The Roppongi Hills are alive with the sound of music

Today was a Good Day.

It began with some utterly frivolous fun involving myself, Kate, and Mssrs. Small and Buchanan, as well as Mr. Buchanan's video camera (for which he had an impressive array of attachments). Over the course of an hour or so we provided a variety of bizarre spectacles for the citizens of Tokyo. It's not every day you get to see people stepping over someone's head.

Thereafter, I made my triumphant return to the world of karaoke. A group of 10 of us gaijin tore up a karaoke box with some stunning renditions of "My Way", "Space Oddity" and "Photograph", to name but a few of the evening's songs. My throat became very sore, though I was able to treat it with frequent sips of various drinks. Great thing about karaoke here: all-you-can-drink service comes standard. I do believe this was my first encounter with a pitcher of gin and tonic.

I must say, though,I was a bit disappointed by the paltry Doors selection, and, even after crossing the Pacific and coming to the home of karaoke, Under Pressure remains all-elusive.

Nonetheless, we had so much fun, we decided to stay pretty late. Too late even. At Shibuya we were greeted with the discovery that our preferred train had stopped running; following was a mad dash for a less-than-ideal-but-still-better-than-nothing line, which got us at least closer to home. After that, our choice was fish, so we took our first ride in a Japanese taxi. It was quite expensive, but the cost was justified, I think, by the absurd amount of fun we'd had that night.

Mr. Small was somewhat less impressed--he shared most of our route home and spent a great deal of time complaining about the difficulties of managing his personal finances. The cost of the taxi was a great worry for him. Still, though, he doubtless fared better this night than one Mr. Waggoner, who (despite the fact he was heading our way) ran up ahead of us and took a wrong turn at Shibuya station. God speed Mr. Waggoner. I hope you find a place to sleep tonight.