Carl's Last Hurrah in Roppongi

For Carl's last weekend in Japan, we decided to take him to Tokyo's Roppongi, popular for it's nightlife fun. Mike was miraculously able to book a room for us at the New Sanno, a military hotel in Tokyo. It's really hard to get a room because it's always booked up--and with this being a last minute trip, I thought we had no hope. I was expecting a Navy Lodge-ish type of place, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was nicer than the Westin we stayed at in Kyoto!

We took a train over and arrived in the early afternoon. Since the rest of our party wasn't arriving until evening, we decided to do some exploring and check out Tokyo Tower.


Here's the view from the top of the tower, but in order to get this view, we had to endure an incredibly long line for an impossibly packed elevator.


The elevator was tiny, but they shoved as many people into it as humanly possible. It was literally like sardines in a tin can. Then as we were headed up, there was an announcement about not to worry if we hear cracking sounds on the ride up because that's normal! There was also a long wait for the elevator down, but I made the guys play the picnic game with me to pass the time. You know, the one that starts out "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing..." and you go through the alphabet with your list of supplies. Carl and I were all about it because it's an old childhood game of ours, but Mike had supposedly never even heard of the game and played very, very begrudgingly. Despite all of his grumbling about playing, it did make the time go by quickly.

Once the rest of our party arrived, we met up at the English pub-like bar at the bottom of the hotel to work out our plan for the night. The guys contemplated just staying in the bar all night long because of the unusually cheap (as in inexpensive) beer they offered. But the ladies were having none of that...we were here for some dancing! So after an all-you-can-eat buffet at the hotel restaurant we headed out for the night.



Here we are hanging out at the bar before we went out for the night.












Here I am with Yuki and Kazuho, who work at FISC with the guys.


Finally, we head out in search of our first destination. Here's Carl enjoying the comedy of our search because we couldn't seem to get our bearings straight. Sometimes he would end up leading the group- the guy who's never been here before.



Our first stop- Hobgoblin. It was a quiet little place, and considering how crowded the other places we would try turned out to be, in retrospect, we should've just stayed there all night.




Here are the guys and the girls...



And then there's Rich...Ladies- he's single and ready to mingle!



The rest of the night was spent in search of a good dancing spot for the girls, but alas, it was not meant to be. We tried GasPanic, but only succeeded in giving me flashbacks of the elevator scene from earlier in the day. The dance floor was so crowded, dancing was pretty much impossible. The next place was a slightly less crowded, but they played techno... I'm sorry, but I still haven't figured out how to dance to that type of music. I need my 50 Cent and Sean Paul to get my groove on.

Despite the failed dancing attempt, it was still a good time, and I can't wait to do it again.