The Hail of Tears

After the hecticness of work last week, I was given a chance to unwind this weekend which was very welcome.

Saturday night I went to my friend Rauls house for his birthday party. The theme was a `Wine and Cheese party`, so everyone had to bring a bottle and/or cheese. Raul knows a lot of people so the party was pretty crowded. I met some really safe people and found that there are actually quite a few American fans of British football. They seemed to know their stuff as well and so made for good conversation.

The food was awesome with some really tasty cheese as well as bread, crisps and some awesome other finger food. There were these rolls of smoked ham with this lush cheese filling in the middle that was properly tasty. Im not a big cheese man, but I must have eaten my body weight in cheese that night.

After plenty more lush cheese and wine and birthday cake, everyone left and about 15 of us headed to Karaoke in Sakae. The limit for the room was 12 but we managed to smuggle a few extra people in. We also smuggled a few cans in as well, as the bar did not stock alcohol.

We only had the room for 2 hours, but I managed to get about 6 songs in, a personal highlight being Journeys “Don’t Stop Believin”. This one American guy impressed everyone with his version of a Yui J-Pop song which he sung entirely in Japanese. What a winner. Also this Japanese guy did Queens “I Was Born To Love You” and I swear it was like Freddie was there man, he properly hit every note.

After Karaoke some people went to the pub to stay out all night, but I decided to get the last train home so I could get up in time for the cinema the next day. When I got home I felt pretty rough. I don’t know if it was the copious amounts of wine, or the copious amounts of cheese, or the copious amounts of both or what but it went straight to my head when I got in the door. I eventually stumbled into bed and managed to get a fairly decent nights sleep.

When I woke the next day we headed into the city. Me and Ayae were going to meet my friends Callie, Eri and of course Japanese Bob. As we got into the city quite early we did some window shopping and got lunch. We went to this slightly upmarket Indian restaurant (Which was still cheaper than the average Curry house back home!). The décor was really cool and had the look of, well a Japanese restaurant trying to look Indian. I had the “Meat Special” and Ayae had the “Lady`s Lunch”. To be honest I kind of fancied the look of the Ladies Lunch but feared some horribly embarrassing situation where they would tell me I was not allowed to and so went with the altogether more masculine sounding “Meat Special”.

This consisted of 2 small pots of chicken curry (one was Korma and I think the other was Jalfrezi), some basmati rice, a salad, a Sheek kebab sausage type thing, a tandoori chicken leg and a Naan bread. This was properly lush and tasted more classy than the average curry.

When we first went into the restaurant Ayae noticed one of her mates from Uni was working there and so we got a drink on the house. I went with a Mango Lassi which was a lush Mangoey Yoghurty drink, which went well with the curry.

The arrangements for the cinema had to be changed in the end so me and Ayae were left in the city with nothing to do. As a result of this we decided to spend rather a lot of money on Lottery scratch cards. Whilst we didn’t win much, it was a good way to use up time as we had to keep going back to collect winnings and buy more tickets.

After a little more waiting we headed to Nana-Chan to meet everybody. Nana Chan is a big statue thing near Nagoya station. Why shes called Nana-Chan, nobody knows but she is one tall lady. Whilst we were waiting for people I took a picture of the new building that attracts a lot of attention from people when they leave the station. Apparently it’s a school for design, and although not quite finished yet, it is looking properly awesome.

I also considered what I was going to say to Bob. Whilst I was waxing lyrically in Japanese with him last week that was under the influence which does of course as I`ve said before, rapidly increase anybody`s linguistic skills. I was therefore a bit nervous about meeting him sober, even thinking maybe I should do a few shots of vodka first thing. In the end I went in dry and actually did ok. Unlike most Japanese people Bob speaks slowly and quite simply so I was able to understand him quite well.

The cinema we went to was called “The Picadilly” and was on the 7th floor of one of Nagoya`s skyscrapers. I got some lush caramel popcorn and went into the theatre which contrary to Japanese tradition was absolutely huge and was pretty full. The film we were going to watch had just opened and there was a bit of buzz about it in the press here because this famous pop star guy is doing his first acting role. After some trailers for some other Japanese films which looked awesome, the movie started.

