Relatives and Baby Roulette

We just wrapped up a short visit with my cousin Paul, who has been traveling Asia for the past 2 months. He spend 5 weeks in China on business, before heading to Vietnam to link up with his brother Mark, a tour organizer there. Now, on his way back to the US, he spent a couple of days in Tokyo, and we were able to link up with him last night.

We met him in north Tokyo, where we had supper (soba and beer) at a traditional Japanese izakaya restaurant. We enjoyed watching the businessmen around us drinking heavily, and gauging their drunkenness by the redness of their faces.

After a while, we headed back to Roppongi, and Hardy Barracks where we stayed the night. We ran into some friends there as well, my buddy Steve from the China trip in May. We hung out in the hall outside our rooms (ironically, right next to each other) for a while before turning in.

This morning, after checking out, we headed down the street to the New Sanno and had breakfast together. While waiting, Paul, Steve and I played "baby roulette" with Steve's daughter. There's one particular rug in the lobby that is round, and we would place bets on which direction she would go.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick an edge of the rug.
2. Place your money on your "spot." ($1 or 100 yen ante).
3. Dealer picks up the baby and spins around while one the other players close their eyes.
4. After a few seconds, the other players say "Stop."
5. Place baby in center of circle.
6. Baby crawls to the edge of the rug.
7. Whomever put their money closest to where baby exits the rug, wins the pot.

There's now about 3 dollars more in Kiely's college fund.

We're at Narita now...just left Paul at the security gate, and Melody's getting her nails done. We'll head back to Tokyo for dinner with some friends later on. It was a short, but fun visit, and we're really glad he had the chance to come by.