Five crazy days

These last five days could possibly qualify as the craziest five days of my life. So much happened that it's difficult to remember it all, but I'll do my best to describe the highlights and major events of the past week. The insanity began on Saturday morning when I went to meet James at Ueno Station. I got to the station about 45 minutes early, but we did not leave until close to an hour after he arrived because I couldn't find him. The station wasn't that big and it was just a loop, so I told him to meet me by a specific exit and thought that would be simple enough, but when he called to tell me where he was I couldn't find the exit he was near. I checked the map and realized there was a whole other section to the station that looked just like the area I was in. I assumed it was just another level, but when I took the escalator down it just brought me back to the tracks. I was so confused, it was like there was an alternate train universe that I could not find the entrance to. Turns out, the other section of the station was about a quarter of a mile down the road and I never would have realized this if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd been to Ueno once before and kind of remembered seeing trains in that area. After we eventually found each other we headed back to Takashimadaira, where we wandered around for a while and realized there really isn't that much to see in Takashimadaira. I took him to my sushi place for lunch and one of my chefs asked if he was my boyfriend, we explained "just friends", but I think it's an understandable assumption since he's the only person I've taken with me to the restaurant so far.

Later that night we took the train down and met up with Jenn and our other friends from training who were visiting. We decided to go into Roppongi and find a club or bar to hang out in. Since it was already about 10 pm by the time we decided what we were doing, we basically had to commit right then and there to staying out all night since the trains in Tokyo stop at midnight and don't start up again until 5 am. When we arrived at Roppongi it was like another alternate universe, except that this one looked just like America. Everywhere you looked there were foreigners, the Japanese literally became the minority in their own city! As we walked down the main strip, we realized that not only were there a lot of foreigners around, but there were also a bunch of people trying to solicit the foreigners. I'm not sure why, but for some reason a large quantity of black men seem to have settled in Roppongi and taken over all of the strip clubs and gentleman's clubs. Every five steps or so and one of them would come up to Jenn or myself to try talking one or all of us into entering their club, then they would follow us down the street as we tried to ignore them. Jenn taught me the "pretend to talk on your cell phone" trick, so that managed to get rid of some of them. We girls weren't the only ones getting attention though, the guys we were with were repeatedly grabbed by girls who would say things like "I'm sad" or "Want a massage??" I didn't think the guys would mind the attention so much, but they even seemed a little freaked out at times. Eventually we found a place to eat and then we paid for an extremely overpriced karaoke room and sang our hearts out for a couple of hours. After that we went to a bar where I talked to some guy in the military who was from Texas, but then one of my genius friends thought it would be cool to try and steal a beer from the bar and got us kicked out. The beer stealing friend disappeared and after trying to call about 5 million times, we gave up, got some McDonalds, and then headed back to Jenn's apartment where we slept until the afternoon. This was just the beginning of a very screwed up sleep pattern, which would explain why I am currently writing this blog at 3:55 in the morning.

When we finally left Jenn's apartment we headed for Yoyogi Park in Harajuku to see all the people who dress up in crazy costumes and go there on Sundays to show off what they're wearing. Unfortunately, we got there too late so most of them had left, but I did see a few girls dressed as Lolita's, a whole group of people (men and women) dressed up as Rockabillies, and one guy wearing a sort of mouse costume. After getting crepes in Harajuku (the crepes here are fantastic) and shopping in a massive 100 yen shop called Daiso, we all headed back to my part of the city to get Gyu-kaku, the amazing barbeque meat that you cook at the table. We went to the karaoke place under my school, which is far more reasonably priced than the place in Roppongi, then we somehow crammed all 5 of us into my tiny apartment for the night. All my friends raved over my apartment because it's so new and said they were very jealous, well, all but one since he has basically the exact same apartment as me. There was the issue of size however, and one of my friends actually decided to sleep in the storage space beneath my loft, he basically had his own little cave. We slept late again and then headed back to Jenn's to prepare for the evening, New Year's Eve.

