New Koyo
New Koyo is the name of the youth hostel in Tokyo that we’re staying in. It’s tucked away down an alleyway in what appears to be a dodgy part of town. There’s a lot of homeless people around which I wasn’t really expecting and the buildings themselves are old and dilapidated but are also very atmospheric. Power lines stretch across all of the streets, which contrasts the old buildings and makes the streetscape seem even more strange.
New Koyo apparently used to be a flophouse – which I’m taking to mean ‘dodgy brothel’. The rooms are very small (at the moment I’m leaning against the wall and my feet are about 50cm from the other wall, and the bed fills almost the entire room) and have tatami mats on the floor. There’s a locker/cupboard, a 34cm TV, a bookshelf and a bed (which is quite comfy). It really is the cheapest guest-housing in Tokyo. Downstairs (I’m on the third floor), there’s a kitchen of sorts, a Japanese style bath, showers, toilets and a little place at the front for the guests to hang out.
When we got here we met up with 3 other Aussies from Melbourne, one of who I found out later knows Joe from Snowman, who went to school up in Carmel. I’ve known him for a while and Ryan went to school with him so it’s pretty crazy that I met someone in Tokyo who also knows him.
A big group of us from New Koyo went out to Roppongi for drinks. The plan was to drink until the subway starts again at 6 in the morning. Roppongi is the ‘westerners district’ where there are lots of nightclubs designed for Gaijins (foreigners). We went to Gas Panic – because it had 400 yen drinks. I’d have to say I drank too much. Gas Panic played almost exactly the same music as the Paramount in Perth although the atmosphere was quite a lot different. It was about half Gaijin and half Japanese.
We went for a random walk around Roppongi at about 12:30 and ended up in a karaoke bar. After trying to sing Paranoid Android by Radiohead (which sounded nothing like it), we left so we didn’t get a huge bill. On the way back to Gas Panic, Jo, Shannon and I were harrased to enter clubs by nigerian bouncers offering free drinks just so we’d go inside. Jo and Shannon were getting more harassed than I was although I did get asked by a Japanese girl “hey why don’t you come into my club it’ll be great” with a tug on my arm. I’d have to say that I was sort of glad that I was asked too, but I’d hate to be a westerner female walking around Roppongi by myself. It’s just too dodgy.
At 5:00, Simon and I decided to go back to the Hostel but the rest of the group went around Tsukiji fish market. I would have liked to have gone but the 10 hours of sleep I got in the last 72 hours got the best of me. Simon and I both fell asleep on the densha (train) and missed our stop. Then I lost my ticket and had to sneak out of the station using Simon’s ticket. I fell asleep halfway through setting up my fouton (floor bed thing).
