明けましておめでとうございます

G & I headed to Akihabara today and the New Year sales were going at full steam. I didn't buy a lucky bag as there was nothing that appealed to me. However, I did buy many other items, when I wasn't planning to shop. Although I'm wrecked with guilt, I thought I scored many good bargains. For one, I finally got myself an electric heater which will probably save me a bit on electricity bills and save myself from numb feet and hands. I got a really sweet super-duper mini speaker, and a pair of in-ear earphones for my ipod as well. Plus a gorgeous & warm fur coat at 2990yen, which was originally 7990yen. YATTA!

Against my will, G has been trying to influence me to be a gaming geek like him. I spent most of the day looking at retro game consoles, game cassettes and anime merchandise. I was stopped from entering the Men's section at an adult store though. I'm upset at that. WHY??? My friend reckoned that it's because of the chauvinistic culture. Perhaps they think it's too disturbing or offensive to females. Maybe. I'm still annoyed. In fact in some of the shops which sell DVDs of semi-naked girls, some of the girls featured were barely 12 years old!!! THAT was well disturbing. Sorry boys, no soiled underwear though. Just tons of cosplay costumes or wannabe sexy outfits. I was hooked on this awesome retro zombies ate my neighbours game while we were in Super Potato.

Well maybe I should describe my NYE experience in Japan. It's my second time spending NYE outside Singapore. My first was the surreal experience in Prague in 2008. Now I spent it in Shibuya. Before the party, I had dinner with A at a restaurant nearby, complete with a unlimited drinks buffet for an hour. That was good, although i was so full by the time we left. We polished off quite a few glasses of beer, wine & sake with our pizza & pasta. So we went back to wait for the countdown to happen, but I was merely just being pushed around by a quickly swelling crowd. I've never seen so many gaijins in Tokyo until that night. Every tourist is out and about, and the crisp winter air is thick with anticipation. I was stuck in the human jam for the longest time and I was merely trying to stay alive in the madness. Finally, some people pulled the tabs off their beer cans & cheered Happy New Year! I checked for the time and it was already 12:05am. THERE WAS NO COUNTDOWN. ZILCH. What a waste of our efforts!

On the bright side however, the atmosphere was electrifying even without any celebratory events. The crowd just went crazy and everyone was screaming Happy New Year at random strangers. Some people decided to take off their clothes in the freezing cold and dance around with their friends. It was just good to stand by the side to watch the entire spectacle. I moved on to a bar with A soon after. It was another good random night, even though he left me alone for about half the time. I was chatting with random people in the narrow bar and I found myself dancing with random people. It was really nice because everyone was just friendly and high. Not long after, this American boy spoke to me in japanese and I had to explain once more that I'm not japanese. The gist of his opening speech was you're a great dancer... blah blah blah. Haha, not very original but I gave him my number anyway. (I know he wouldn't contact me, because when A came back for me, American-boy-who-works-as-a-model had his arms around another girl.) His friend said the same thing to me again when American boy ditched him to give full attention to the aforementioned girl. Haha. Overall, it was a good night. Bless Tokyo for night trains on New Year's Day. I left the bar at 2.30pm and I got home at 4+am.

New Year's Day was really nice too. Everyone was tired from the NYE activities, so we mostly stayed in. My mates from the guesthouse suggested we go for a dinner that night, so we set off for Kichijoji. We were all starving and thus we settled for Yakiniku for dinner. I haven't laughed so much in ages, it was a really really good evening spent with good company. Pei (my SMU schoolmate who crashed at my place for more than a week here) joined us too and it was just really cosy, sitting around the grill eating barbecued meat, drinking beer and talking in a mixture of Japanese and English. I felt really at home. Well a lot of the laughter was due to my japanese- i had brought along Pei's Lonely Planet phrase book and I tried the pickup lines on my Japanese friends. They were utterly tickled by it. I also found out that I really enjoy screaming SUMIMASEN to get the server's attention. I also managed to order beer AND also requested for less foam/head successfully. It was textbook I must say. A pat on the back, thank you very much.

Thankfully, boy issues seem to be sorted for now. My fingers are crossed for 2011. All the best to you too.