A month of visitors

Another visitor! – Matt Willis

Once again we have been so lucky with so many visitors! The weekend after Ash and Sindy’s visit, Matt Willis dropped over for a few days on his way to the stampede in Calgary, Canada. Matt only had 3 full days in Tokyo, so the first day was spent doing a little bit of sightseeing around Akihabara and Ginza. Then headed for some shopping in Shibuya, Omote Sando and Harajuku.

Long time no see!

Newly found Ginza architecture

Before the sightseeing Matt and Sophi had breakfast at Mark City. Combined with the shopping place is the Excel Tokyu Hotel where Matt was staying, right next to Hachiko crossing. The restaurant had an awesome view of the crossing, and we discovered that on the roof top of the Tokyu building at Shibuya station is a futsul field, looked awesome!

New discovery: the roof top of Shibuya Station

Th Shibuya crossing view from Matt's room

On the way from Ginza to Omote Sando Matt lost his phone on the train. Sophi tried to explain to Matt that we’re in Japan… so you’re most likely gonna get it back!! He didn’t believe her, but they were able to find it as someone handed it in at Shibuya, one stop away. It was lost, found and retrieved all in about 30mins. Gotta love Japan!

Exhausted from the day and gearing up for the night ahead, we refreshed ourselves then met up with a crew of 14 people for some dinner at the Buddha. The usual crew was there plus another lady of Andrews, our flatmate Vivien and one of Kumi’s friends. We started off with a drink at the rusty coin bar, then nomihodai at the Buddha.

The usual crew for Matt's welcome dinner

Wasted Matt.... not sure what he's doing....

....Stefan....I don't even know where to begin!

Lovely ladies

Are they brothers?

Dinner was fun and everyone headed to Latona afterwards for some drinks. Latona is the place where we were going to go on New Years Eve. It’s a killer place with a nice view, drinks are a little pricey but a good time was had. After stuffing around on the street for a while, where Ko chan found anew toy, we headed to a new bar near the station called Scramble.

Ko chan being his usual mature self. At least he found a new friend!

Ko chan, Tetsuya, Stefan, Sophi and Cam were the last ones standing. Ko chan proved to be some interesting entertainment doing some freaky moves to try and imitate natural wonders. Like Ayers rock. Interesting. Go figure, but it was entertaining all the same! We bailed from there and got home around 5.30 to get some snooze before the baseball the next day.

Baseball, Roller coasters and Leprechauns

The next day was a struggle to get our stuff together. The original plan of going to yum cha in Yokohama China town before the game was obviously canned. Instead we ended up running a little late for the game! Matt, Andrew, Vivien and us managed to get out of bed, but unfortunately Mel didn’t make it.

After arriving late the stadium was packed in our area, so we wandered around trying to find a seat for ages. Then realised that we actually had reserved seats, thanks god! So many people were standing at the back of the stadium!

Awwww... matching blue and pink tops

Will never get sick of the fluro boys

We had loads of conveni drinks and we were rockin’ it for the game. This time we saw Yokohama Baystars vs Nagoya Dragons. Always need to go for the local team over here as we have no favourites, so this time it was the Baystars. So far they were basically bottom of the rank as they had a new pitcher that was meant to be terrible! But lucky for us it was a good game and we won! Luckily too as Sophi hates going to games and losing!

Truely an open air stadium

Close town planning with the buildings in the background

Wanna be fans.....

.... a true avid fan, like all of them

Baystars crew

Feeling the daytime drunkenness we headed to Yokohama bay, where we randomly went on the roller coaster that goes into the ground. It was ok, sounds better than what it was. We walked further around the bay and went to the Seattle Crab house that Sophi and Cam had been before. We had a scrumptious dinner and it was great to be able to sit our on the water, first time in a long time over here as it’s so damn rare!

Yummy crab house on Yokohama Bay

The night was still young and we headed back to Tokyo (as Yokohama is another prefecture). This time we decided to go to Jiyugaoka which was on the way home and to Shibuya. A new local discovery, and a decision was made to explore this night area more, it was like a mini Shibuya, but even closer to our house! We went to an Irish pub Cam and Sophi headed home from there. Andrew and Matt hit Roppongi… where the story is blurry, but Andrew was found the next day curled up sleeping on the shoes in the entrance the next day… shirtless!

A classic Andy stunt

With shirt next to his head, and evidence by his side

More shopping. More shabu shabu. More drinking

The final full day of Matt’s visit and some last minute, late afternoon shopping was done around Shibuya and Harajuku. Sundays in Tokyo are great, all the freaks come out and you can really see some weird and strange stuff. While we were walking through Hachiko crossing there was this chick dancing (with no music) in the middle of the clearing, while it was pissing down with rain. While shopping we noticed a big stall set up outside one of the shopping centres. A black limo pulled up and they rolled out the blue! carpet. Out of the car jumped 3 guys totally covered in black so we couldn't see their faces. They were carrying a doll each. They walked the dolls up the blue carpet and onto a small stage, where a presenter asked the dolls some questions and commented on how nice their outfits were. Very strange. They began to hand out free samples of chewing gum, and this was the whole point of the exercise. Only in Japan!

Why we love the randomness

Seriously. Love Japan.

The grand blue carpet entrance for the dolls

A new back area with even more funky stores that connects Omote Sando and Shibuya was found previously by Cam. So we ventured through there to Shibuya ready to tucker on some more shabu shabu. By this stage we were feeling a little shabu’ed out, but it must be done! Stefan met up with us and afterwards we headed back to Matt’s hotel room for some more drinks.

Usual Harajuku hecticness combined with lethal umbrellas

Oh my god! Another Tic Tac !!
(This ones for you Ellen)

Matt’s hotel had a perfect view of Hachiko and Shibuya. We stayed there till… not sure what time! We went home maybe around 4am and Stefan crashed there. The next morning Matt and Stefan attempted to finish off some of the grog left over. Still so much was left over after that and Stefan stored it in a locker for later! Matt then headed off to USA and Canada that day!

Matt: Hope you had an awesome time here babe! I’m sure it was a blur, but lots was done in 3 days, and I hope you got to do everything you wanted! Have a rockin’ time at the stampede, see you back in Sydney!