Nishi Shinjuku Hotel was definitely a great choice for my hotel. I found it on Google Search while looking for an hotel in the heart Shinjuku with English speaking staff. The staff is very friendly, polite and helpful. They know the area very well if you are looking for something particular. I had fantastic view on the Shinjuku skyscrappers from my hotel room.

The rooms are very comfortable and the rates are amazing for such an dense area. On certain days the rates were between $75 and $90 for a single room. There was also a fantastic restaurant on the main floor. I ordered a Sashimi plate which turned out to be a high-class feast.

The most distrubing thing was the moment I went to the bank and actually did not remember my PIN code. Over the years I became so familiar with the button sequence order that I slowly forgot the actual code. The bank keypad was actually upside down which most likely contributed to my brainfart.

Here I was in Tokyo without any money. They never heard of cash back and I didn't know the PIN of my creditcard either. I could actually cry, I even called the Dutch embassy if they could help me financially until I returned to Canada but that was impossible. I could only pay by creditcard for the time being but it would become difficult on the long run since Japan is a very cash based society. I called my dad who told me to relax, sleep and start fresh the next day. When the next day came around I started by grabbing the hotel phone and using the keypad (which was the standard layout) and try to remember the combination after a whole bunch of attempts I finally thought I figured it out.

Afterwards I ran to the bank in Shinjuku and tried the combination again. I had to be exact since I had one more attempt until the bank would block my card and I would have been seriously doomed. Thank god the combination was correct and my adventures could continue.

The Asakusa Samba Carnival is one of those annual events you just have to witness once. This unique festival takes place every summer in the streets of Asakusa, Tokyo. The streets were packed with foreigners and locals trying to get a glimpse of the participants. Due to my height I had a good view of the entire parade. Beautiful samba cars were cruising through the street blasting loud samba music. Beautiful scarcely dressed girls shaking their butts while grooving to the Brazilian sounds. That is what a Tokyo Lifestyle is all about.

After a night of coding I decided to grab some dinner at 2am at my local 'kare' restaurant and got into a conversation with some cool locals. They invited me to come to a business conference for students. OVAL is the abbreviation of 'Our Vision for Asian Leadership' and is a place for an active international exchange among university students from 3 leading Asian countries. The 2009 edition was organized at the Yoyogi National Olympic Memorial Center. The future leaders of Asia were able to present business concepts to the elite CEO's of Asia. It was all presented in English while the only countries attending were Japan, Korea & China. It was definitely an interesting experience. I made a few notes during the summit which are listed below. Although I am not sure if the business plans presented were restricted or copyrighted in any way. The first presented concept won the conference (Like a family).

I even had the opportunity to sit behind the CEO of General Electric Japan and next to the President of Kaplan Japan. 

Likeafamily.com

• online volunteer/paid nursing-elderly system. Where profiles of both parties will be matched so the requested help is easily automatically found.
• it could eventually integrate into the existing wealth fare system as an alternative for elderly care.

Betterself

• they target 3 dollars a month
• its a tough market

Mental Help

• to provide help to retired people to rejoin the work force, give them the option.

Training system to seniors

• ridiculous numbers
• telecom anger management system
• high per minute charges
• money should be made of minute charges
• retired men helping stressing in need business to get back on track
• retired people are smart. Young people will listen to knowledge

Educational Insurance

• draws money from insecure university applicants
• failure you will get money Artculator
• rotate arts between businesses. 

Art rental service

• companies log online and pick their art and pay a monthly for for ever changing art. Or choose a genre and have their art be auto-picked monthly
• good for artists to get recognized
• refreshing art
• its like Netflix but than for art on the wall which keeps changing
• framed art is already easier to circulate so it will be in a cheaper package I got to give some credit to some of these ideas, some are quite interesting.

What a fantastic city! I doubt there is any place on earth being able to beat Tokyo on the grounds of entertainment. It takes a lot of effort trying to entertain 34 million people in one city. During my stay I managed to collect quite some tips for other people interested coming to Tokyo.

Locations:

1. Barbershop: Hair Dimension @ Aoyama, Tokyo
2. Barbershop: Oasis @ Harajuku, Tokyo
3. Sushi: Sushi Mamire @ 歌舞伎町, Shinjuku, Tokyo

1. Club Camelot @ Shibuya, Tokyo
2. Club ATOM @ Shibuya, Tokyo
3. Studio M's @ 歌舞伎町、新宿、東京都
4. Club Motown

Luckily, my last Parapara party in Tokyo went out with a blast. It was Halloween in Japan and many people dressed up for the occasion. It was surprising to see in how many places it was unacceptable to wear scary uniforms. Quite a few Japanese people consider it a hellish festivity introduced by the Western world. There was even a rally against Halloween and foreigners organized by the right-wing party in Tokyo at Shinjuku subway station. Which I can understand if you going home from a 10 hour work day and then get confronted by a bunch of crazy drunk foreigners in Halloween costumes on the metro.

I decided to go to the SEB Halloween party @ Alife Nightclub in Roppongi. To adapt to Japanese society I decided it was best to keep my costume packed until I reached the venue. I brought my Cloud Strife costume which I purchased in Canada a few months earlier.

It was a wicked party but sad at the same time. I was sad to say goodbye to all the great people I met throughout the past 3 months in the para dance scene. I really hope to go back again more some day and see all my Japanese friends again.