What a day! On this day every year, my friends and I rise at the break of dawn to get ready to celebrate the good ol St. Patrick's Day. Well this year, it was a bit different for me but of course I still managed to celebrate St. Patty's Day in Japan! One of my favorite holidays back home, I wouldn't miss it for the world. Only this time there wasn't a sea of green blobs everywhere like you would see in the streets of San Diego or San Luis Obispo but leave it to me to find exactly where I could get a taste of that. Oh and did I mention, I spent the day with Mr. St Patrick himself? Pat Ryan, remember the guy I met when my roommates took me out? Well it ended up being perfect considering he is Irish. He is absolutely crazy and I love it! I couldn't think of a better way to have spent St. Patty's Day then with an Irish man named Patrick. To start the day off sober and adventurous, he took me to a couple of places...the Asakusa District was first on the list. Shopping centers and of course, the famous Senso-ji Buddhist Temple. It was extremely crowded and I saw the most tourists in this area. Strange thing is that it was freezing and raining outside, yet that didn't really seem to stop people from carrying on with their Saturdays.
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| Everything is small here :-P |
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| Mr. St. Patrick |
Rain or shine here, people go go go...so we did too! The next visit was something I have been dying to see, Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower!!!! Yesss....and I also found out that it is only blocks from the cafe I work at! I will be visiting and staring at this building as much as I can now that I know how close it is. I have read so many articles, seen so many photographs, and studied about Kisho Kurokawa and the moment had finally come. I love that building and it is just tucked in among all the rest of the high rises. It is truly a piece of art. After staring and drooling long enough, I noticed I could barely feel my hands and feet because it was so cold. A quick stop for a beer at Cafe ain soph. then it was time to get this party started.
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| If only I could... |
A good thing about hanging out with locals is they know where alllll the cheap spots are! Izakaya: a popular Japanese style bar. This is where we started, getting the cheap drinks in at a bar called the Alps where the beers are 180¥!! They used to be only 50¥/beer! Here, we indulged in beer and great "bar food." Not your typical American bar food, this food was absolutely delicious. It was packed and full of only Japanese people, I think Mr. St. Patrick was the only white guy in there! Once the prep work was done and we had drank enough cheap drinks to last us for the night, it was time for the real deal...the Irish Pub of course! There they were, green blobs everywhere. I even met someone from San Diego, such a small world. However, please do not be fooled, this is not where the night ended...just when I thought it was done I was off to try something I have been waiting for...dun dun dun, the Karaoke Bar with my new friends Pierre and Julien...Zey are French, Oui oui! Wow did I suck but it didn't matter! I sang my little heart out until there was no voice left inside of me. Finally, back onto the Yamanote Line to go back home! On my walk back I noticed the sky was so bright I was a bit confused as to why...WHOA it was 5:30AM. St. Patty's Day well played. Good night and good morning Japan, see you in 5 hours.
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| Starting off the night |
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| Japanese bar food |
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| Julien |
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| He's from San Diego |
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| Julien & Pierre |
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