Day 87: Now That Was A Long Karaoke Session

When you're travelling every day feels like a weekend so it's easy to forget that other people have jobs and that a weekend is actually a weekend and is meant to be used to its maximum potential.

This is where Tom and his friends come in. Tom has been living in Tokyo for around ten years and I have never seen anyone love karaoke more in this world than he. Tom gathered together a group of karaoke enthusiasts for an epic karaoke session that was nearly as long as most work days.

But first...

My thing here is "one activity a day" so I ventured out in the afternoon to Shinjuku. This is the not so exciting view from outside our front door We overlook a highway but fortunately our main windows don't face this so we don't hear the sound.

The glamorous hallway to our apartment (our door is on the left).

There's this newish mall called NEWoMan and while it has an awkward name (I just picture a 90s style hair shampoo commercial with a woman turning around to the camera announcing "I feel like a newwwww woman"), it's actually a really great place with a tonne of beautifully designed stores filled with lots of things I want to buy.

Even the bathrooms are nice.

After buying a jumper (I am still in desperate need of warmer clothes) I headed home and prepared myself for the night ahead. Ukon no Chikara is a turmeric based drink which is said to help prevent/cure hangovers. I don't know if this is true but I wasn't taking the risk so I had an ukon before we left the house.

We headed to Shimokitazawa which isn't too far from our house for some pre-izakaya drinks. Though it was a little chilly we sat outside at Cage (literally in a cage) and met our future karaoke buddies. This place would be perfect for warm nights in Tokyo, less so in the winter months for obvious reasons.

We had a reservation at Shirube which is a popular izakaya serving lots of seafood. I love me a bit of mackerel and this one was torched right at our table.

After the grilling I was asked to squeeze the lemon on the fish. I must have done a good job (!!) because the waiter congratulated my skills by saying "nice lemon". Could this be my future calling?

Fried chicken and sashimi. A match made in izakaya heaven.

Shirube gang.

And the mega dessert which came out at the end. 

Vincent with said mega dessert.

Off to karaoke we go. We went to Cote D'azur because it's well priced and the name is pretty fantastic. After a bit of negotiating we got a free plan which involves all you can drink and all you can sing. It's a dangerous combination.

Photos at karaoke are allowed. Videos are a no-no. No one wants to hear their god-awful rendition of Taylor Swift's New Romantics. No one.

Speaking of which, this is me murdering Taylor Swift's New Romantics. It was my homage to Terrace House. 

Six hours later, a short nap from Adam and who knows how many drinks, we removed ourselves from this 3m x 3m cube of paradise and headed all the way home, stopping at FamilyMart along the way for a post-karaoke ham and cheese "burrito".