Food, drinks, bikes, and snow!

These last four days have been quite wonderful. Earlier this week my co-worker invited me to go out with him and one of my students to an izakaya (Japanese style bar/restaurant) on Friday night. I said I definitely wanted to go, but in order to get to the place I needed a bike because it was kind of a long walk. For the past two months I had been saying that I was going to get a bike but I just hadn't gotten around to it and since I don't really mind walking most places it just never really happened. Well, the izakaya invite gave me the incentive I needed to stop waiting around and just buy one, so on Thursday I did! I love my bike soooooo much! It's what the Japanese call a mamachari, which is basically "a mama's bike" so it's kind of dorky and traditional looking as bikes go, but still freakin' sweeeet! It's a lovely shade of orange so I can find it easily among the hundreds of other bikes, it has a built in lock on the back, a light on the front, and a bell, but really the best part is the basket! That's right, I have a black metal basket on the front of my bike, it doesn't get more Japanese than that!

In Japan just about EVERYONE has a bike, so when you buy one you have to get it registered with the police. I think the registration is a pretty good idea because that way if your bike is stolen or towed (yes they tow bikes here) then you at least have a chance of finding it again. The registration is done at the bike shop so I just had to fill out some paperwork, well actually I can't read Japanese, so I handed over my information to the guy working there and he filled out some paperwork, then he put a sticker with a unique serial number on the front of my bike, adjusted my seat, and I was good to go. I should probably mention that this is the first time I've been on a bike since I was about 13 years old, so it has taken me a little bit of time to A) Get used to riding it, B) Get used to the people who are constantly walking in front of my bike as I am moving , and C) Stop worrying that the bike is going to deteriorate under me because I'm a lot heavier than I was nine years ago. I'm still a little freaked out that I'm going to run into someone or fall off and be laughed at, but I'm starting to become a little more relaxed.

Sooo... On Friday night my co-worker, student, and I rode our bikes to the izakaya and had some food and drinks and it was a lot of fun. I was going to try whale and horse meat while I was there, but they weren't serving either at this particular spot. I did try the dorsal fin of some random fish though, so that was slightly unique. The food was good and we had fun just talking about random stuff. I'm really glad the company I work for allows us to socialize with students outside of the school because it allows us to get to know them in a much more natural setting. Some other companies strictly prohibit teachers from having any outside contact with their students which has always struck me as an utterly bizarre policy. We stayed at the izakaya for a couple of hours and then headed home since my co-worker and I had to work Saturday morning.

In addition to the izakaya, a few weeks earlier my co-worker had also invited me to come with him to his friend's birthday party. I am always happy to meet new people and so I eagerly accepted his invitation. The party was last night and I had a really good time. It wasn't really a "party" in the literal sense, but really more just a big group of people going out for the night. We met in Shibuya and spent the first couple of hours at a big izakaya down the street from that really massive crosswalk that you always see in the movies. After that we went to a karaoke bar and drank and sang and it was fun. My co-worker's friends were incredibly nice and I hope I get to see some of them again at some point (I already friended a couple of them on facebook). We stayed out all night and in the morning as we headed to McDonald's for some breakfast it started to snow! It's really quite uncommon for it to snow in Tokyo and the birthday girl was so excited because she's from New Zealand and has only seen snow about 3 times in her life. As we rode the train back home it continued snowing and it was rather picturesque with the trees and bushes on the sides of the track all white and snowy. It wasn't quite so picturesque when I reached my station and had to ride my bike home through all of it. It only takes about 4 minutes to get to my apartment from the station, but by the time I arrived my feet were completely numb. I don't care though, I am most definitely enjoying my time here in Japan, but it's still nice when things feel like home and few things could make it feel more like home than snow.