Captain's log:
Christmas in Japan is weird. It's like in movies, where a guy gets killed by an alien or something, and takes his place. All of his friends know something's off, but can't quite put their finger on it.
You have the decorations and all that. But no spirit/cheer. It's very strange. This is the most not-Christmas Christmas ever.
Secret Santa was wednesday and went off for the most part without a hitch. I was really pleased and happy everything went well. My present was a bottle of Makers Mark. The ryuugakusei know me too well.
The next day (yesterday), was Christmas Eve. X-mas Eve is pretty much valentines day for the Japanese. Couples go do couple-y things, exchange gifts, and whatnot. So Aaron and his friend, Mayano, set up this singles party at a small restaurant. The only ryuugakusei there were Drew, Aaron, the Norwegians, and Me. The party was awesome. Lots of beer and sochu, the food was excellent, and the company was even better.
I also brought a bottle of Southern Comfort, cause I hadn't had it in so long. A few people helped, but I ended up drinking nearly the entire bottle.
5 of the Japanese girls there pretty much rotated between Drew, Aaron, and me. They were really awesome, got a few numbers and whatnot, and dates will be set up. Eventually we got out, and my memory's a little hazy, but somehow I let my friends talk me into going to a club. I really didn't want to go, but we go anyway and it ends up being terrible.
Came home this morning, went to sleep at about 6, woke up at 10:30, talked to family, talked to friends, mailed postcards (finally), made some bacon. I really haven't done that much today, and I haven't seen my host family. I really don't like being alone in general, much less on Christmas. Today has been very lonely.
I can't decide if I want to still go out on New Years, we'd go to a club. However, New Years is the big family holiday here, so I dunno if it will be all that fun.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
I should probably update more.
Captain's log,
Well, a lot has happened over the past week. Last friday, some of us ventured out to Nishinomiya, and found this kickass, American-sized, but most importantly cheap liquor store. And by cheap I mean a liter of beer for $6.00, and a bottle of 7 year old cuban rum for "$22," but it was rang up at $15, but I wasn't going to say anything. It is a shame Cuban stuff isn't sold in the US, cause that stuff was the best rum I've ever had. We took all of our alcohol and hung out in a park, continuing to make a bad name for gaijin (foreigners).
The next day, I went to Nara, which was cool, the daibutsu was impressively large, and is housed in the largest wooden building in the world. The daibutsu is about 52 feet tall, and is by far not the largest in Japan. Insanity came from the shika deer that roam all over Nara. They are regarded as spiritual messengers in Shinto, so they're allowed to do whatever they want. You can buy senbei to feed them, but if you do, god help you. As soon as my friends bought some, the deer swarmed them. It was hilarious and terrifying.
Later that evening, Cooper, Rika, some friends from my tennis circle, and I went to a bar that my friend John knew the owner of. The place was a little pricey. We started doing shots because they were cheaper than beer. Also they served tacos, which were awesome, cause I was fiending for some.
Tuesday was a Nabe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono) party with my friends from my circle, which was fun, but could have been better, here's why.
An example of how Japanese girls can be bitches: I was seeing this one girl, went on a few fairly successful dates, and things were going well. But on friday I helped her make a facebook, she asks what the relationship slot was, I go "do you have a boyfriend?" she says no, and continues filling it out. Now, Christmas Eve is Valentine's Day for the Japanese, so I thought "hey, this might be a good idea," and I ask "Hey, what are you doing on the 24th?" Only to get "I see my boyfriend that day." Words cannot describe my confusion. Upside is I pretty much decided I wasn't that into her.
Anywho, bitching aside, the rest of the week went smoothly. This past friday was this big party for the exchange kids, which was fun, met a whole lot of people, and then we went to Shinsaibashi to go to a club. Sadly, I was put in charge of directing the 30-odd people who were coming, and I think I got sober from the yelling. Eventually I gave up on them and decided I wasn't going to let them ruin my evening.
The club was fun, we went to a place called Onzi-eme, had plenty of people, ok music, and overall wasn't bad. I couldn't get drunk though, meaning I couldn't dance. So I went through a lot of dancing partners. Thankfully Austin is awesome and in his drunken ridiculousness got us some girls to dance with, I ended up dancing with one who didn't even come up to my collar bones. She was so tiny.
