Last last last...
After a blissful sleep in my Kobe capsule, I got up and explored the city a tad before my 1pm train. Kobe's Chinatown was a lot cooler than Yokohama I thought (and cheaper, better xiao long bao). Some cool shops and a creepy doll museum. A funny temple and some very 80s sculptures. I didn't get to see the earthquake park or monument because of time-- back on the shinkansen and into Tokyo, just in time for Sarah's birthday! I revived at our apartment, had a last Hokkaidon (my favorite favorite sashimi-on-rice-bowl in the world, ecstasy for the economical price of 1200 yen) at Tsukiji Sushiko, delighted to find that some random street festival had sprung up for the day in our neighborhood.
Then back to the apato , give Sarah her present (those gold earrings she's wearing), and off to meet Hide and Thiago for okonomiyake. Great last dinner, great last stumbling-through-Shibuya (goodbye Hachiko! goodbye Smoker's Style kiosk!), great drinks at Soma Cafe, great hilarity with Naru and others, great hijinks of Thiago and I going to buy beer at a konbini down the street when they stopped serving drinks at Soma, great attempts to smuggle it in and pour it in the previously-champagne glasses under the table, great getting good-naturedly "kicked out", great Naru kicking trash cans and heaving bicycles and scaring the crap out of innocent couples necking near vending machines, great that two gaijin girls are trying to apologize to Japanese policemen on behalf of a raving drunk Nihonjin, great madness and near-death crossing the street to Chandelier Bar, great last hours in that familiar red interior and staring stuffed animal heads, great (and briefly not-so-great) continued alcohol imbibing and chaos, great but bittersweet last moments saying goodbye to Hide and Thiago and everyone and falling into a cab, not-so-great nausea and funny rush of emotions in the grey rainy ride home, great last walk up the cemetary-overlooking staircase in the pre-dawn, great crash on our little twin futons...
not-so-great waking up at noon and trying to pack while Sarah still slept, great-but-strange call to my Dad to let him in on the big secret: that I was coming HOME to L.A. for a surprise visit instead of straight back to HK, great all-time solid-gold friend coming with me all the way to the Keisei Line Airporter Express station in Ueno, in the rain, great last run through the Tokyo rain with my clear plastic umbrella (fuck you Scarlett Johannsen) to a konbini for last Coolish and Japanese konbini snacks, which were devoured in hyper hangover goodbye style just outside the ticket gate... and then goodbye Sarah, into the gate, onto the train, into the airport, through the JAL line, through security, through the gift-shops (last flurry of yen-disappearance, for good this time), into the boarding line, last text messages, onto the plane, into my seat, into the air (goodbye Japan, goodbye!), over the Pacific, into the night... and sometime the next morning, into American sky, and onto American asphalt, and out into the American air for the first time in a year.
Then back to the apato , give Sarah her present (those gold earrings she's wearing), and off to meet Hide and Thiago for okonomiyake. Great last dinner, great last stumbling-through-Shibuya (goodbye Hachiko! goodbye Smoker's Style kiosk!), great drinks at Soma Cafe, great hilarity with Naru and others, great hijinks of Thiago and I going to buy beer at a konbini down the street when they stopped serving drinks at Soma, great attempts to smuggle it in and pour it in the previously-champagne glasses under the table, great getting good-naturedly "kicked out", great Naru kicking trash cans and heaving bicycles and scaring the crap out of innocent couples necking near vending machines, great that two gaijin girls are trying to apologize to Japanese policemen on behalf of a raving drunk Nihonjin, great madness and near-death crossing the street to Chandelier Bar, great last hours in that familiar red interior and staring stuffed animal heads, great (and briefly not-so-great) continued alcohol imbibing and chaos, great but bittersweet last moments saying goodbye to Hide and Thiago and everyone and falling into a cab, not-so-great nausea and funny rush of emotions in the grey rainy ride home, great last walk up the cemetary-overlooking staircase in the pre-dawn, great crash on our little twin futons...
not-so-great waking up at noon and trying to pack while Sarah still slept, great-but-strange call to my Dad to let him in on the big secret: that I was coming HOME to L.A. for a surprise visit instead of straight back to HK, great all-time solid-gold friend coming with me all the way to the Keisei Line Airporter Express station in Ueno, in the rain, great last run through the Tokyo rain with my clear plastic umbrella (fuck you Scarlett Johannsen) to a konbini for last Coolish and Japanese konbini snacks, which were devoured in hyper hangover goodbye style just outside the ticket gate... and then goodbye Sarah, into the gate, onto the train, into the airport, through the JAL line, through security, through the gift-shops (last flurry of yen-disappearance, for good this time), into the boarding line, last text messages, onto the plane, into my seat, into the air (goodbye Japan, goodbye!), over the Pacific, into the night... and sometime the next morning, into American sky, and onto American asphalt, and out into the American air for the first time in a year.
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