Dentist, Ramen, and walking around the city for my birthday

This morning I got up and headed to the dentist for a cleaning. It was kind of weird cause they had a towel with a whole in it that they used to cover my face but still allow access to my mouth. Anyhow after that I headed to Mita where I met up with John and Ryu for Ramen. The Mita headquarters had recently reopened with a new awning and cleaner interior. Since we hadn't been there in a while we got the double meet, double ramen.

In the evening I met up with Witter, Beck, and Brandon We walked around town. We passed a temple and they always look cool at night so I took a picture. Then we passed a giant palm tree thing which was pretty cool so I took a picture of that too! We stopped at the convenience store and got some drinks and then hung out in the park. Ha, sounds so lame. Anyhow all the convenience stores are basically the same but with variations in the prepared foods they sell and some have their own products. All the convenience stores have a large section for energy drinks such as Red Bull and various Japanese equivalents. There is also a drink which you are supposed to drink before drinking alcohol to prevent hang overs. I'm not sure if it really works or not but it's been sold in Japan for a long time so maybe, or it might be all psychological.

One Freedom in Japan that you don't have in the US is being able to drink in public on the street, train, pretty much wherever you want. While this can be nice, the abuse becomes very clear at night when you see Salary Men passed out near the station any night of the week. The lady sleeping on the train might just be sleeping like that, or it may be sleep mixed with some alcohol. Anyhow, nights in Tokyo are always interesting.