Another night out in Tokyo
Yesterday saw the earliest of escapes from the office so far. I was out the door by about 9:15 or so and Sean (the other guy who got flown out here) and I took a cab down to a restaurant that had been recommended by one of the associates here. The restaurant looked great, but unfortunately there was a 40-minute wait for a table and we were both ravenous.
We followed our stomachs and ended up at a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant across the road that also appeared to have a patisserie/cafe on its ground floor. The food was good and after that we went across the road to a bar/club called Muse. We were slightly perturbed by the fact we HAD to leave our jackets in a locker at the front upstairs (non-refundable 200 yen charge), and on top of that there was a 2000 yen cover charge. This was less of an issue because you got two drink tokens for the cover charge, so you basically got your money back once inside.
The club itself was an ingenious multi-level affair with a dance floor area and a lot of quieter areas where you could sit and talk to people, play pool or electronic darts machines. When we got there around 10:30 it was fairly quiet, but gradually it livened up. Sean met a guy from Hawaii who had been working in Tokyo for 6 years and had friends over visiting so we hung out with them for a while and some more of the locals. It was a good night - the music was pretty good - a mish-mash of dance and pop tunes which had been heavily remixed into each other, and I think we only heard two repeated songs the whole time we were there.
Drinks weren't particularly cheap, but I got the impression it was an "in" place to be, so I guess I can forgive it that.
I left around 2:30am and then walked back up to Roppongi. I managed to find a liquor store which is pretty much a hole in the wall. It seems to be used by the clubs and bars when they run out of a particular bottle of spirits and can be used as a stop-gap til their next delivery.
My beady eyes spotted a bottle of Suntory Hibiki - a 17 year blended whisky which is very very nice. I brought back a bottle together with the 12 year Yamazaki when I last came to Tokyo and they have disappeared far too rapidly for my liking. It was about 7,500 yen for the bottle so not cheap, but certainly not a rip off. Looking forward to installing it on my shelves back home in London to replace the other one that's almost empty.
After that I walked back to my apartment and dozed off.
Work again today - bit of a later start but I'm still here and it's 7:30pm. Hopefully next week things will get a little less crazy!
Ken
We followed our stomachs and ended up at a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant across the road that also appeared to have a patisserie/cafe on its ground floor. The food was good and after that we went across the road to a bar/club called Muse. We were slightly perturbed by the fact we HAD to leave our jackets in a locker at the front upstairs (non-refundable 200 yen charge), and on top of that there was a 2000 yen cover charge. This was less of an issue because you got two drink tokens for the cover charge, so you basically got your money back once inside.
The club itself was an ingenious multi-level affair with a dance floor area and a lot of quieter areas where you could sit and talk to people, play pool or electronic darts machines. When we got there around 10:30 it was fairly quiet, but gradually it livened up. Sean met a guy from Hawaii who had been working in Tokyo for 6 years and had friends over visiting so we hung out with them for a while and some more of the locals. It was a good night - the music was pretty good - a mish-mash of dance and pop tunes which had been heavily remixed into each other, and I think we only heard two repeated songs the whole time we were there.
Drinks weren't particularly cheap, but I got the impression it was an "in" place to be, so I guess I can forgive it that.
I left around 2:30am and then walked back up to Roppongi. I managed to find a liquor store which is pretty much a hole in the wall. It seems to be used by the clubs and bars when they run out of a particular bottle of spirits and can be used as a stop-gap til their next delivery.
My beady eyes spotted a bottle of Suntory Hibiki - a 17 year blended whisky which is very very nice. I brought back a bottle together with the 12 year Yamazaki when I last came to Tokyo and they have disappeared far too rapidly for my liking. It was about 7,500 yen for the bottle so not cheap, but certainly not a rip off. Looking forward to installing it on my shelves back home in London to replace the other one that's almost empty.
After that I walked back to my apartment and dozed off.
Work again today - bit of a later start but I'm still here and it's 7:30pm. Hopefully next week things will get a little less crazy!
Ken
posted by Ken at 10:11 am
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