Shortly after this, we find out some of our friends were kicked out for stealing liquor bottles from the bar, so we left. I got home around 6:30 in the morning.
Yesterday, we went BACK to Shinsaibashi for this all-you-can-eat pizza place, which wasn't bad. It was a nice change of things. Their chicken nuggets tasted EXACTLY like Chik-fil-a's. It was awesome and terrifying.
It's 10 days till Secret Santa, I'm excited. I've got 4 more parties this month. 3 Christmas, and 1 Costume. I need to borrow another schoolgirl outfit...
Well, a lot has happened over the past week. Last friday, some of us ventured out to Nishinomiya, and found this kickass, American-sized, but most importantly cheap liquor store. And by cheap I mean a liter of beer for $6.00, and a bottle of 7 year old cuban rum for "$22," but it was rang up at $15, but I wasn't going to say anything. It is a shame Cuban stuff isn't sold in the US, cause that stuff was the best rum I've ever had. We took all of our alcohol and hung out in a park, continuing to make a bad name for gaijin (foreigners).
The next day, I went to Nara, which was cool, the daibutsu was impressively large, and is housed in the largest wooden building in the world. The daibutsu is about 52 feet tall, and is by far not the largest in Japan. Insanity came from the shika deer that roam all over Nara. They are regarded as spiritual messengers in Shinto, so they're allowed to do whatever they want. You can buy senbei to feed them, but if you do, god help you. As soon as my friends bought some, the deer swarmed them. It was hilarious and terrifying.
Later that evening, Cooper, Rika, some friends from my tennis circle, and I went to a bar that my friend John knew the owner of. The place was a little pricey. We started doing shots because they were cheaper than beer. Also they served tacos, which were awesome, cause I was fiending for some.
Tuesday was a Nabe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono) party with my friends from my circle, which was fun, but could have been better, here's why.
An example of how Japanese girls can be bitches: I was seeing this one girl, went on a few fairly successful dates, and things were going well. But on friday I helped her make a facebook, she asks what the relationship slot was, I go "do you have a boyfriend?" she says no, and continues filling it out. Now, Christmas Eve is Valentine's Day for the Japanese, so I thought "hey, this might be a good idea," and I ask "Hey, what are you doing on the 24th?" Only to get "I see my boyfriend that day." Words cannot describe my confusion. Upside is I pretty much decided I wasn't that into her.
Anywho, bitching aside, the rest of the week went smoothly. This past friday was this big party for the exchange kids, which was fun, met a whole lot of people, and then we went to Shinsaibashi to go to a club. Sadly, I was put in charge of directing the 30-odd people who were coming, and I think I got sober from the yelling. Eventually I gave up on them and decided I wasn't going to let them ruin my evening.
The club was fun, we went to a place called Onzi-eme, had plenty of people, ok music, and overall wasn't bad. I couldn't get drunk though, meaning I couldn't dance. So I went through a lot of dancing partners. Thankfully Austin is awesome and in his drunken ridiculousness got us some girls to dance with, I ended up dancing with one who didn't even come up to my collar bones. She was so tiny.
Shortly after this, we find out some of our friends were kicked out for stealing liquor bottles from the bar, so we left. I got home around 6:30 in the morning.
Yesterday, we went BACK to Shinsaibashi for this all-you-can-eat pizza place, which wasn't bad. It was a nice change of things. Their chicken nuggets tasted EXACTLY like Chik-fil-a's. It was awesome and terrifying.
It's 10 days till Secret Santa, I'm excited. I've got 4 more parties this month. 3 Christmas, and 1 Costume. I need to borrow another schoolgirl outfit...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Fairly Tame
Captain's log,
During dinner today, we were watching the news, and the weather came on. I noticed that there were two people giving the weather report. Then I realized it was just the man speaking the entire time, and all the woman did was either agree with him/affirm what he's saying, or provide pointless commentary like "That sure sounds cold!" I found this oddly hilarious.
This weekend involved a birthday and going to Kyoto again.
