On Friday, Kelly, Laura, Gizelle and I made the trip up to Tokyo to celebrate Kelly's birthday. We had a room at the New Sanno, and an awesomely fancy dinner at Wellington's, a restaurant located in the four-star hotel. We shared a romantic bottle of wine gorged ourselves on tomato bread. I was highly impressed with Wellington's: I'd completely underestimated it! Now, if only I can get Dave up there with me at some point....They had these great red velvet couple's booths, so posh! Our meal lasted two whole hours!!
All dressed up with someplace to go! Annie, Kelly, Gizelle and Laura in front of the fireplace at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo
Afterwards, we jumped in a cab and hunted for Feria, a club scene that was recommended to us: it has four levels each with a different theme: wine cave, dace floor, crystal floor, and rooftop bar. After being ID'ed at the door - first time that's happened in Japan! - the bouncers directed us upstairs to a club called Midas.... it was 10:30 and we were the first people there! And the music was not to our taste.... after a drink there we decided this was not the place for us. Descending the stairs we realized the bouncers had directed us to the Right, and if we'd gone to the Left, we'd have been were we wanted to be! After a cover charge of $20 - which included two drink tickets - we found ourselves lost. Just leave it to Japan. We couldn't find the button for the elevator - couldn't find stairs as an alternative - we were duped by the waitstaff who told us to follow him, where he proceeded to the kitchen, or someplace not a bar....! Bah! We knew this place had four levels but couldn't find them! Eventually we figured it out, after many laughs.
The downstairs club was interesting. It was playing retro music, but that was fun because it was like karaoke, we knew the words, woot! The age group there was a little interesting, anywhere from us twenty-somethings to women in their 40's, and men in their 50's or 60's?! We are pretty sure we saw some kind of "for hire" couple.... this girl was young and was allllll over this old guy... "all over" in terms that we were all pretty disgusted by their behavior! It'd be one thing if we'd discovered the couple in a darkly lit corner, but in the middle of the bar?! Not ok.
Another interesting aspect to the bar were the reserved tables. The bar area was a free-for-all, but if you wanted to sit somewhere other than a bar stool, you had to pay per person. for 1,000Yen a person you could have a seat around the bar; 2,000Y per person AND two BOTTLES of alcohol you could have a large booth, and for who knows how much you could enter the glass box overlooking the dance floor. Yes, that was two bottles of alcohol - not two drinks per person. Given that a bottle of house wine was 10,000Y, we were not about to use that option. Crazy!
The rooftop bar was fun. With heated tents, it was comfortable to be up there. Ont he rooftop, as we exited the elevator some french persons referred to us as "magnifique!" Yaaay! Also on the rooftop we encountered our soon-to-be-Italian-friends, Leonardo and Raphael. No joke. Leonardo claims to have worked for Ferrari.....which i'd believe if i saw it. The bar seemed to be mostly europeans. We're pretty sure there was a group of models, all perfectly skinny and wearing black. Over the course of the night, we heard French and met Italians.
The Tokyo club scene is pretty unique, partially because it doesn't pick up until almost midnight and lasts until 5am, when the trains start running again. As we all made it back to the hotel around 4am, we'd agree it was a fun time and worth the experience, but not something we'd do over and over and over.
