The Rage Comes to Tokyo

I spent the last weekend in the sprawling metropolis of Japan's capital city. The occasion was a supposed scavenger hunt that took place on Saturday. Here's how it went down.

Me, Jamie, Brad and Brooke hopped a plane from Kumamoto to Tokyo on Friday night. After a late dinner of a rare (for Japan) Turkey sandwish, we retired to Jamie's friend Jeff's apartment for some shochu and Lebowski (his lone DVD, nice). Jeff is a works in investments and is in Japan temporarily in an amazing apartment in the heart of Roppongi, one of Tokyo's liveliest and priciest hoods. Everything in his apartment is automated top of the line: The toilet to living room and shower to kitchen intercom (why'd they choose those combinations?) and the heated hardwood floors and toilet flushing control and information system.

The next day we met at a local bar for the much hyped scavenger hunt. Teams for all over Japan met and set off to follow of a list of things to find. We started out in Roppongi and looked for certain things in stores, the prices of selected dishes in restaurants, made a drinking date with Wolfgang Puck in October, played in some fountains, raided a movie theater's ticket box, sexually harassed some fiberglass bears and quite publicly consumed quite a few beverages. We managed to finish the Roppongi section by afternoon. Then it was on to Harajuku for more of the same. However the combination of huge crowds there and the content of spirits in our blood didn't go over so well. We gave up and eventually made our way back well after the finish time.

It was obviously a well-organized, well-thought out and possibly could have been successfully completed had it not been for several issues: (1) The teams had about 7 hours to complete an unknown number of tests in a few different areas of the city. Not exactly enough time to explore multiple districts in a city the size of Tokyo. (2) Beers were given to the teams at several points during the race and teams were given incentives to consume more at bars along the way. Not exactly the way to keep things moving in a smooth, orderly fashion. By 5pm, we were stumbling aimlessly through crowds in Harajuku, only to retire to a bar for more drinks and some well-needed fish and chips.

I really don't know if any teams came close to finishing the hunt, I would be surprised. I was a little disappointed that we barley made it out of Roppongi before we had to return there again. We went back to the comfort of Jeff's apartment for a rest before heading back out to the hopping clubs of Rop...well I wish we did. I fell asleep for the next 12 hours while Jeff Jamie and Brad settled down for a back to back Lebowski viewing. By the time everyone got moving Sunday, we barely had enough time for a Tony Roma's lunch before we sprinted through the airport 1 minute before out flight left for home. It was a pretty fun weekend. I had the insane idea that I would be able to see more of Tokyo, but what do you expect when you are there for a mere 36 tainted hours. I do recommend the bi-annual scavenger hunt in Tokyo. The proceeds were for charity and if you actually apply yourself, I'm sure you could do very well. Maybe next time.

(I didn't include any of the pictures I took because some might be slightly NSFW. Thats notsafeforwork, kiddies) Naturally, feel free to browse at your own risk here (clickit)