Another rare update I know, but here we go. I'm currently suffering from a bit of insomnia so I figured I'd write an article about my trip to Tokyo and life since then.
So to outline the trip, I went to Tokyo based on a chat I had with a former exchange student whom keeps in touch with the current batch of people. We had fun talking and whatever else and it was decided that I'd join him on a trip to Tokyo in the Summer holidays.
So I ended up going with Timor, the aforementioned, and his girlfriend Aki to Tokyo for a 5 day trip; and a different trip it was too.

I ended up having to leave Gifu relatively early in order to catch the Meitetsu to link-up with the Shinkansen in Shin-Hashima so, having had a big night the night before, I stayed up all night as I had all of 4 hours to supposedly sleep between when I had to leave and when I got home from partying; and I hadn't packed. So it was a fairly easy decision in the end.

So I spent the most part of the Bullet train ride talking with my fellow travellers getting to know them a little bit better as I'd only met either of them on maybe 2 other occasions.
So we whisked off to Tokyo and to the more specific destination of Ueno where our hotel was situated. It was a nice little hotel too I must admit, seeing as how my last Tokyo accomodation was a youth hostel, it didn't take much beating.
I can't remember the exact sequence of events for the week but I'll just give a basic run down on what happened.

We spent most of the first day shopping, or at least looking at shops. We ended up looking in a kind of Pop culture shop in Ueno before I suggested we visit Asakusa, which we did eventually after I chided Timor into it. Having been there before I knew what to expect, but you
always find interesting new things;
   
Apart from being in one of the biggest tourist attractions in Tokyo where this sign was, I couldn't help but realise the irony in my taking a photo of it.
So from there we set out to Shibuya after we'd walked about for a few hours. We were to meet up with a couple of Swedish friends of Timor's to go to an arcade. So that we did, I found my Football Card/Video game and Timor and his mate hooked into Guilty Gear. Once I'd all but had my fill I called Timor but eventually found myself with Aki where we decided to wander about until Timor had finished. Luckily for us he didn't take too long.
We headed back to Ueno where I bought a BB gun I'd been eyeing off. A replica of a P38 Walther, more commonly known as a Luger. It's dead sexy and it's pretty accurate to about 20m. We went back to the hotel momentarily to dump our stuff and then moved off to Karaoke. Not as enjoyable as normal due to the lack of alcohol (Timor doesn't drink) but still fun to a degree. Call it a bonding experience.

The next day came and we set off for the hallowed shore of Akihabara, hallowed to Timor at least. I enjoy the place but I think Akiba is Timor's idea of heaven. We started off at Yodabashi Camera, a very, very big store full of everything that is essentially Akihabara. Games, Electronics, Collectibiles and Manga. Even a music shop and restaurants on the top floor. Probably my favourite store in Tokyo now, particularly seeing as how the shop assistant at Soccer Shop Kamo was less than accomodating this time around, but that's another story.
In this store however, unbeknownst to either Timor or myself, was a veritable mecca of one of our mutual loves.
Replica weaponry;

Although rather brilliant in design, and I was almost in tears of joy when I saw them, the somewhat difficulty of bringing such a life-like replica back to Australia was somewhat apparent. I didn't really feel like paying $200 to find out either. As much as I wanted that P-90 replica, I just couldn't justify the what ifs.
So we had a nice meal in the aforementioned restaurants, then Timor had to have his game fix for a little while and I toddled off to my card game again for a bit of a game myself. Yet again I met up with Aki a little later and we wandered whilst Timor was hard at it.

The night brought a trip to Shinjuku, and nonetheless another Arcade search. For you see the point of the trip was for a fighting game tournament that Timor was interested in. I personally didn't care less but I just wanted to get away from Gifu for a little while as it was getting on my nerve a little.
We wandered for a full 2 hours before we found the place. We asked countless policeman and we were all about to compromise when we found the thing. All was good and it left the boys an hour or so to game before the trains shut down. So, I had left my cards at the hotel this time and Aki and I roamed about looking for a particular prize I wanted from a skill tester. We somehow managed to do that for an hour or so whilst the boys did their thing.
Strange occurrence though, Timor said to us before we found the arcade. "We're probably going to find a Burger King before we find this place."
Now Burger King's are rare in Japan but wouldn't you know that Aki and I stumbled upon one in our search for other skill testers. Rather amazing that is.

