Saturday, August 30, 2008

I just wanna dance!

I had a great night out last night / this morning. It was a friend's birthday so a big group of us met up by Hachiko (the dog statue) in Shibuya to go to a bar and then go clubbing. I was really looking forward to the club because I love dancing and I hadn't been to one in a while, not since that dreadful night with James and his girlfriend at that shit hole GasPanic... god I hate that place! Thankfully, this night was WAYYYY better. When the evening first started off I felt a little uncomfortable because I really didn't know many of the people I was going out with and those I did know I had only met briefly at other events, even the birthday boy I'm not really close friends with. It turned out fine though because I just started chatting with the people I didn't know and they were all really cool, I also talked to a bunch of random people at the bar we went to, so that was fun. I had a few people talk to me because of my tattoo, it's funny the amount of attention it attracts here, at one point I turned around because a cute guy from New Zealand was literally poking me in the back because he wanted to know what it meant (it's a Chai - the word for life in Hebrew... having it is kind of sacrilegious, but I don't care).

Later on my closer friends who I actually do know showed up, so I was really happy to see them. One of them had just flown in from visiting her family back home in Washington state so she was incredibly jet lagged! After everyone had arrived we left the bar and headed to Pure, a club that I particularly like because the cover charge is 1,000 yen less for women and it's "nomihodai" - all you can drink! I had a great time dancing, I danced for a while with a guy who works as a body guard for Japanese diplomats, etc. so that was sort of cool and I appreciated the fact that he was willing to actually dance with me rather than just try to grope me the entire time. Later I unknowingly started to dance with a creepy groper and I was actually really impressed because one of the security guards just saw the look on my face and immediately asked me if I was okay. I said I was and then I just pushed the guy off of me, that felt good! We danced all night and into the morning until they stopped the music and turned on the lights, then a bunch of us went to complete the sacred post-clubbing ritual, eating breakfast at McDonald's. When we reached the steps up to McDonald's there was a tiny old woman shuffling about and speaking to us in Japanese. None of us knew what she was saying and she was clearly a little out of touch with reality, so when she addressed me directly I just said in Japanese "I'm sorry, I don't understand" she looked at me and started to pass by but then all of a sudden she hit me on my back! It didn't hurt because she was so small, but I was pretty shocked since it's not like I have random Japanese women slapping me all the time. We decided she hit me because a) she didn't like my low cut clubbing shirt, b) she was insane, or c) all of the above. After McDonald's I went home and collapsed into bed and didn't wake up until my stupid doorbell / visual security system randomly started going off for no reason, I'm still tired, I think that I might actually go back to sleep for a while now... we'll see.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

An Okinawan Friday night

On Friday night I went back to the Okinawan place that my former co-worker took me to. I had been meaning to go back but had been afraid to return by myself since my Japanese is so terrible. Most sensible people, therefore, would conclude that on the next trip I took someone else who could speak Japanese fluently, but in fact I took my new co-worker who knows NO Japanese besides konichiwa- hello, and kampai - cheers, two important words, but they can only get you so far. When we got there we barely made it through the door, because the tiny little restaurant was packed and there was nowhere to sit. As we stood in the doorway trying to decide what to do next, some people noticed us standing there and kindly moved down to make room for us to sit. As we walked in I literally heard the word "gaijin" float around the room, everyone seemed so surprised to see us.

As we went to sit down I wasn't sure if the people who had moved over were going to acknowledge or ignore us, but to our delight they initiated conversation. Of course, the first question every foreigner gets in Japan is always "Where are you from?" after establishing our respective nationalities we will usually explain that we're English teachers and it goes on from there. Our neighbors were so friendly and inviting, they shared their food with us and even bought us drinks at one point. They spoke very little English, so I had a great opportunity to practice my Japanese and I was actually able to understand some of the things they said to me if they spoke slowly enough. The woman sitting next to my co-worker told me in Japanese that her childhood friend had been from England and I actually acted as a translator to tell my co-worker what she said, that was pretty awesome. One guy, an incredibly drunk university student, came down to our end of the table just so he could talk to us. His English was no better than the others' but he and my co-worker seemed to hit it off and they chatted for a while about sports and music. The mama-san, owner of the place, also came over to say hello. She recognized me of course and gave us a sliced dragon fruit to share.