Since we first came to Japan, Jenn had been complaining of a tooth ache, but during the week that we all spent together it got progressively worse. While she was at my apartment she called an English translation line to get information on dentist clinics in the area and tried numbing it with whiskey that we bought from the local 7-11. The woman on the line also told her to get a certain pill that she said would help ease the pain. Jenn picked up the pills on the way back to her apartment and we discovered it was the most foul smelling medicine on the face of the planet. Even after trying it and confirming how gross they really were, she still managed to convince two of the guys we were with to taste the nasty black pills, so everyones breath absolutely wreaked! After getting ready, we headed to a club in Shibuya where one of Jenn's coworkers had gotten us discount tickets. We had a couple of drinks and danced for a bit, but Jenn's tooth pain got extremely severe and we decided that she needed to go to the hospital, so I hailed a taxi and James and I took her to the Emergency Room. We couldn't fit everyone in the cab, so the other two guys stayed in Shibuya. I was sure that we were going to be at the hospital for hours, but we actually got in and out within about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the timing still wasn't that great, because we were standing at an ER reception desk when the clock struck midnight.

The medical staff at the hospital didn't really speak English, but thank goodness James can speak some Japanese and they had a book with Japanese-English medical phrases and questions. They couldn't do too much since they didn't have an oral surgeon on staff, but they did give Jenn some real painkillers that actually helped a little and didn't smell so bad. After leaving the hospital we headed back to Shibuya, but Jenn decided to go home, so James and I got out at Shibuya and she took the taxi all the way back, which with the outrageous Tokyo cab prices cost her about $70 for a 20 minute ride. You would think that the night would be about over for us at this point, but in my memory, this is actually when it really began. We met back up with the other guys and discovered that Tokyo is a truly amazing place to be on New Years. You just walk down the street and shout "HAPPY NEW YEAR" and strangers will shout it back and give you hugs and high fives, it is absolutely fantastic. As we headed back to the club where we had first been, the guys called out "Happy New Year" to a group of Japanese girls walking by and as we all gave each other high fives we realized that they were actually the same group of girls we'd been dancing with at the first club. They invited us to join them, so we went with them for some truly outstanding Ramen noodles and then they took us to an absolutely wonderful dance club. The club was filled with almost all Japanese people, which was quite a change from the primarily gaijin clubs I'd visited so far. The people on the dance floor were so incredibly friendly, and unlike clubs that I've been to in America where the sole aim of most guys out there is sex, here the guys actually seemed happy to just dance. Guys danced with guys, guys danced with girls, girls danced with girls, everyone was just happy to dance and be with one another and it was so much fun and truly unforgettable (Photo 1, me in Shibuya by the famous crosswalk).
The guys and I spent the next day recovering at my apartment and then met back up with Jenn that night. We took it easy on the first night of the new year since most places weren't open anyway, but still we somehow managed to stay up way later than we should have just because none of us ever stop talking. We got up abnormally early on Jan. 2 so that we could go to the Imperial Palace (photo 2, side building at palace) and see the Emperor of Japan make an appearance. The gates of the palace are only opened to the public twice a year, so even though it meant losing some sleep we decided it was worth the effort and we were very right in thinking so. There were thousands of people who came to see the Emperor and the security checks were pretty intense. Most citizens of Japan love the emperor (photo 3), as Jenn's friend put it, "He is a living god," but the communists despise him, so security is definitely necessary. We had a pretty good view when he stepped out of the palace, and when he did the crowd just went crazy, everyone started cheering and waving their Japanese flags and it was very moving, definitely one of my favorite parts of the week.

The last night with my friends was similar to the other party nights: clubs, karaoke, food. We did get invited into another Karaoke room by a group of Japanese people after our time was up, so that was sort of cool. One of the guys decided to try sleeping at a capsule hotel for the night (I have no idea why he would want to) and the rest of us made our way back to my place after the trains started up again. Even though I really enjoyed spending time with my friends, I was kind of glad it was the last time we all had to cram into my apartment. As a person who has grown up with just a sister and mainly female friends, I have a new found respect for those of you who live with husbands, boyfriends, or brothers. After five days of living with my 3 male friends I really just couldn't take it anymore . Don't get me wrong, they are all very nice, but put them all together in a small space and you get very repetitive fart jokes, ridiculously hot living quarters because someone decided to turn the heat up to 31 degrees celcius (87.8* F), and a big mess. I know that in a few days when I get back to my normal schedule I'm going to miss my friends and the excitement of the past week, but for right now it's nice to just relax and have a little time to myself.

Happy new year everyone, I hope it's a great one.