to one before by accident.
We basically walked into a cafe with waitress dressed up as cats (the
place's called "Cafe with Cat" .. should have guessed?), but it still
'looked' like a cafe . The one we went to with Keven was a bit
more .. umm .. adult? shady? It was called Reflexiology or some
nonsense like that and was actually more of a massage parlor than a
cafe. We didn't know that though when we went in there. At the
entrance, there was this girl dressed up in a maid outfit kneeling down
to take off our shoes. She called us 'master/mistress' in Japanese. We
were then led into a dark room with ONE table in a corner where we were
seated. The we ordered $7 drinks each just to sit in a dark room at a
crappy table while watching geeky/creepy looking guys go into the rooms
in the back for some massage. It was pretty strange to say the least.
The acts those waitresses put on were also quite amazing to watch.
Their 'cute' and submissive demeanor and the way they talked along with
the maid outfit were all part of the package. When the waitress served
us drinks, she would deliberately bend down so we can get a clear view
of her cleavage. Both Robyn and Keven tried to be gentlemen and not
look at the waitresses too much, but being a woman, I looked as much as
I wanted simply because I was rather curious. It was certainly a unique
experience. Before we left, we even paid 10 bucks to have a picture
taken with the waitresses. We gave the Polaroid picture to Keven as a
souvenir, but we took a photo of it with our digital camera:
Both Robyn and Keven were made
to wear bunny and bear ears while I had to put on the maid's headband
thing. They also showed us how to do the 'maid pose' with our hands
crossing together. We looked very dorky, but I guess that's the whole
point?
After Akihabara, we stopped by Shibuya on our way home since Keven
wanted to see 'kids in strange outfits'. On the train there, he took
out the Sakura Man mask and actually put it on while the polite
Japanese looked on in horror. Not that you could accuse them of
staring. Some of the young people were snickering but most of the
people on the train persistently kept their eyes on the ground and
elsewhere. Even when he stood up and started posing for pictures in the
middle of the train, no one batted an eyelash. Robyn and I almost fell
off the seats laughing so hard at his antics. I can't believe Keven did
that, and even more unbelievable was the Japanese's ability to ignore
this crazy person on the train. It was really funny.
After touring around Shibuya, we had dinner at an izakaya.
We ordered 4 dishes and 3 beers and ended up paying $70! That was quite
a shock, and we didn't even go for all-you-can-drink. Yikes. Guess
it'll be instant noodles for the rest of the month.
It was a fun couple of days with Keven. He has 4 more days in
Tokyo, so hopefully he'll have a blast with the person he's staying
now.
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