We rushed back to our hotel shortly after and we chatted for a fair while before we hit the sack at around 3am.

We awoke the next morning to news of a Studio Ghibli exhibit in Tokyo. We caught the subway and ended up at our destination where the layout sketches of some of Hayao Miyazaki's most famed movies were available for viewing. It was amusing but the trip was slightly soured by some bad feelings about. In the end it didn't end up being too bad, Aki was just a little on the down side.
But as by popular request, photos!

Me and Aki

Timor off to the Spirited Away palace/temple thing.

So we did all that and headed back to the hotel via the subway yet again as Aki wanted some rest and Timor and I needed to drop a few things off.
Aki was still in a bad mood and I almost felt obligated to stay behind at the hotel and keep her company whilst Timor was off at the Shinjuku arcade again, but I ended up going after much debate in my own mind. We played the games for a while and headed back to the hotel on the latest train. I was probably almost as worried about Aki as Timor was really, she did come good by the next day though.
/>Speaking of which, I'm not really sure if I've got the order of the days right, or even if I did these things on these days.

So I guess I'm up to the 4th day of our trip where Aki and I went to the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno whilst Timor buggered off to his Game event dealie. We stared at art of a over a dozen Buddhist painters and had a wander through the rest of the museum before we went off to Harajuku because I wanted to go to my favourite Football shop. Didn't so much remain in my good books after that though.
I was thinking of buying a shirt that had the name and number of my favourite player, Arjen Robben, on the back of it. Now the marked price seemed to be quite cheap but for some reason unbeknownst to me, it ended up costing more than double that, needless to say I didn't buy it, but that wasn't what bugged me. It was the fact that the shop assistant, apart from coming off completely cold to both Aki and I, was utterly unhelpful and had the nerve to assume that I didn't understand Japanese. That is what annoyed me, she blurted something out in unintelligible broken English which I didn't understand, and then proceeded to tell Aki in Japanese what the deal was. I was bloody furious that she didn't address me or even cared to ask whether I understood Japanese or not.
That is the thing that annoys me about this country. You're a foreigner, therefore you don't speak the language. What kind of fucking pretencious country is this?! Pardon my language, but I beleive it fully describes my passion about the topic. I'd dare say that if you went to France, Italy, Morocco or even Australia, they would assume you spoke the language. GOOD! That's what I want, I don't want to be insulted by demeaning store clerks.

Anyway, that's enough about that. Aki and I then met up with Timor in Akihabara for a little more shopping and exploring. Much of which just ended up in laughter for me. (If you want to know exactly what it was, just ask)
We went back to Yodobashi Camera and I picked up another gun, this time a .38 Python Magnum replica, whilst Timor bought his shiny pistol that cost a pretty penny. Although it is semi-automatic and runs on gas, plus it looks and feels like the real thing.
We then went...somewhere and ended up at Karaoke in Ueno soon after that. A better night than the last as I felt a little more accepted by Timor and Aki. Good times.

The Three Musketeers.

On our final day Timor headed off early to the game tournament whilst Aki and I were left to our own devices to get rid of our luggage after check out. We wanted to stow what we had at Tokyo station but due to their being no lockers we rang the hotel in Ueno and we managed to be permitted to leave our luggage with them until we needed to go.
Now this is where my memory gets hazy, I don't seem to recall much of what happened between then and the gaming tournament.
We ended up at the gaming tournament in any case at night and watched the Guilty Gear finals with Timor and the Swedes.

Again I'm confused as to what happened next but we ended up at Tokyo station getting the bus back home to Gifu, an overnight bus at that. We arrived in Gifu the following morning and parted ways.

For most of the following week I had a very irregular sleeping pattern as I ended up staying up all night with Daniel in the lobby playing football games.