Drake kinda put planning his birthday on my shoulders, by having me make a facebook event for it... a day and a half ahead of time. So he wanted to go to a club, which sadly would have had a small turnout because there was very little notice and clubs are expensive. So instead, I decide we should go get Mexican food (we were all jonesing for some, and Drake's half Mexican), then go drink. Well only about half of the group wants to drink, so we break into two groups. We were SUPPOSED to go to this one bar in Nishomiya, but the guy I knew who had the info got sick. The only Mexican restaurant we knew of had a staff of two people... using one stove. So food took FOREVER. We ate, got out, and went to go drink, which added further complications. Finally we got alcohol and I could relax, cause I felt bad with how the night was going.
Only to forget to set an alarm to go to Kyoto. We were supposed to meet at Juso at 7:45. So I was gonna get up at 5:45. Instead I wake up at 8:10. Shower, run out the door. Get to Kyoto after a lengthy trainride, take a bus to where I need to go, and walk a good mile or so to Fushimi Inari shrine. Now, I am PRO at being in a hurry. You can ask anyone close to me, I HATE being in a hurry, it causes me to freak out. After all this, despite being over an hour behind them, from my walking fast, I only ended up being half an hour behind my friends and didn't really missing much. Not long after I get there, they want me to do silly things for pictures, but I had just practically run up a mountain, so I'm in no mood. Or condition. I got better after drinking something and lunch.
Other sights we went to were Heian Jingu and this thing called "Light Up" at Kiyomisu Temple. Japan is famous for the fall, when the leaves turn really pretty, vibrant colors. And at night they put spotlights on them. It looked like a huge couples thing.
Nothing all that special for the rest of this week, other than I finally saw Inglourious Basterds. I found out the subtitles were in both English and Japanese, so I jumped on that. It was awesome, and definitely Tarantino's best. One of the things I loved while watching it was watching the Japanese people's reactions to the scenes where people were scalped, or the one where a guy is beaten to death with a baseball bat.
This weekend is (improvised) party, trip to Nara, and another party. Yay.
During dinner today, we were watching the news, and the weather came on. I noticed that there were two people giving the weather report. Then I realized it was just the man speaking the entire time, and all the woman did was either agree with him/affirm what he's saying, or provide pointless commentary like "That sure sounds cold!" I found this oddly hilarious.
This weekend involved a birthday and going to Kyoto again.
Drake kinda put planning his birthday on my shoulders, by having me make a facebook event for it... a day and a half ahead of time. So he wanted to go to a club, which sadly would have had a small turnout because there was very little notice and clubs are expensive. So instead, I decide we should go get Mexican food (we were all jonesing for some, and Drake's half Mexican), then go drink. Well only about half of the group wants to drink, so we break into two groups. We were SUPPOSED to go to this one bar in Nishomiya, but the guy I knew who had the info got sick. The only Mexican restaurant we knew of had a staff of two people... using one stove. So food took FOREVER. We ate, got out, and went to go drink, which added further complications. Finally we got alcohol and I could relax, cause I felt bad with how the night was going.
Only to forget to set an alarm to go to Kyoto. We were supposed to meet at Juso at 7:45. So I was gonna get up at 5:45. Instead I wake up at 8:10. Shower, run out the door. Get to Kyoto after a lengthy trainride, take a bus to where I need to go, and walk a good mile or so to Fushimi Inari shrine. Now, I am PRO at being in a hurry. You can ask anyone close to me, I HATE being in a hurry, it causes me to freak out. After all this, despite being over an hour behind them, from my walking fast, I only ended up being half an hour behind my friends and didn't really missing much. Not long after I get there, they want me to do silly things for pictures, but I had just practically run up a mountain, so I'm in no mood. Or condition. I got better after drinking something and lunch.
Other sights we went to were Heian Jingu and this thing called "Light Up" at Kiyomisu Temple. Japan is famous for the fall, when the leaves turn really pretty, vibrant colors. And at night they put spotlights on them. It looked like a huge couples thing.
Nothing all that special for the rest of this week, other than I finally saw Inglourious Basterds. I found out the subtitles were in both English and Japanese, so I jumped on that. It was awesome, and definitely Tarantino's best. One of the things I loved while watching it was watching the Japanese people's reactions to the scenes where people were scalped, or the one where a guy is beaten to death with a baseball bat.
This weekend is (improvised) party, trip to Nara, and another party. Yay.
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