Roppongi Nights

The lively area of Tokyo at night is the Roppongi District. Full of restaurants, bars, and clubs, this area is the rendevous point for foreigners. Being located in the area where more than half of the national embassies are, it’s definitely the place of the melting pot. You’ll find Australians, Europeans, Arabs as well as Africans throughout this area. One person that we talked to was from Ethiopia, and had been in Japan for three years. She had studied Japanese and currently works two jobs- one doing acting and performances during the day, and the other working as a waiter at night. She says she really misses home (Ethiopia), but has to work. We didn’t dig too far into her business, but we assumed that she was probably sending money back to family. And this may be the reason for being in Japan for a lot of people that we saw, if they weren't working for the government. I assume some opened restaurants, others, bar and grills, just to make ends meet and send money back home. There is an extensive contingent of Nigerians in the area that you will definitely hear from while walking the streets. Most of them work as “street teams” for clubs, attempting to solicit your business for the club that they work for. It definitely can be irritating at times, but usually they’ll back off if you tell them where you’re going. But it was cool, and rather tamed because it was a Thursday night (remember, Tokyo is 15 hours ahead of central time). But I’m assuming that during the weekend, it could get pretty wild and packed with people.