It was called “Kage-Hinatanisaku” and was a drama about different groups of people, in the style of Pulp Fiction or Love Actually. Well it was more Love Actually than Pulp Fiction, but anyway the stories were about this one guy who had gambled all his money away, this one guy who was homeless, this one woman who was looking for her dad and this geek that fancied this pop star.

It’s the kind of film that would never get translated into English for international release, a film completely aimed at the domestic market, but because of that I was quite excited to watch it. Whilst I could understand the absolute minimum of dialogue I could just about follow the basic plot (I found out afterwards that there were loads of plot twists I missed), and actually quite enjoyed it. There was plenty of arty Guy Ritchie-esque edits, and the locations were awesome. It was set almost exclusively in Asakusa and Akihabara in Tokyo where I have spent quite a lot of time, and so it had a vague familiarity about it which was cool.

Some of the jokes were quite funny as well. Im not sure if I`ve been here too long or what, but I used to totally look down on Japanese comedy, but now I sort of get it, (well some of it anyway).

The film ended in a hail of tears. Seriously there was a good 30-40 minutes of solid crying as all the characters reunited with their long lost relatives, or gained redemption, or made good on their unrequited love. There was also some really cheesy symbolic gestures which were well over done, but like I said this is aimed at the domestic market, and the Japanese love that sort of thing.

After the film we headed home, and I prepared to go out to a bar to see the Tottenham game that would be on that night. I had previously also downloaded this program called “TVU” which someone at Rauls party had recommended to me for watching live premier league football on the internet. Whilst I doubted it would work, and even if it did they probably wouldn’t be showing the FA cup, I was surprised but delighted to find it did work. So in the end I didn’t have to go out and get an expensive taxi at 3am to watch Tottenham lose, I could do it from the comfort of my own home.

They also show football games live that even Sky Sports don’t show so I was proper chuffed to find it worked.

Monday and Tuesday were spent at work although its test week this week so all my kids lessons involved testing each of the kids. This is kind of good and kind of bad, its good because I don’t really have to plan, just turn up and ask them the questions on the test paper, but bad because its not as fun as the regular lessons. Anyway Im hoping I haven’t ruined the kids` education too badly, and hopefully they should all have improved from the last years tests.

On Wednesday I went with Ayae down to her parents to welcome back Yusuke, her brother. He has been in Canada for a year, and so this was the first time any of us have seen him in a year. After meeting Yusuke we went back to their house and chilled out. For dinner we had fresh sushi which was awesome as always.

In Ayaes house, her mum had put her dolls out for “Dolls Day” which is a Japanese festival for Dolls (well not for dolls but about dolls). Anyway in every house with a daughter you`ll see they have some slightly creepy looking dolls out around this time of year, so that the Gods ensure that the daughter gets married off in the future.

The next day we went to Ise shrine to get blessed for the coming year. Usually it is done around New Years day but because Yusuke was in Canada at that time, they waited til he came back. This was a big family day out with both Grandmas coming along for good measure.

I wont go into too many details about Ise shrine because I did that in my blog last year (see the myspace blog in January 2007), but basically it’s a really awesome town with a really awesome shrine.

After going through the ceremony which involved kneeling down and the occasional bow, we went into Ise to get some food. We went to a lush Udon shop which had some sesame coated Tuna sashimi on vinegared Sushi rice, with a bowl of Udon noodles and soup on the side. This was a really awesome meal.

We also went through the main street of Ise, and me and Ayaes Grandma got lots of free samples of the various grilled fish and chestnuts and other foods on offer. At one point we found ourselves in this really cool fish shop that had these huge fish on the walls which was really crazy. We also stumbled upon this awesome drum concert which was really cool (see movie below).

After walking for a while we stopped at an Amaizake (sweet Sake) stall. This was a little strange to the pallete at first but it was nice and warm, so was a good drink to have on such a bitterly cold day.

