Neverending search for the onsen!

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Both me and zoe woke up today with giggle fits. I think it was the overload 12 hour sleep we had. Literally laughed at anything to the point of tears. Once I finally calmed down I had a fantastic conversation on the phone with my fantastic pal Annie from back home. It was so good to hear her voice! miss you kiddo. If anyone else wants a phonecall let me know as I have minutes on my phonecard to run up before I leave in 2 days. Zoe was ambushed by 2 japanese women to come on a tour with us, literally. They basically told her 'you're coming on the tour yes?'. bless zoe who is too nice to say no.. i saved her!

so then me, zoe, angela and jared set off on our mission to find Ueno metropolitan museum of art. we already knew where it was because I had seen it previously when I went to the zoo in Ueno. The only difference was this time it was raining, none stop bastard rain. Everyone in Japan has an umbrella, no joke. EVERYONE. So somehow I felt obliged to use one as well, despite the fact I walked through the rainy streets of Manchester for 22 years without an umbrella. So I discovered umbrellas are pretty handy things to have.. why did I never think of using one before?!

We reached Ueno park and were very much looking forward to eating the pizza we had last time, only to discover it was closed, devoed. So we went to some little cafe and I had edammame beans and then we went on the search for a proper restaurant. I had my mind set on a pizza and luckily discovered a completely overpriced Italian further down the road, however right now money was no issue due to the fact my stomach was making odd starvation noises. The pizza actually turned out to be delicious and I also treated myself to a lovely fattening chocolate cake with ice cream. mmm calories!

Once we reached the museum that turned out to be closed as well, so Zoe made a fabulous suggestion of going to an onsen that we had seen in our Tokyo guidebook. Onsens are hot spring baths that are very popular in Japan. They're apparently very relaxing. The only issue is you have to be naked, which was somehow a scary yet thrilling idea which I was very keen to experience. However once we got to Azabu-juban (where the onsen is), we searched up and down the road and could not for the life of us find it. We asked many people and they all directed us to the same place but it most definitely wasn't there. Eventually one woman we asked actually said it closed down 6 months ago and was replaced with a car park.. our guidebook was published in 2007 which explains everything! Absolutely gutted and totally full of stress we make our way back. However along the way we stumbled across a massage parlour which seemed like the ideal way for me to relieve some stress. It turned out to be stupidly expensive so didn't go in, however further down the road there was one MUCH cheaper and I simply couldn't resist. The others waited 20 minutes while I went and de-stressed my bones with a lovely japanese all body reflexology massage.

Holy cow it was incredible! I have never felt so relaxed in all my life, considering how pissed off I was beforehand. The whole thing cost about 14 pounds and it included a lovely ginger tea to finish. That woman had magic hands, in the most undodgiest way possible. Feeling incredibly content I was more than ready to go home and prepare myself for the night to come. We are planning on going to a salsa bar tonight, with actual salsa dancing, and maybe then onto Muse again. Also I'm meeting Tomo again which will be good! Will continue later xxx

I came back and found a message on my door from Tomo to ring him with his number on it, he had rang the hostel, how adorable! soooo arranged where to meet and then after a few 100yen drinks again we set off on our mission to Roppongi. The other awesome thing about Japan is that you can drink in the street, and I mean alcohol wise. We always take cans with us and drink on the journey, it's fab. We get to Roppongi and Tomo is there waiting for us! There is also some guy advertising leaflets on the stairs and he basically tells us that Monday night is crap to come out because its the new working week and Shibuya is the place to go if we want to go out, not Roppongi. So obviously in our state of minds we automatically get in a taxi on our way to Shibuya.

There's a club in Shibuya called womb. Apparently it's the 2nd biggest/best club in Japan, and very famous. However I had heard from previous hostellers that it really wasn't anything to rave about and is all a big hype, but we still went to check it out anyway. The price to get in is ridiculous for a Monday night, it was about £10.. I'm used to 5th ave £3 entry all day every day back home! There was also the obvious fact that it was dead in there and not worth the money.. so we automatically left. Then Tomo directs us to Gaspanic. It was also dead in there but I preferred the music and it seemed a nicer atmosphere. Drink prices were beyond ridiculous but hey. Zoe gets dancing with some hot barman, and Jared sits there with a face on him.. obviously likes Zoe. I ask him, yep, he likes Zoe! (Sorry Jared if you're reading this)! So I tell him to basically man up and make a goddamn move seeing as he's had multiple chances beforehand and hasn't bothered. In the end the hot barman screwed Zoe over anyway by feeding some bullshit and she understandably got all emo and went out. (Sorry Zoe!) We did however meet another ultra cool barman who turns out to be from Manchester! Had a wicked chat with him, he was lovely. Also the hottest guy I had ever seen came in.. he was like a Japanese version of Russell Brand but 10x better! For me to say someone is hotter than R.B is saying something! Unfortunately he came in, shook a few hands, had a bit of eye-sex with him and then he left. GUTTED. SOOOOOO after paying an absurd price of 900 yen (£6.00ish) for a goddamn Corona we eventually left.

We ended up at Kareoke again.. typical! It was once again very funny, and this me and zoe ordered some food and it was so mothershitting delicious. Chicken nuggets, chips and some gorgeous sesame cucumber dish that the Japanese seem to do a lot. It was by far one of the best meals I so far had in Japan, or maybe because I was drunk.. no idea. Sung some classics again this time ending with Bohemian Rhapsody! At the end Jared and Zoe were sat snuggling on the kerb together.. scoreeeee! While I snuggled with Tomo 😊 We all headed back to the hostel.. Fun times and cuddlefests!

PEACE X

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