Tokyo neighborhoods – Something on Roppongi

Around Christmas time, Tokyo was decorated with many lights. Even if in general, Japanese people don’t celebrate Christmas, the commercial aspect of it remains quite big here.
And they don’t do things badly…I must say!
We went to Roppongi Hills, a recent urban development, headquarters of many high tech and internet companies. Trendy it is.

Roppongi Hills
Roppongi Hills is located next to the very famous neighborhood of Roppongi. Roppongi is known for being the neighborhood when one should go for nightlife. When walking down the streets there, if you are a bunch of boys together, you will find yourself asked about 20 times, if you want to go to a hostess bar. That kind of nightlife, yep!
Also many bars and a lot of…’hidden and secret’ stories about the back streets of Roppongi…if that doesn’t sound like an interesting program!

Livedoor
Recently, a big financial scandal happened in Japan. The company, named Livedoor, is now suspected to have manipulated the company’s financial statements and stock value to make more money at the expense of the “poor” investors!
Oh no!! Another scandal linked to the evil internet….!
The CEO is now sleeping for free in jail and the scandal reveals another side of Roppongi Hills.
Everyone knows that a hill has many sides but still…
Livedoor was one of these new companies in Japan, headed by an anti-conformist guy, breaking all the many rules existing in Japan and dictating the way business is done here.
For your information, all these companies located in Roppongi Hills were named the Hills Family (Roppongi zoku in Japanese).

Nevertheless, it is very pleasant to walk around the Roppongi Hills complex. You sometimes see street performers. I, for example, once walked by and watched a circus performance (Mongolian circus). Pretty awesome spot.

And now you know what is happening behind these fancy and super cool looking buildings!

- Nico