This Okinawan place has lots of regulars and you can tell who they are based on their bottles of alcohol. All along the wall of the restaurant are shelves with decorated bottles, the bottles have the names of the owners written on them in gold and silver and many are decorated with charms and little figurines like you'd see on a key chain. When people finish off the bottle they just refill it and put it back on the shelf when they leave. Several of the people we were sitting with had their own bottles with little cartoon characters dangling from them, leave it to the Japanese to make even drinking cute.

My co-worker and I stayed until about 1 in the morning, but since we had to get up for work the next day we eventually decided to call it quits. We told our new friends that we will return next Friday, so both of us are really looking forward to that. We are both thrilled to have somewhere fun to go on a Friday night that is only a five minute bike ride from our school. The Mama-san also charged us very little for the amount that we ate and drank, so saving money is always a plus too! I wish I had found out about this place sooner, but now I will definitely have to take advantage of it.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Jam (and jelly) packed week

I know it's been a little while, but these last couple of weeks have just been so jam packed that I have not had the energy to actually sit down and write about them. I woke up a little earlier than usual though, so I'll do my best to fit everything in before I have to go to work.

So last Saturday our new teacher arrived from England. He seems like a really nice guy and he appears to be very excited about working with us at Takashimadaira. He arrived at our school the same day that there was going to be a huge fireworks exhibition so I invited him and the sub-teacher helping him with the transition to come watch them with my students, Jenn, and me. None of my students actually showed up so it was just the four of us. We climbed to the roof of our school and had an AMAZING view. The fireworks did not start until about 7 pm, but there had been hundreds of people milling around the streets in Yukata (traditional Japanese robes, sort of like lighter, cheaper versions of kimono) since about 4 pm, so we knew that the riverside where they were actually being held would be packed. The fireworks were spectacular and there were ones I'd never seen before, including a few in the shape of Hello Kitty's head... the whole stereotype about the Japanese obsession with Hello Kitty is not too far from the truth. The show lasted for two hours, when it was over we tried to find an izakaya to get some drinks at but they were all packed and you couldn't get in anywhere without a reservation. It was so extremely strange having so many people in my neighborhood since usually it's so quiet and empty! We ended up getting some food and drinks at Sukiya, a chain beef bowl place down the street from where I live. Afterwards the guys took the train back home and Jenn stayed over at my apartment where we stayed up late and watched Terms of Endearment like the true girls that we are.

We slept in the next day and then got some sushi for lunch. I went to the welcome / farewell party for my co-workers after that and it was a lot of fun. A bunch of of students came to the party and some of us went out for karaoke afterwards. We had a choice of two karaoke places in the area and we ended up at the one that I hadn't been to before. Really though, most karaoke places look pretty much the same on the inside. We ended the night with my amazing choice... Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi, best group karaoke song ever, it's true.

Not so much during the work week of course, but I did go out to my kaiten sushi (revolving sushi) place with all my co-workers for the first time! I was very excited to bring them there and they all seemed to enjoy it. It was the first time I ever sat in the booth section at the back of the restaurant since I'd never gone there with so many people.

On Saturday I went to what I thought was going to be a party with Jenn and some other people, but there were actually only 4 other people there, one of whom I really don't care for so much. I was exhausted because I'd gone out with a friend the night before and ended up missing my last train, so I'd gotten very little sleep as a result. I was very relieved, therefore, when we called it an early night and Jenn and I went back to her place to crash. We got up the next morning and went to Enoshima for my now ex-co-worker's Sayonara Beach Party! It was a little bit cloudy and not too hot, so in my opinion good beach weather, nevertheless I still got a bit sunburned even while wearing sun block. I also was stung by three jelly fish! I'd never been stung by a jelly fish before in my life, so I guess they wanted to get their revenge. They were impossible to see in the murky water and they hurt a lot! I had a huge red welt on my back and two smaller ones on my arm and leg, all of which are still visible on my body two days later! Despite the jellies, I still had a fun time and we went out for Italian food afterwards so it was a nice ending to the day.

Yesterday I went indoor rock climbing with my friend Eimilly and her friend. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want to go again at some point. Granted, my arms feel sort of like they're going to fall off today, but I've been stretching them and that's helped. Well, time for work now, hopefully it will be another fun week!