Dining High

To celebrate his birthday my course mate from Cardiff decided he wanted to go for a meal in the Park Hyatt hotel.  I wanted to go here because it was one of the stars of the film Lost in Translation which is probably where you will have heard of it if anywhere. Of course if it’s nice enough to star in a film about a rich actor suffering from culture shock in Tokyo then it’s bound to b e a little pricey, which is okay if it’s just to go for one drink to say you’ve been there and taken in the view. Which is exactly what did happen after my course mate was flatly told that yes, £60 for a meal is just a tad bit too much for a student budget. A single drink though was still rather a lot with the cheapest starting at a cheapskates price of ¥2000 and continuing…and continuing up to ¥67,000. I’ll let you do the painful currency conversion but for perspective my monthly rent is a mere ¥40,000. Can you  guess which drink I went for?

We had our drink (s for those with grants) in the American style bar which is the one that features heavily in the film and you know what, it looks smaller in real life, and not quite as glamorous when a bunch of foreign students turn up causing a ruckus. The view was just as high as the price of the drinks though and did make it worth going.

This night didn’t end with quite so much class as we missed the last train home and had to spend the night in a karaoke box (one of the cheaper way to stay off the streets in central Tokyo at night) until the first train the next day.

This night out was followed three days later by a meal at a tabehoudai & nomihoudai restaurant or all you can eat and drink within the time limit, which is of course to be seen as a challenge rather than just the length of time the meal will last. Needless to say I didn’t have to eat the next day. Although this was technically a pastoral visit from our university professor we once again ended up in a karaoke box (there is definitely a pattern emerging here) where he sang/grunted the part of Ken from Aqua’s Barbie Girl surprisingly well…

Of course this was too much of a distraction for us to actually leave and catch the last train home so once again it was an all night karaoke session with cheap drinks purchased from the local 7/11, although really they are 24/7, and smuggled in via bags and under various umbrellas that we had.  Although on the way home on the train we were pretty much exhausted we were lucky and were able to see Mt Fuji the clearest it’s been so far. Snow capped peak and all. It seems that early morning is the best time to see it from Tokyo. I think I’d like to see it from the right side of dawn next time.