Stamped & Approved

VISA FOR CHINA

After 3 visits. Success! Last Thursday, at 8:15 am I assumed my position in front of the Chinese embassy (all documents in hand) and got my receipt! I pick up our visas on Tuesday. Cliff has booked the hotel and flights. We leave May 2nd and return May 6th. Of course, you all will get the play-by-play as we continue in this adventure we call life.

Friday was the Opening Day for Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. The first performance was for 4th, 5th and 6th graders at 1:30pm. Because Cliff and Chase were going camping with Cub Scouts on Saturday at 5:30am, I attended the elementary performance and came home so we could all eat dinner and I could help Cliff and Chase pack. The performance went fine. I thought their last rehearsal was better, but at this point the quality standard deviation is probably 10%. I’m still incredulous that we ended up with such a decent show given how it was looking just 1 week ago.

Knowing Cliff and Chase were going to be gone this weekend, I was really torn as to what to do. I knew if I made plans to go out, as it got closer, I would end up wanting to bail. However, I also know if I stay home all day and night, all I will end up doing is eating junk food and watching Columbo or Korean dramas. So by Friday, I started inviting myself to other people’s plans.

Proud Scout

Saturday arrives and Cliff and Chase have managed to leave without getting me up (so nice). When I do get up, I realize it’s raining. Not just mist, but a steady pour. I feel badly for Cliff and Chase for about 2 seconds, and then start getting ready for my day.

One of my goals Saturday was to find a very unique tailor. Cliff somehow managed to create a tiny hole in the front of one of his suit pants. After taking it to my alterations lady, she told me this was beyond her realm of abilities. I needed a kakehagi specialist: Someone who specialized in invisible cloth repair (WTH?). Believe it or not, I ended up finding a boutique that has been around forever through the TAC member services. So after spin class, I took Cliff’s pants to the American Tailors shop, where ironically, there are no American Tailors, and no one speaks English. Estimated Cost: 5,000-6,000 yen.

By the time I start heading back to the apartment in the rain, Nghi and I have made plans to get together for dinner at 7:00pm.

SaturNight 6:50pm. I walk out of the apartment with my Tokyo Black leggings, knee-high boots and bustier. Cliff cracked me up once when he said, “So let me get this straight, you put your bra on to go to bed and take it off to go out !” Mmmhmm. That’s right. I expect my boobs to flop around when I’m dancing, not when I’m trying to sleep. At this point, Cliff has been sending me all kinds of pitiful photos of himself and Chase trying to camp in the rain:

Trying to dry his wet sleeping bag over the fire

I would send back pictures of me having fun:

Subject: What I'm Doing Right Now

I explained to Cliff that I was strictly going out because I couldn’t have a blog about living in Tokyo and not have a night out in Roppongi. Roppongi is known as the “party” district. Full of bars and clubs and stuff to get you in trouble. I go through Roppongi all the time during the day, so seeing it at night and partaking in its wild weekend scene was really fun. An interesting thing to note is Roppongi gets very “dark” at night. I mean this literally and figuratively. You hardly ever see black people during the day in Tokyo. And please, don’t misunderstand where I’m coming from. Black people do not bother me. I con’t have trucks with Dixie Flag stickers on them, I like their music, and sometimes their food (I say this all tongue in cheek of course) plus, I’m going to play the Atlanta card. However, when I say Roppongi gets “dark” at night, I’m talking Nigerian dark. According to sources in the know, these are people who are paid to bring customers into clubs/bars or sometimes they are pimps. Nghi and I had difficulty walking 2 blocks without coming across someone trying to “recruit” us. Michael already told us if we earned any money, we needed to give him 10%. After dinner, Nghi and I started looking for a place to have drinks. We checked out GasPanic but I had to leave. Felt too much like rehearsals. Lots of kids. I then remembered someone (over the age of 35) had recommended Motown as a fun place to go after dinner. There was a nice range of ages, and it is one of those places that plays great music and even though there isn’t a dance floor per se, people just get up and dance when the mood hits them. We had a GREAT time.

Drunk picture

By the time we were ready to leave, it was well into the wee hours of the night. The rain had stopped, the temperatures were pleasant and the streets were still packed! It was definitely a good time, but I don’t think my knees could handle doing this on a regular basis.

SUNDAY

I woke up feeling like I had a mouth full of cotton balls. I checked my phone and saw Cliff had emailed me already:

5:30AM and 28 degrees. Not the warmest place to be. We will or at least I will be doing nothing else today upon arrival.

Survived the Night

OK. He wins.

Until next time…