After the Karaoke night the day before, we woke up late today !
We had a delicious brunch and then drove to Tokyo with N&A. We parked the car near Shin-kiba, which is a neighborhood close to Ageha club where we would spend the night...




We took the metro there to Harajuku station. We could see yoyogi gymnasium, but we didn't go close to it as we would come back later on. Instead, we walked to Meiji Jingu shrine and park. It had been a long time since we didn't see any shrines ;-)







The park was very nice with huge trees, lanterns and large torii gates... everything right in the middle of one of the busiest neighborhood of Tokyo !







An Ikebana exhibition was taking place inside the shrine and we could admire many beautiful flowers compositions. The shrine itself was pretty impressive and the atmosphere was very quiet as sunset was close.

When we got out of the park, we could see a few cosplay girls, who disguised themselves as gothic or manga characters. But there wasn't so many of them, whereas it's supposed to be overcrowded by them in this neighborhood.






We then wandered in Harajuku neighborhood, which was very crowded, especially with young and fashion people. We walked on Takes***a-dori where we could find many trendy, fashion, and touristic shops.






We finally arrived at "Design Festa Gallery", which is a free art gallery, with a restaurant and a bar - a very cool place.












We then walked to Omotesando Hills which is a large boulevard with beautiful buidings and shops. Among them the amazing Dior building, the MOMA NY shop, the Louis Vuitton building…


Then we took the metro to Shinjuku station, which is the largest (metro and train) station in whole Japan. You'd better know where you are heading to !
















We met C. there (a Canadian friend of N&A) and we walked to Shinjuku ni chome, the gay neighborhood of Tokyo. It was very small compared to other big cities (Montreal, Paris, SF): only a few blocks wide, but several different floors in each buildings ! (ex : Usagi bar was on the 4th floor of a building, with a nice terrace, but only 15 seats!)


We had a drink at Alamas cafe which was a nice bar, opened on the street. We then had dinner in an "Izakaya" : it is a kind of pub where you can have food. We ordered sashimi, yakitori, tempura, gioza, fried noodles, soup, grilled fish, and nato gioza ! So-ooo gooooood !















Then we took a free shuttle bus to Ageha club, which is one of the largest club in Tokyo. The club hosted that night the Splash Party, a huge gay party, and N&A were eager to discover the gay scene of Tokyo that they did not know. The club is situated in Studio Coast building, which is normally a huge concert place, right in the middle of a business neighborhood, fortunately deserted at night !

The place was huge, with several dancefloors - one under a tent outside, one in the huge concert hall, one on a terrace outside around a pool), with many people (over 5000 !), and a very loud soundsystem ! Thankfully we brought our earplugs with us !



The party was amazing and very entertaining. The dancefloor on the terrace around the pool was just awesome !

We left the party around 5:30, after watching the sunrise over Tokyo, and drove back safely to Tsukuba.