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I had arranged to meet James and Leigh for a drink in Shinjuku. I think it was the boys’ tongue-in-cheek way of saying “welcome back”: invite him out for a drink but make sure he has to go through Ikebukuro and Shinjuku before he gets it.

Ikebukuro train station, the second busiest train station in the world, is a construction of which even the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus would have been proud. And, to be frank, I think it makes a lot of sense for it to have opened its doors on April Fools Day all those years ago. I hadn’t been there for about 9 years and so, although nothing much seems to have changed, it took me a while to find my bearings again and finally work out where I was meant to be going. From Mizuhoudai, I had caught the Tobu Tojo Sen and so came out next to the JR lines. I needed the Yamanote Sen but couldn’t see any signs for it for a while. I eventually used my gut instinct and headed left. Within a few metres I saw the sign for tickets and, 150 en worse off (that’s about 75 pence folks!), I was within seconds on my way to…

…Shinjuku, the busiest train station in the world. My friend Leysh, who I showed around when he was over with Charlotte Church (because Sony was paying), recently confided with me that the one thing that stuck out in his mind as I showed him around Shinjuku was the single statement:”The population of Wales goes through this station EVERY DAY!” I confided in him that the one thing that stuck out in my mind as I showed him around Shinjuku was said as we perused at leisure in Kabukichou, Shinjuku’s red-light district.

Some guy, touting for trade, came up to Leysh as we were wandering up the street and said, “Sex? Shower? Show?” Leysh declined his kind offer and as we walked off he turned to me and said, “I would have said yes, if they weren’t in that order.” Pure genius!

Anyway, I digress. I had arranged to meet James at Shinjuku San-Chome in front of the koban at 6pm. I was there shortly after 6 and waited for 30 minutes before asking the police whether there was a public phone anywhere near. I found the phone the police man had described the location of, in front of the Sakuraya shop, and called James. I had forgotten that he wanted to meet at the intersection of Meiji-Dori and Shinjuku-Dori. Recognising the error of my ways I made haste to the new koban. We then went to a bar that sold Guinness and had USA v Tonga in some rugby game somewhere. It wasn’t the best game ever and so I took about 3 minutes of it on board and carried on without.

Much chatting with James about this and that. Really enjoyed! And then Leigh turned up. Much more chatting about this and that. Really enjoyed too! And then it was time to go home.

I got back to Mizuhoudai and it was snowing a little. A good night was had and my head knew about it in the morning!!