When we got home Ayaes Dad had lots of fresh crabs which we deshelled and ate immediately. After that we had some really nice Sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is a famous dish which is like a soup with meat and vegetables. The difference here is that you also get a bowl of raw egg to dip each mouthful in first which, although doesn’t sound that tempting is actually really nice. Another of Sukiyakis unique aspects is that there is no given rule to what you put in it. So Sukiyaki usually filled with loads of random ingredients. This means that different families in Japan all have their own recipes for Sukiyaki, which I guess makes it one of the more interesting dishes of Japan.

The next day we went back to Nagoya as I have to be at work for Saturday. More testing so hopefully thatll go alright!

Anyway that’s about it. Be sure to tune in next week for a Rage Against The Machine special. I can hardly wait. UH!!!!!!!!

Peace out

Jack

The Bob

This week was all quiet for the most part, but I did have an interesting Saturday night. I had agreed to meet my friend Callie in the city to go for a drink with her and some of her friends. After getting there, I was a little surprised to find about 20 people in her crew! Half of them I didn’t get round to meeting but there were some really safe people there, including one of the hip hop dancers from the last time we went out.

We started off going to Mybar, a gaijin bar. After drinking and chatting for a while someone decided to buy a round for everyone in our group! Someone also ordered a big plate of chips and some fried chicken for people to share which was greatly appreciated by me.

We met some American guy who joined our group and then we left to go to a club, Looop. One of the girls with us had a brother who was gonna be rapping on stage so we headed to the club. On the way lots of our group split up to go home (in Japan if you leave before 1230 you can get a train home and get a reasonable nights sleep, but if not you have to wait til the trains start again around 6).

On the way we met some skateboarders and chatted to them for a bit. We then saw some hip hop dancers and tried to persuade them to come with us but to no avail. Just before we got to the club, we stopped off at a combini (convenience store) to get some food. I bought this battered chicken and cheese thing and some oden. Oden is a type of Japanese stew containing chicken, fish cakes and various strange things you can only buy in Japan. Most combinis have a big oden which people can help themselves to (for a fee obviously). Whilst I have had Oden at home many times this was my first taste of Combini Oden. It might have been that I`d drunk too much but it tasted really awesome.

After we`d eaten we met this girls brother outside the club. He was called `Texas` and looked like a Japanese Snoop Dogg. He spoke little English, but had an affinity to me as we had the same coat.

Texas gave each of us a flier to get a discounted entry. The club was on the 3rd floor of this building and surprisingly was not a hip hop club, although they did initially play a lot of hip hop. Once we got in we drunk loads more and I ended up meeting this Japanese bloke called Bob (apparently his real name was too hard to pronounce). The ironic thing about this Japanese guy who had taken an English name was that he didn’t speak a single word of English all night. This gave me a great opportunity to speak Japanese although most of what he was saying I couldn’t understand. Nonetheless I pretended I knew everything he was saying and whenever he asked me a question I replied either `Yes` or `Hmmmm a little`, and this seemed to work.

I also met this radio DJ who was really cool and who spoke very good English. Apparently he was actually quite a famous DJ. I`m not sure how famous, but he did have girls hanging off his arm every time I went to chat to him.

The music in this club was nothing if not varied. They started off playing hip hop, changing to rock, then to German folk music and then to a Japanese cover of the YMCA. Eventually Texas and his friends took to the stage and did a really quite decent set. There were about 4 other MCs and one singer with him, although Texas seemed to be the frontman.

After Texas had finished the music suddenly changed to extreme death metal which meant a lot of people left and we did too. We decided to go to Mago, a techno club which is apparently the best in Nagoya. Since no one really knew where it was we got a taxi, and the driver dropped us relatively near (I guess he didn’t really know where it was either).

We stopped at a combini en route, and I stocked up on junk food, buying a folded naan bread with a sausage in the middle. After this we went into Mago, drunk some more and met a few more random safe people. After a few hours it was half 6 and so we decided to go.

On the way we stopped off at Denny`s (a popular American restaurant chain) to get some breakfast. I had bacon, sausage, eggs, salad, 3 pancakes and a Japanese style croquette which really hit the spot. After a while Texas came to join us as well- presumably he`d stayed at the other club all night.

