Roppongi w/ Internship Group (10.17.13)

For those that don't know about Roppongi,

"Roppongi （六本木, lit "six trees") is a district in Tokyo that is well known as the city's most popular nightlife district among foreigners, offering a large number of foreigner friendly bars, restaurants and night clubs. Roppongi and the surrounding districts of Azabu, Hiroo and Akasaka are home to many embassies and a large expat community."

For a more relatable context, the internship that I have at the Tokyo American Center is basically in Roppongi. As quoted above, Roppongi has a huge foreigner population. I've never seen so many foreigners in one place since coming to Japan. I think that I saw about 1 foreigner for every 5 Japanese.

Anyways, I go to the Tokyo American Center two times a week, but this past week, our supervisors Wes and Matt took us out to the bars to buy us a drink since that's what supervisors do in Japan (I guess?) and ALSO because Kevin (program director) promised us a drink after the first meeting...

Anyways, other than the plethora of foreigners, Roppongi was beautiful. It had the typical flashing lights of Tokyo, and was seemed to meet the description of having a nightlife. Everyone was out having fun.

Wes and Matt first treated us to a Falafel place -- which is pretty much California's Mexican food of Roppongi. For 500￥ we got a Falafel sandwich, which was freakin' delicious! This is apparently the place to go before / after / during your out at night drinking or going clubbing.

After that they took us to a bar called Geronimo. It was on the second floor of some building which felt quite compact while walking up the stairs, but opened up to a....still pretty small bar, but it was comfortable. In the bar there was a drum that, if you banged it, you have to buy everyone a drink. So Wes went ahead and banged the drum. Our first "drink" was a lemondrop... I finally tried this drink which is so famous for being the top girly shot to take. Honestly, I don't think it could've been considered a "shot" because it tasted like... a lemonhead. For a shot, I could barely taste the alcohol content. It almost tasted like a mixed drink...

After a few minutes following the 'cheers' he bought us a drink of our choosing. Most of us chose a "Kill Bill" which is basically like a Tequila shot with a twist.

Drinking a Kill Bill goes through the same process that you go through with a Tequila shot. While a Tequila shot includes a lime and some salt on your write, a KILL BILL is a Japanese oddity with WASABI on your wrist and TOMATO JUICE shot to chase. I wanted to try it because I was curious, and it was actually pretty...............bad. ._. I don't think the Tequila was so bad, but the tomato juice was just too much for me! The worst part was that the flavor lingered.

After that second shot, we had to buy our own drinks. Of course, being hella cheap, I decided not to buy myself a drink. Luckily one of my UCEAP friends who was there (Dana) couldn't finish her drink since she had both shots that I had prior and she's a MEGA lightweight. I still didn't get very buzzed but it was still a cool experience to get a taste of Roppongi Nightlife and talk with our supervisors outside the work environment.

By about 11:30pm, us interns left the bars while Matt and Wes went to one more before the night ended. Me Dana and Audrey went to a Takoyaki place nearby and had 8 Takoyaki ea. for 500￥/person.

Interestingly enough, beause the trains stop at around 12-1am, people tend to start drinking at 7 or something, so that they can end at midnight.

We took the subway at Roppongi Station to Shinjuku Station where we (luckily) caught the second to last train. at like 12:40am or something. From Shinjuku onwards, we saw 1 person at the station knocked out asleep on the floor and many MANY people on the train sleeping soundly. Ending the night, we got back to ICU at around 1am. I rented a bike from our dorm parents so I wouldn't have to take a Taxi -- because busses stop at around 10:00pm.

Besides the nighlife scene, I didn't see anything else in Roppongi. If I go back, I'd like to go up Roppongi Hills, which is a high-end shopping center area with a Tower that you can view the city from. Maybe stop by a nearby park that I noticed just recently on GoogleMaps, and maybe hit up the bar scene again (but drinks were quite expensive). Only time will tell. Hope you enjoyed the post!

みな