Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Roppongi

I sometimes spend time in a Starbucks in Roppongi because it's close to my workplace.

I think Roppongi is the most multicultural city in Japan. In the cafe, there are always foreign people from all over the world, like the Philippines, US, China, South Korea, Latin Americas, African countries, Russia, Romania, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, UK, Middle Eastern countries... It's because there are many foreign embassies around there.

Roppongi is well known for its night life especially among foreign people in Tokyo. There are a lot of clubs, bars and restaurants open until morning.

TV celebrities also love Roppongi and are often seen in those places, some of which are rumored to be run by yakuza (Japanese mafiosos).

Rumor has it that a real estate company that acquired a piece of land in the center of Roppongi a few years ago leased it out as a public parking before construction of a building on it and had to offer eight free lots to local eight yakuzas respectively in return of "protection". The company must have been very careful for the yakuza lots not to be next to each other. Otherwise, there would be a war between them...

Now I'm writing this in the Starbucks in Roppongi over a coffee. I'm feeling like I'm traveling in an unknown country surrounded by different faces from every corner of the world...


2 comments:

  1. If and when I get the chance (lotto, anyone?) to amass a lot of money to be able to visit Japan, I'll surely try and go here just for the reason that I want to feel... out of place in the throng of people. Haha!

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  2. Hahaha! Not so expensive. Actually, the Philippine Embassy is very close to Roppongi and there are lot of people from the Philippines walking in the street there.

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