Surprisingly, some people are the same in real life as they are online.
The friends I was meeting for dinner are all members of a forum called ”
Fucked Gaijin.” It’s a web-board for people in Japan, or interested in Japan. Generally a very likable crowd, and fun to banter with online. It’s great for killing time at work when I’ve got a few hours between classes and nothing else to do.
I knew everybody who was going to be coming by their online personalities, but wasn’t sure how close to their “real world” identities those were. Pretty close, as it turned out. Everybody who came was among the “likable” crowd, so we had a pretty good time. Mostly just talking about nothing in particular, drinking and eating. (If you go there, I recommend the ¥380 strawberry margaritas from the slushie machine and the ¥680 spaghetti with salmon and mushrooms.)
We were there for a few hours and the time crunch for the last train was upon us. I’d worked out a plan to stay with a different friend earlier in the day, so there was no rush for me. Those who were taking the train headed one way and the rest of us headed for a nearby coffee shop to meet up with another friend. One coffee and some more chatter later, it was time for us to head to the train ourselves. (You do not want to get stuck having to take a taxi in Tokyo, trust me.)
We got back to my friend’s place pretty late, and pretty much just crashed. Morning came far too soon. (Blast people’s early schedules!)
And then it was Day 4, Saturday the 24th. My last full day in Tokyo – and the most fun day of all!
^.^