Day 11 : Shibuya Madness
Today we had planned to go to Shibuya and see the crossing, Hachiko statue, go to the Pokémon center, and eat good food. Little did we know there was more in store.
I grew up watching and playing Pokémon so Pokémon Center Shibuya was pretty cool. I just wish it wasn’t as busy. Nothing really to do other than look around and buy souvenirs though.
In the Shibuya mulit level deparment store mall thing, theres a food court and I saw really good pictures on the wall advertising for it. It was called Carniceria. This was probably our best meal of the entire trip and wait til you hear the price. We ordered a pizza, garlic bread, and 1lb of STEAK. Lemme show you a picture and you can guess the cost.
By the way, the steak was medium rare and it melted in your mouth. This entire meal was less than $35 and since there was two of us that’s barely $18 a person. Insane and insanely good.
After our meal and some window shopping we went to go see the most local doggo, Hachiko.
We tried to get some good photos of Shibuya crossing but the best we could do was a cafe on the top floor of a building overlooking it. However, all of my pictures came out blurry except one.
So with everything accomplished, that should have been the end of the day.
Wrong.
Right as we were about to get on the train, my friend from college finally texted me back and said, “Meet me in Kabukicho.”
So of course… we did.
Enter Bryan.
Throughout the whole trip I had asked JJ multiple times if he wanted to go out at night, but by the time it actually got late, he was usually too tired for nightlife. Which, to be fair, made sense when you consider how many steps we were putting in every day.
But Bryan had a plan that JJ couldn’t escape.
All he had to do was keep us distracted for an hour or two until the trains shut down.
If you didn’t know, after midnight Japan’s trains stop running and don’t start back up again until around 4:30 AM. That’s why you see so many drunk salarymen wandering the streets late at night, they missed the last train home.
Honestly, the night got off to a rough start.
We walked into four or five different bars that either had zero vibe or were completely packed. At one point we even ended up in this rock bar that only had one group in the entire place. We tried to help the mood by putting in a song request.
Let’s just say the crowd was not thrilled when Mr. Brightside started blasting through the speakers.
But eventually we stumbled upon a little hidden gem a few floors up in one of the buildings. It had darts, beer pong, and most importantly… actual people.
At first it was just the three of us hanging out in the corner. Eventually JJ and I grabbed some darts and started playing.
Unexpectedly, one of the guys at the bar came up to me and asked if I wanted to arm wrestle.
Sure, why not.
Then another guy asked.
And then another.
Before I knew it, I had arm wrestled like ten different guys. It basically turned into an unofficial tournament that I never agreed to but somehow became the main attraction of. Don’t worry, no one was able to beat me, THE AMERICAN.
Meanwhile, JJ and Bryan were holding it down at the table and we started playing highball pong together.
Honestly, it ended up being a great night.
Around 4 AM we grabbed some fried chicken from the convenience store and sat outside the train station waiting to go home.
Not a bad way to end the night.