Weekend

Friday I went out to a club with Casey, Karryn, and Beau. This club was like every other club I've been to in LA, stuck up models who refuse to get off their pedestals and have a conversation that isn't entirely about them. That said, I did meet some interesting people, and when solider boy came on I did my best to show everyone how it was done. I was interviewed during the party for something, probably an online magazine article, but who knows. The most interesting part of the evening occurred when Casey and I approached a group of petite Japanese girls and stuck out our hands for an introduction. Casey's hand got a vigorous tug and mine was left in the air like a piece of hanging laundry. The girl refused my hand and coward behind her friend. I lifted my eyebrows in surprise, then shrugged and left. A couple minutes passed, then I was introduced to the same girl, and when I politely refused a second introduction, she jumped on me, literally jumped on me, grabbed my hands, put them on her butt, and squeezed. This was the same girl, but she had done a complete 180, so that was strange.

Saturday we all went to Great Burger, and great it was. I was at a table with three vegetarians, so I had to represent by getting a bacon cheese burger. The thing about great burger is that it allows dogs, and owns two french bulldogs that keep watch over the place. They are the mascots and alarm system for the restaurant. The place was probably violating fifteen different health codes, but it sure made for an adorable meal. Stuffed, we all walked home and contemplated what to do that evening. We could go to a club called Agahe where a friend I met as I was coming through immigration was dj-ing, or we could go to a opening party for tokyo mapquest. We decided on Tokyo mapquest because they were being catered by a vegan place and Beau had some business connections. We arrived at the building and sailed up to the pent house. The view was remarkable, the food was delicious, and the company was across the board. One woman performed magic for everyone, I shared my blanket with another, and sitting around a personal heater we told ghost stories. We had to leave early because we were waking up the next morning at 6 to go on a 10 mile hike.

I woke up at 5:50am, took a shower, and met up with the guys at Harajuku station at 6:30. We got the train and took a long ride out to the end of the line at Ome and got off in a picturesque town with bamboo forests and fog. We got on a giant tram next that took us to the top of the mountain, and if you have ever played resident evil 4 then you know what kind of tram I'm talking about. We visited a shrine and walked for about 6 hours in the slippery and foggy mountain top until we were spit back out where we started. Then came the most wonderful part of the journey: the onsen. It was absolutely heavenly to strip off my dirty, sweat crusted hiking clothes, and wash myself in a steaming hotub of mineral water. Ahhhhhhhhh.