Another All-Nighter

First, pictures of the room we stayed in at the Ritz, as requested!

Long entryway.  The door on the right goes into the amazing bathroom!

And our beds!  Sadly, i only have these two pictures of the room...

So, onto this weekend's adventure!  Friday was my half-day at work.  I finally got off at 4pm and made a mad dash home to try to pack up some Christmas packages to get shipped off before the post office closed at 5pm.  Made it there just in time and spent almost as much on shipping as i did for the gifts!  Next year, the kids are getting a card and money.  Can't go wrong with money, right?!

Anyway, ran back home to change then headed out to Shinjuku where i was to meet up with my good friend from Korea who was here visiting!  I got to see him on my three-day trip to Korea this past summer.  It was actually quite funny.. maybe two weeks ago i had a dream he was here in Japan, so i sent him a message on Facebook telling him about it, and he wrote me back saying, "Oh, well, actually I'm thinking of going to Japan next week before I start training at my new job!"  He took that as a sign that he should come, so he did!  Haha.

Anyway, met up with the little Sunbeam, and we were joined soon after by our Sweet Girl.  Shinjuku station was insane that night, even more so than usual, i'm surprised we were able to spot each other!  Yu-yu was supposed to meet us then as well but when i called him he said he'd be there in about an hour.  So the three of us headed out to find some place to eat.  We first tried a couple of nicer places but they were all full up, so we settled for one of those cheap izakaya where everything on the menu is 270yen.  I love those places, super cheap and super delicious so i didn't mind that it wasn't a fancy restaurant.  We had all sorts of delicious food and drinks (fresh fruit kiwi sour, that was amazing!  I had two, and was tempted to get two more but decided against it, lol) and chatted away until Yu-yu finally made his way over.  

They hadn't seen each other for over a year and a half~

A mini UW reunion!  <3

Sweet Girl had to leave soon after, so then it was me, Yu-yu, and Sunbeam eating and drinking and talking more until about 10pm when Yu-yu flaked out too.  Sb and i took shelter at a Burger King while we waited for S to arrive.  That crazy girl had just worked a 2pm-9pm shift and straight afterward hopped a train to Tokyo, with the intent of hanging out until she could take the first train back in the morning to arrive in time for work at 10am!

We met her at Shinjuku station around 11:40pm when she arrived, then relocated to a McDonald's so she could get some food and we could sit and chat.  It was a pretty cool McDonald's, actually.  I'd been there once before but ate on the 2nd floor.  This time we went up to the 3rd floor and were pleasantly surprised with some Beatles memorabilia, and Beatles songs playing over the intercom the entire time.  :)

Statues right in the middle of the eating area!

John Lennon's guitar, according to the letter on the left

At 2am, the dining areas in McDonald's were closed, so we were back out on the street trying figure out what to do.  Luckily we stumbled across a Don Quijote.  That store has endless wonders, and since luckily this one was 24 hours we got to kill plenty of time in there.

There was a creepy guy in there though, who was just blatantly staring at us as we walked past him.  Incessantly staring.  I could feel his eyes boring holes into my back as we were walking away from him down the aisle.  We kept running into him too, and he just wouldn't stop staring.  I know staring happens when you look so different from everyone else, but i've never been stared at like that before (no, scratch that, actually i believe i have...), it was actually quite unnerving.  S and i both were hella creeped out.  

Other than that though, we had a ball!

Awesome glasses require the duckface.

Even more amazing glasses!

Just before 4am we purchased our little goodies we couldn't leave without, then headed back out into the cold, and decided it was time to get some more food into our bellies.  We found a cheap little soba noodle place and ate some warm food there.  

So good!

Then we ran to the station so S and Sunbeam could catch the first train to Tokyo Station.  We said our goodbyes and parted ways.

I had some drunk business guy fall asleep on me on the train back home.  I see it happen to people often, and it's happened to me once with some really sleepy lady who was slumped over until her head was almost in my lap, but it was rather awkward and uncomfortable with this guy, because he turned and mumbled something inaudible at me shortly after he plopped down in the seat, which i ignored and kept staring straight ahead, and then he actually purposefully put his head on my shoulder, then promptly passed out.  There were a couple guys standing up in the aisle and i think they noticed how awkward and uncomfortable i was feeling.. i saw them looking towards me while they were talking to each other, then as they were getting off one of them kicked drunk business man's leg as they passed by, which startled him awake and thankfully off of my shoulder.  The guy who did the kicking gave a quick glance back to me before the doors shut.  It was a nice thought, and while the guy quickly fell back asleep on me again i only had a couple more stops until i needed to transfer so i got to slip away soon after anyway.

Finally got home and into bed by 7am, haha.  Trying not to make this too regular of a thing.  It was for a good cause though, definitely worth it.

Back to work tomorrow.. only a 4-day week this week, thanks to the Emperor's birthday on Friday!  :D