Golden Gai's and girls

Today's first blog post actually starts last night, when we ventured into Shinjuku to visit the famed Golden Gai, an area with pubs that seat up to 10 people. This meant there wasn't much room in any of them but there were hundreds of them! We trailed the alleys in the rainy streets to find a suitable place to spend our cash and stumbled upon a whiskey joint. It could accomodate all of us so we went in, 700¥ the entry charge, after all, we are all frequent whiskey drinkers (right?). We settled in quickly and the drinks flowed just as fast. Zak practiced his Japanese with the owner, he was confident and tried hard but there's only so many times you can tell him that your sister isn't six years old...

Colin quickly met a new family and spent the evening with Ben and Francesca from Washington DC and, later, Scott from the Scottish Highlands. When he returned to his root family, we were three drinks and a Sake in, loud, well on our merry way and in very high spirits. We waved goodbye to our fantastic host (who, in turn, waived the entry fee for us all) and Colin started his period of mourning over the loss of his new family. We headed for a taxi and soon realised that hailing a taxi as a group of 6 Englishmen in the pouring rain was going to be a fucking task! Many came and went, some turning in to take a job - only to reverse back out onto the motorway as quickly as they came in when they noticed we were tourists! 

Eventually, we all arrived back at the apartment, in two separate groups, soaking wet, 4800¥ down and we knew it was time for bed. Shit, showers and sorting beds out before we settled down for another busy day.

Jazz