Streets of Akasaka

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We decided to explore the area around the hotel tonight. The area probably wasn'tas english-friendly as other destinations, but we were able to get buy with a little broken Japanese. Due to the high cost of internet in the hotel rooms, we went in search of a cyber cafe which is a daunting task when each building on the densely packed streets has several floors, and we were unable to find anything near the ground that resembled one. A little good luck found us a cyber caf?on the second floor of a building. The man told us, in Japanese, 200 Yen for ten minutes. We fired off some emails to let our families know we arrived safely, paid and left (he only charged us 100 since we were in there for about 5 minutes). We then found a Ramen shop, paid the ticket machine outside (pictures with numbers were very helpful here; most food is unfamiliar and written in Chinese characters, of which I am mostly unfamiliar). After eating we went in search of a bar. I had seen a Bass Ale bar with reasonable prices during our search for a cyber cafe, but we were unable to locate it again. This district was mostly filled with Pachinko and Hostess bars, so we decided to go back to the hotel and ask the concierge which bars in the area they recommend. Staff was mostly unhelpful, suggesting that we drink in the extremely expensive hotel bars. When I inquired about price I was told simply that the bar had a "great view" If I want a view ill drink Johnnie Black in my hotel room. The staff suggested that we check out the entertainment districts in Shinjuku and Roppongi. We went back out on the streets and decided to stop in the first bar we found, a place called "Shot Bar" decorated exclusively with Charlie Chaplin movie posters. I tried the Manhattan (a little heavy on the vermouth and I overhead the bartender remark in Japanese that the cherry was quite old). E tried an Asahi black beer, a dark beer that was surprisingly sweet, and D had some red wine. After paying the check we decided to try and find another bar, but realized we were pretty tired so we bought three cans of beer in a convenience store and went back to the hotel. After watching some absurd Japanese television (surprisingly, the most crazy programs were American infomercials that had been Japanized), we decided to call it a night and check out Roppongi tomorrow.

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