Tokyo Drift

I live and work about 90 minutes outside of Tokyo. So every weekend, I pack a backpack and head to the city. Tokyo is a totally different animal. When I get there, I feel different. I mean, as soon as I step off the train, my mind shifts gears and I’m in immediate get it in and survive mode. I go to Tokyo to kick it. Hard. And that’s what we do every time. Shibuya is like Brooklyn on a Saturday in the summertime. Everyone is out and about and doing something. Anything.
There is so much to do in Tokyo. SO much to see. I feel like even if we are just walking around, something exciting will happen. It is kind of weird because sometimes, something in me says, seek out the foreigners…you know it will be poppin’! LOL…and then we find some and of course they are CRAZY! They all are doing what we are doing. It is always interesting to see what everyone is doing here in Japan and why they came. There are definitely a group of standardized questions that we ask each other. And for once, it isn’t the automated business answer that you are required to give Japanese people when they ask you why you came.
So we go to Tokyo and hit an izakaya for food and drinks, and then a bar…and then maybe another bar or club. The whole thing about going to Tokyo is once you are out past 11:30, you are out for the night. There is no train after midnight so you had better be prepared to stay out until the morning. By 2:00am, everyone is in the same groove, just trying to make it to the morning.
So at 4:30, the first train leaves. And life in Tokyo begins again. If I can’t find somewhere to sleep, I’m on the 5am back to Odawara. And so I get on this train filled with business people headed to work, and drunk people (like me) trying to recover from the exploits of the past few hours…and everyone passes out. After being on the train for 3 minutes, most citizens pass OUT. It is hilarious, actually. And like clockwork, they wake up at the exact moment they need to get off the train. I always fear oversleeping…but I have noticed on the last couple of trips that I wake up at Shin Matsuda without fail. Right on time to switch trains.
I think I’m turning Japanese.
I really think so.