debauchery in roppongi

We meet Kevin right at 10pm at Mogamobo. It's still early and the crowd is thin. Ed and Ako, a cutie he knew from Texas, appears. Eventually a group of people Kev knows shows up. Another group of women shows up, dressed in black cocktail dresses and sporting eyemasks, bubble-guns, party poppers, and baloon art. They each have a button declaring them member's of "Jo's Hen Party", making every guy in the bar desparately wish he was "Jo".
Stevie's girl Eriko brought a friend but, arriving on time and seeing Stevie nowhere, went next door to dance to bad 80's tunes. Finally Stevie and Kyle appear, Stevie going "Where's Eriko?"
By now the place is reasonably packed, the hen party is in full bubble-making/party-popping mode, and the music is loud. Just as we spot Lee's plaque on the wall (second over, second down from the upper right corner) my cell rings: Lee calling from New York. We chat, we toast, we refuse to ring the bell in his honor unless he provides us with a credit card number.

Ed knows another place (there's ALWAYS another place in Roppongi) so we hike around the corner and up the street. Before getting incoherent, Steve calls his wife, and then into the basement we go. The music is better, the air-conditioner is more effectice, the dartboard is crap, and the tvs are playing some bad gangster movie starring Sharon Stone with 80's hair. Kyle gets freaky in the corner. Kevin shows us how the sport of the beer-drinking pot-bellied white man is played. Steve is humbled. Stevie is Stevie. Stevie's girlfriend is also, unfortunately, Stevie.
At some point, several hours after the carriage has turned back into a pumpkin, we emerge to street level. Fighting through waves of offers for massage and other services, we put Steve in a cab pointing vaguely back towards the Hotel Okura, say our good-byes, and I stumble back home, glad I live within walking distance of the armpit that is...Roppongi.

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