fun times turned into bad times

So, today was a terrible day.  We ended up not going to Disney Sea.  I'll save that story for later and elaborate on last night's adventures instead.  Geez, at this rate, I will always have some stories in my stack.  Hehehe....
 
Anyway, so after our little nap last night, my gf and I went to Shinjuku to meet up with a large congregation dying to meet me because I'm so popular.  The appointed time was 8 p.m., but I knew well enough that not everyone would make it at 8 p.m.  First to arrive was Ai, a Japanese friend of mine who graduated from UIUC last year and now working in Shibuya.  She's from Yamaguchi prefecture, and you can call her an inaka girl, from the rural area.  She doesn't like being called that, but I haven't told her this site, so I'm safe for now.  Our rendezvous point was Shinjuku east exit in front of the kouban, Japanese for a police box where you can get directions and what not.  Pretty useful if you are lost.  Although this particular place is really convenient, hundreds of other people think the same, so it gets crowded at night, especially on a Saturday.  My gf isn't particularly fond of smoke, so I had Ai take her inside the station and talk with her.  I waited a bit more outside until Scott and Dylan showed up.  Scott is a fellow IJST participant from last year, and Dylan is this year's participant.  Both are from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana.  At this point, my cell was being bombarded with mails and phone calls because I told everyone to call me if anything's up.  Kanto, a Japanese guy from KIT, and his crew just arrived in Ikebukuro and were heading towards Shinjuku.  Muk, a Thai girl from UIUC and another IJST participant this year, called me from a nearby Sakuraya, an electronics store.  So, I told Scott and Dylan to stay put and ran towards Sakuraya to get Muk.  I tried to surprise her from behind, but I guess my running sandals gave me away as she turned to greet me.  We went back to the east exit without much how-do-you-dos, and on the way back, I got a call from Mina, a Chinese girl who's been living in Japan for about 10 years, who just had arrived by the police box and was looking for me.  I told her to stay put because I was gonna arrive in like 20 seconds.  So, let's do a head count here.  My gf, Ai, Scott, Dylan, Muk, Mina, and me.  That's 7.  Since most people were meeting each other for the first time, I told them to talk and be jolly good.  At this point, I get a phone call from Tony, another Rose-Hulman IJST from last year, who was at the south exit even though I specifically mentioned east exit in my previous e-mails.  Scott wanted to go get him, but he said he's at the place where the dancing monkey was, and only I knew what Tony meant, so I started running again towards the south exit.  When I got there, I couldn't find Tony, so I went all the way to the bus terminal and back.  I was gonna go back or call Scott when I spotted Tony looking lost, and Ray was next to him.  Ray is another Rose-Hulman IJST from last year.  We exchanged quick hellos and walked briskly back toward the east exit.  Yay, so we had 9 people in all.  Only Kanto and his crew were left.  They should have arrived in Shinjuku by then because Ikebukuro is only about 10 minutes by train.  We decided to wait for them, talking and trying to decide where we could go for dinner.  We were gonna have 12 people in all, and finding a place for 12 on a Saturday night in Shinjuku is very difficult.  About 10 minutes passed and still no contact from Kanto.  I said to all, let's just go!  And off we went toward the more popular area.  I thought we could find a place first because everyone seemed hungry and tired of waiting.  It was about 8:45 p.m., 45 minutes past the meeting time.
 
On our way toward the main fun district of Shinjuku, Kabukicho, the red-light district, which happens to have not just prostitutes and massage parlors but also some good restaurants and karaoke boxes, I got a call from Kanto.  He and 2 other IJST members from this year were at the west exit.  So, I told everyone to go without me, and I started running towards the west exit.  Wow, I covered 3 exits of Shinjuku station!  By the way, I think there are 4 main exits at the station.  There is an exit called the new south exit.  Anyway, I had some trouble locating Kanto and the crew because Shinjuku station is kind of big.  When I last found them, they had some luggage with them, so we went to the nearest coin lockers and put those beasties away for the night.  Kanto is a Japanese guy, but he's from Yamagata prefecture, which is about 4 hours north of Tokyo, so he doesn't know Tokyo very well.  I think it's safe to say that I know Tokyo the best out of the 12 of us, excluding Mina of course.  Greg, from Rose-Hulman (maybe...), and Kim, a Korean girl from Rochester Institute of Techonology, were with Kanto.
 
Wow, I wrote so much about the rendezvous that I still didn't get to the dinner part yet.  The bad part comes at the dinner and afterwards.  So, stay tuned for more adventures of MK!  I gotta sleep because I'm going to Hakone with my gf when I wake up.  Hakone is a popular tourist place with lots of cool onsens, Japanese for hot springs.  Thanks for reading!