Friday 23 Aug 2002 - Tonite was my first all-nighter. Since trains only run until midnight and cabs cost a fortune, alot of Japanese ppl stay out all night so that they can catch the first train home at 5am. I was invited to a closing down party at a restaurant in Ebisu. They were knocking down the restaurant and building a 5 storey business block instead. There was so much food and drinks .... and the best part was that it was FREE !! Apparently it is cheaper to just give away all your alcohol than to store it somewhere.... that's just good news to us. By about 3am, I was feeling really sleeping and was deciding whether I should get a cab home. My friends were telling me to expect at the ride to cost at least 7,000 yen (about $100 AUD). However, everyone wanted to go karaoking so we did...... we sang until 6am in the morning. In Japan, peak times for karaoke is actually between 4am and 6am. This is because they need something to do while they wait for their first train home. It's bizarre. The all-nighter just totally stuffed up my body clock for the rest of the weekend. But I do envisage many more of these nights.

Binny-san