Birthday Fun!

Well I think Tokyo is a pretty fun place to have a birthday. I managed to convince a few people from the hostel to come karaoking with us yesterday, which was what I wanted to do for my birthday. Karaoking here is a bit different then at home, you get your own private room, which is a little weird, but it was a good time. They had quite a selection of western songs, so that was good, although they were lacking in the country music, haha. Having your own room means you can sing more, but in the end I think I like doing it in a bar with lots of people better. The night before we also went out with the same people from the hostel and didn't get in until 5am, which was fun but that plus karaoke wore me out, haha. The plan tonight is go to bed early, then get up to get tickets to see a Sumo match, which I'm pretty excited about. I guess if you get there early you can get the cheaper tickets, so we will see how that works.

Other then all the crazy birthday fun we have been doing a fair amount of Tokyo sight seeing. We have been taking the train everywhere, which is great. Tokyo is full of lots of different neighborhoods, some which look very Japanese with cool buildings and gardens everywhere, and others which are full of fancy stores and huge flashing TVs. We went down a street that was just stuffed full of teenagers and crazy stores blaring rock music, but then just down the street is a great park with a big shrine and nice gardens. Tokyo is a crazy place.

The food hasn't been that much of a problem either, I was worried that everything would have fish all over it, but I've been able to find tofu and simple noodles pretty much everywhere. Even the sushi place we went today had inari, which is just tofu skins and rice and miso soup, and this crazy tofu layered stuff which was pretty tasty. And you can get tea and coffee everywhere, which its awesome. They even have hot vending machines which is the best idea ever because its been pretty cold. I'll be happy to move on to warmer places at the end of the week, although from what I've seen so far Tokyo is a pretty fun place.