all night long

A second night of celebration commenced on Friday.  This time, I took an afternoon nap in preparation for the evening's festivities.  I met up with two girls from my program, Ayumi and Natalie.  We met up at 8pm in the club scene in downtown Tokyo- a neighborhood called Roppongi.  We started with dinner at a very typical Japanese restaurant- shoe removal at the front door, private rooms, button on the table to call the waiter, seated on the floor, with room under the table to let your feet hang down.  

 We started with pink drinks!! They served us complimentary salad and miso soup too! (a plus) The item in the lower left corner is the gizzard Ayumi ordered, which I tried- tough, but surprisingly tasty (Teresa, you would be proud).

 Getting the dancing part of the night started.  At this club you paid a 1,000 yen cover (about $13) and it was all you could drink until 11pm! Enjoying round 2 (tequila sunrises).  Here we met some French guys who knew the club scene in Roppongi very well and at around midnight, guided us to the next dancing scene.

 With a "ladies discount" we paid about $20 for the cover of the next place and received two complimentary drink tickets there.  With five levels of bar/dancing space there was plenty to choose from.  We spent most of the night in the basement where all the dancing was! Since the DJ was from NYC, I knew nearly every song he played.  Hip hop, pop, top 40, and techno.  Although JAM PACKED with people- you were constantly being pushed, or pushing back until you could find a small corner where you had a bit more room to dance, we had a blast! Met some nice Brazilians who danced with us for a while.  Saved a drunk Russian girl from some guy who she didn't want to dance with anymore and laughed hysterically as the weirdos kept trying to chat and dance with us!

Thank goodness I was wearing flat heeled boots because my feet didn't bother me at all and I was surprised when the lights came on at the club and it was 5 am!!!  We joined the bedraggled crew of partiers who now in the light of the morning looked less impressive (haha).  We dragged ourselves to the metro station across the street and caught the first trains of the morning to take us home!
This photo was taken outside the metro station at 5:15 am (surprisingly, I still look ready to go!)

As I waited for my train, other party-goers were puking over the tracks and stumbling in their high-heels.  I reeked of cigarette smoke! The lull of the train ride finally made me realize how tired I was and and when I finally stumbled into my room at 6:30, I crashed hard!