Although following that I found another excuse for a terrible sleeping pattern. Partying! Drinking! And all that cool stuff.
I figured that after a relatively sober Tokyo trip I needed a drink so I contacted my friend Liz in Gifu proper, and we headed out on a bit of a bender. Started at Bierhall near the Gifu station where we encountered a group of Japanese people and Germans. Liz being all but fluent in German enjoyed talking to these new people whilst I conversed in Japanese with some of the other people sitting around the table.
We then headed off to the Treehouse, a bar that is owned by a couple of Australians and a Canadian. I knocked back a few more there and then proceeded to fall asleep on a couch in the bar where, it was thought amusing, I was painted on by, from what I'm told, a strange Japanse person.
I awoke and was immediately told of the situation to which I simply rubbed the paint off and got up. I head something about Karaoke so I didn't really care about the situation with the paint on my face.
We proceeded to a karaoke bar of sorts and it was all but free karaoke. Well, for me at least. I ordered a coke and I sung the most out of anyone. The karaoke itself is free, I just assume the owners rely on the inherent need to drink to gain profit.
So we stayed there until 5am at which point I rode home. for a well needed rest.

I woke up at 7pm the following evening and proceeded to another night out starting yet again at Bierhall with Liz, Fiona and my new found Australian friends. We started at about 10pm and finished at Bierhall around 12ish before going to a dance bar thing where little dancing happened. The most interesting thing was the criticizm of a guy wearing a communist badge by a drunken Kiwi. An idealogical fight I did and didn't want to get involved in.
We then traversed our way back to the tree house where we conversed and drank until the wee hours of the morning so we could have a Macca's breakfast.
I had plans with Liz to see a movie with a few friends later that afternoon so she allowed me to sleep at hers until that time.
We headed off to Nagoya in the afternoon to meet up with Dylan, Aki and Timor to see the much acclaimed Accross the Universe. (A movie I reccomend anyone who loves music to see.)
We just wandered about Nagoya for a short while until the movie started. I'd already seen it before but it was more or less because of that we ended up seeing the movie in the first place. I had reccomended it to Aki, who had arranged the day more or less, and I invited Liz along as I knew she was a bit of a fan of Beatles music. (The movie itself is loosley based around Beatles music)
So we all walked out with a positive impression and I have since indulged myself in a fair bit of Beatles music recently due to the movie.

So it was about 6pm and we walked to Osu Kannon (open market) and had dinner at a kebab shop before Timor decided he needed to play some games and Liz needed to leave. Dylan, Aki and I lead Liz to the subway before meandering around Osu. I stumbled upon the prize I'd been after from the skill testers in Tokyo and I eventually got the damn thing after spending a stupid amount of money.
We then met Timor before Dylan went home and we took the train back to Gifu. Unfortunately for me the buses had stopped running so I had to take a taxi, but it ended up being a pleasant experience as the cabbie was a nice guy who just wanted a chat.

On Monday Jenny, a returnee exchange student, Scot and now JET teacher, invited us out for a feed and the promise of something to come after. It ended up being just me Jenny and Liz and we went to a yakitori place near the local shopping centre which none of us had tried before. It ended up being the best yakitori I've had in Japan, very tasty. It didn't end up being too cheap, but it was amazingly enjoyable nonetheless. After that Liz had to leave us for a previous appointment and we met with Kylie and Minori for what was decided to be karaoke afterwards. Jenny's boyfriend, Rin would later join us at the Karaoke place itself.
We sung our hearts out for a while, I stuck to a selection of Beatles music, it being the flavour of the month, before I we left at about 2am. Rin, Jenny, Minori and I hit up a convenience store before going our own ways in order to get home; Kylie having already gone ahead.

So here I am, unsurprisingly with an amazingly stuffed up body clock. I haven't slept since 10am yesterday and it is nearing 10am today. It couldn't have been a worse day really as I have dinner plans and I want to be at my best for them. Also I had planned to go swimming today, but my party days seem to have caught up with me.

That concludes another rather lengthy journal, thanks for reading.

Scott.