"I Got Drunk in a Prison!"... and other confessions

Hello all...so sorry I have not posted in a while. I have been procrastinating which is bad. But on the upside in the last two weeks I have been out and doing a ton of stuff to write about now.

Two weekends back a bunch of the crazy jets from my prefecture and I decided to head to Tokyo and go drinkin and dancing...but this wasn't just any lil trip to tokyo...no....dear me no...

we decided to all dress in business suits and ties and magically transform ourselves into executives in the company WNKR (*tehe*). This company, WNKR, deals in sprockets and is based in Dallas, Texas. We also all decided to pick new names for ourselves. But all the names had to start with "W". Mine was Winona Wilde. Fred (aka "Winifred, aka "the best man in Yamanashi", aka "the guy with a biggest collection of women's wigs) printed up name tags for all of us and we created a storm in Shibuya.

But first 3 of us, Jessica (aka Wiechi Wong), Olivia (aka Willow Wing) and I, decided to get drunk in a prison....haha...they have this restaurant in a basement 3 blocks from Shibuya station that is called "The Lockup".

I had no idea what I was getting into.

We walked down these steps and through a heavy iron door.

Suddenly we were cast into near darkness. We stared walking and the floor started sinking in parts, so we screamed and ran forward. Then we saw a guy behind glass getting electricuted in a chair...dear oh dear!!

Eventually the hallway ended and we were presented a rather unapealing choice of three iron doors....the first two turned out to be closets full of strange things in jars...("dear god, this prison must be run by a mad scientist!", we thought).

Finally we went through the right door...We saw the prison "guard" waiting for us (a woman dressed in a hot red pleather short skirt and little cap.) She had a set of handcuffs on a chain and proceeded to cuff one end of it on me and lead me (followed by a shaking Willow and Weici) to our cell (#40).

Much insanity ensued...including drinking blood coloured (strawberry flavoured) alcohol (which had been injected from a giant needle into a glass beaker by our hostess) and having Freddie Krugar break into our cell (while house music was loudly playing over the speaker system)...dear oh dear...




...after "escaping" from the prison Weici, Willow, and I met up with the rest of the WNKR team and talked a little business over drinks...here is a copy of our "minutes":









1) Phil (Watson Wells II) announced that he had lost the Roth account (and we sure reminded him of it throughout the course of the night)
2) JD (William Wilson) discussed at length how he he wanted to move to compnay headcourters to Nova Scotia (which he claimed was in Eastern Europe or....was it South America?)
3) I announced that our company would soon be launching a Sprocket Jewlery Line!!


After drinking we moved the festivities to the LOVE HOTEL and bar region of Shibuya...






















For those who are not familiar with these "lovely" (pun intended) estabilishments I shall give a short description. Basicly, they are hotels with "themed rooms" (aka think of a Hello Kitty pink room or a school room complete with chalk board and desk). You select a room by pushing a button below a selection of illuminated pictures at the front check-in and you can stay by the hour or by the night. Yes, classy, I know.

Anyway...so our WNKR team danced up a storm to Japanese Raggae music ("I am the rasta man of Japan!!") at a club called Club Asia. We befriended this little japanese gal who looked like mini mouse and went by the name "Mew Mew" (see the pic on the right). She gave me a card and told me to go visit her in Osaka (she owns a bar that is actually named Mew Mew after her :).

...we had no accomodation set up for the evening so after leaving the club we tried, unsucessfuly, to score a room at one of the many love hotels (they were fully booked by 3 am). So a bunch of us wandered down to the second floor starbucks at Shibuya station. We told stories of our childhood until 4am when the place shut down for the night. Then we moved it all to a 24 hour mcdonalds...where we...well I will let Willow (aka Oliva) tell you...

"we laughed at Japanese orange girls (editor: aka japanese girls with BIG hair and tiny skirts/shorts and big boots. Two of them were in the bathroom with their curling iron plugged into a socket IN the toilet stall so no one could use the bathroom in mcdonalds for an hour), took random pictures of sleep deprived people, and shot a You-Tube worthy video (editor: this was on Fred's camera. I will try and get a copy made for all to see). Even though, we as a team, feel bummed out because SOMEONE lost the Roth account, we don't regret spending our last night on the streets of Shibuya, which by the way, are WAY too shady (editor: indeed. I saw graffiti for the first time in Japan.)"


So, yes, all in all it was an "experience".

As for this past weekend, I jumped on a train and headed to Nozawa Onsen in Nagano. I met up with a bunch of JETS who are part of STONEWALL (the gay, lesbian, bisexual and what-not JET's) group. We had a crazy time. Nozawa Onsen is a beautiful lil village tucked between a bunch of mountains. Many of the buildings look like English cottages and there were TONS of free Onsens (hot baths) to try. We stayed at the Lodge Nagano run by an australian, Luke, that was located right at the bottom of the slopes. Some highlights of the trip were...

1) going boarding down the best slopes I have been on!!
2) building a drunken "salary man" snowman (who was passed out sideways in the snow with empty cans of ChuHi (a fruity cooler drink) lying beside him.
3) going to a bar called "The Foot" and singing karaoke with a bunch of australians after.
4) finding "The Source" (hehe...sounds so important...really it was the hotspring that fed into the many onsens in the village) and watching an old japanese man with a walking stick cooking corn in it.

good times. unfortunately, I forgot my camera on the trip. But, the other Jets said they would upload their pics to the internet so I will post some later.

next weekend I will be going on a trip to Kamakura with my friend Lynn. Kamakura is in Kanagawa Prefecture, about an hour from Tokyo. It is famous for having the second largest buddha in Japan (it is shown in many movies), having many temples, and being a surfer's paradise. Should be fun.

Then on the last weekend of this month I will be heading down with Lynn to Kyoto for 4 days of sightseeing!! We will be staying in the Cheapest Hostel in Kyoto (the actual name). We have booked tickets to see a special Geisha dance that happens every spring. So, yes, again, I am tickled pink and doing well.

love and miss you all,
gracie