After work last night I headed out to Shinjuku. It’s supposed to be the epitomy of neon shopping Tokyo. It was bright and lively when I was there anyway about 19:00.

Shops here stay open until about 20:00 each night and a lot of the bars and restaurants will be open until 5 or 6am. It is sort of how the city works. The trains stop about midnight, so if you are not home by then you have to stay out all night.

I had hardly left Shinjuku station when I ran into the Dubliners.

It was only when I got out the SLR to take the photo that I realised I had left all my memory cards for it had home. Bugger. For the moment I am relying on the camcorder to take shots. I will hit Akihabra again tonight to fix that problem. Shopping-wise Shinjuku is a mix of Japanese and western brands. They seem to be gearing uo for Christmas, but if the window displays are any indication while they understand the spirit of the thing, some of the ideas behind it escape them:

Apologies for the poor quality, I am still figuring out my camcorder, and I am not trained at video editing.

I had dinner in a Thai place just off the main streets. I am finding the food here to be relatively cheap (dinner was €17 for two courses and beer) and very tasty. As I wandered back to the train station the ratio of suits to shoppers changed and then something happened that I hasn’t happened to me since I was in Beijing, I was offered sex on the street. Well I presume it was sex in a back room, but the offer was made on the street. It was a nice young man, dressed in a suit who looked like a college student who made the offer – “You want a drink”, and then in a quieter, almost embarrassed voice “you want sex”. I smiled and walked on. It appeared I had wandered into the Kabukicho red light district. Here is a photo so you know to avoid it

I wandered back to my hotel stopping in a 7-11 to get a sugar fix (40g white chocolate for ¥100). Outside the hotel a fancy light display with a sailing ship centerpiece had been set up since I was here the last time.

Here’s a little video of it as well.

Aftwerwards it was email and IM to people back home where it was just after lunchtime. And then to bed. I am having jet lagged sleeping problems, waking at about 5 every morning. Unfortunately Scarlett Johansson is not staying in this hotel. I haven’t seen any sultry red headed bar singers either.