Last night was a whirlwind of spending. I took the day pretty easy at first... I went out with ryan the night before and crashed at his house. We went to a classic Japanese style party-restaurant, a isakaya, where young people go to unwind and have `house parties`.

(young people do not have house parties here, the homes are too small). its basically a cheap place to eat and drink. and we did just that! we tried a lot of crazy food and drank a few beers and sakies, which i am growing fond of. we passed out around 2 and ryan went to work the next day in rough shape. I went to the nearby city centre and wandered through clothing stores and a few massive department stores. there are malls here taht are 8 stories high and massive, and each floor is loaded with stores full of wild styles. I wish I could afford to buy a whole new wardrobe here. pretty expensive though. everyone here wears suits, and i think i want to wear a suit to work. i wonder if there are any biology jobs that i can wear a suit to work.... i think not. i`ll have to look.

i made my way back to our apartment, near akikos house, but andrew had left already and he had the key. luckily akikos sister was home. i struggled to ask if I could come in to rest, and finally just did. her sister cannot speak a work of english, but oddly she can write it, in a rudimentary form, anyhow. i came in and did some email and stuff and passed out on the living room floor, which is a little bigger across than i am long. later i found out that there is a spare key, so i went home and changed and slept some more. at 830 i left for the subway to meet andrew, akiko and ryan downtown. we had decided to experience an `authentic` japanese theme restaurant called Ninja. it turned out to be a cool halloweeny theme, dark dank and strange noises. a `ninja` jumped out of a hole in the wall and led us to our room. we crossed a ninja bridge, and did other ninja things. finally we were in our room and we ordered some drinks, which were 700yen (divide by 100 to get us dollars). akikos third of a glass of wine cost 1100yen. we saw teh food menu and were kinda shocked sober. most items were at least 1000yen, and many werecloser to 10000 yen. we struggled to order, but finally decided upon a course meal for 7000yen and a cream cheese eel roll for 1000. we thought that would be sufficient to feed all four of us. well, we were about as wrong as you could get. i think the ninjas thought we were idiots because we cut everything into four and nibbled. even if i had odered the meal for myself i would not have been close to full. we had ten courses, one of which was a fruit course where we were served half of a frozen grape - yes we cut this into four pieces. we grew kinda tired and decided we had had enough so we tried to hurry the rest of the meal. i grew very irritable. the ninjas weren`t very quick!

we paid about 12600yen for four people. and we were all MORE hungry than when we frist got there! we left and found the subway to be closing, so we wandered over to a convenience store and bought a few sakies and beer adn hopped into a cab to shibuya, the party district. we slammed our 185yen sake, which was delicious actually! and stumbled along the road to the club we had chosen, WOMB. entrance was 3500yen, and i think we were supposed to get a free drink, but now that i think of it i cant remember exploiting that offer. the club was four or five stories high and had a massive and very crowded dance floor with wild laser lights and fog. such a wild place, and soooo much fun. i think i was the tallest person in there, and the people there were mostly japanese, whish is exactly what i wanted! what a wild time we had! this club was frequented by the worlds top djs, it seems, as the uppermost floor is loaded with autographs! drinks were about 500yen and you can buy beer and canned ciders and things from vending machines. we did a few tequila shots for 700yen each and danced night. i think we got there around 1am and we left around 530. what a crazy night. the streets were loaded with clubgoers when we left and it was beginning to become light out. andrew was overly tired and appeared VERY drunk... hey andrew! hey! we finally got home around 7 or 8 adn quickly passed out.

I`m over at akikos house now and learning how to make miso soup and other food, pretty cool. i really love her mother, though she has no english. we`re having fun laughing at each other.