[Original post by Elliot Mogerman – Transferred from yahoogroups.com]
We met Akira, formerly known as Mike from Australia. He naturalized here quite some time ago and has a japanese wife, newborn, and speaks and ready fluently. He took us to a Okonomiyaki dinner, and it was very good. Basically a huge lettuce, egg, and mixed meat and fish fried with a brown sweet sauce. Then he showed us the famous love hotel row in Shabuya. It was pretty funny, but there are a lot of dance clubs there. Maybe I’ll go back one of these days, but wasn’t really feeling it that night.
Then the next day, Saturday, we woke up and went to Yoshinoya for lunch. Mike’s new favorite fast food spot. We found a nice location on the sidewalk for the Samba Carnival. It was over 5 hours in the sun, drinking Asahi and watching anything from kids marching bands, to crazy costumed Brazilians and Japanese dancing around and singing. Pretty fun but I would really like to see the real thing in brazil. During the festival, I needed some friend food and ate a huge amount of Tempura as there was a stand right behind us. I was like a walking poster child.
After it was over, we headed over to the Asahi beer festival across the bridge. There was hours of live music bands, no cover, and of course…more Asahi! The music was great, also haven’t heard live music for a long long time and very much enjoyed it. We might go back tonight as it is the last night and free entertainment is good entertainment. Trying to figure out what to eat today. Wish everyone the best!