Once we`d all eaten Bob decided to pay (he was still with us. At one point he had bought me a drink, then I returned the favor and it escalated until he was with us for the whole night). I gave him some money and he refused it but I eventually managed to put some yen into his hand. I found out later that it is Japanese tradition that at meals etc, the person who is oldest pays for everyone else, and he had generously paid for most of the people with us (which by this time had reduced to about 8, though this is still quite a lot if one persons paying for it!).

We left and all went our separate ways and I ended up getting home around 9. Once home I went to sleep and managed to get a few hours before waking up and taking a long walk around our neighborhood with Ayae.

Monday and Tuesday I had work so didn’t really get up to much, but Wednesday me and Ayae went into Sakae. We shopped for rather a long time as it was the end of the January sales. I got a nice new designer shirt plus a load of books including a lonely planet guide to Thailand. Ive recently come to the realization that I need to start figuring out what I want to do at the end of this year. I decided a while ago that I should try and tick off some of the countries in South-East Asia while I am here, and also that I should do them all at once when I finish work　probably in June or July. Anyway that’s another blog for another time.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday Ive been caning the work thus this blog has been put together rather hastily. The school reports had to be in by Saturday and because I stupidly left them to the last minute I had to spend all day doing them on Friday then go to work then come home, work til 1am finishing the reports then get up again at 7 on Saturday to go to work again. The reports were quite easy to do although it was a little weird being on the other side and actually writing them. It wasn’t too long ago I was getting reports myself which actually helped as I had some good key phrases to use, although I don’t think any of the reports about me said “This is an awesome student”.

This weekend I am going to my friend Rauls birthday party followed by Karaoke. Also on Sunday, Im meeting up with “Bob” to go to the cinema to see a Japanese film which should be a pretty hardcore test of my Japanese skills. Not just the film but of course Bob as well.

Sorry to cut it short here, but Ive been exceptionally busy and I wanted to get it out before the weekend. Expect a longer blog around Thursday. Anyways thanks for reading everybody.

Peace out

Jack

P.S Heres 2 videos. One of the Japanese version of the YMCA, and one of Texas tearing up the stage. Enjoy.

The 4 Month Mark

As I suspected this week has been completely quiet on all fronts. The need to save money combined with the lack of anything going on combined with the cold weather has turned me into somewhat of a recluse venturing out only for work and the odd walk to the DVD rental store.

Whilst on occasion it has been a little boring, its also been nice spending 15 hours in bed with no real reason to get up. However Ive began to recognize that I need to start doing SOMETHING, so I thought Id give the old blog a whirl.

Last week, as Ive said has been uneventful. The only thing Ive really done is go to Osu to sell my rubbish Japanese dictionary for my DS. Osu is THE place for second hand or cheap goods- in fact it was where I bought it in the first place, (second hand of course) and so was a natural choice to go to sell the `softo` (the Japanese word for cartridge derived presumably from `Software`). I was a little nervous, as I presumed not just my Japanese speaking but also my Japanese writing skill was going to be needed, neither of which really had the right to be called a “Skill”.

When I got to a store I believed to be a second hand shop (they were selling second hand games) I approached the counter and bluntly said “Uritai” which means “I want to sell”. I got a slightly confused look followed by some instructions in Japanese. I pretended I understood which led to an awkward silence followed by him pointing to his colleague waiting by the door.

I followed this guy out of the shop and down the street for a couple of minutes neither of us saying a word. Eventually we went into another games shop which had a counter set aside especially for people selling their games. Presumably the stores are owned by the same company and both shops get their stock from this one counter.

The guy behind the counter was very friendly and helpful, and gave me a couple of forms to fill in. Before I attempted filling in my whole address in Kanji, I asked if it was ok to use the roman alphabet and luckily he agreed. I put my name in Katakana though just to prove (mainly to myself) that I wasn’t completely illiterate. I got 1000 yen for the game which was more than I expected. It was after all now (at least) 3rd hand, not to mention a bit rubbish.

All this had made me rather hungry and so on the way back I stopped off at a Hawaiian burger joint. I had a Loco Burger (Or Rokko Baagaa) which was somewhat of a beast. Cabbage, Lettuce, Onions, Bacon, Tomato, Mozzarella and a fried egg accompanied the burger, as well as a healthy dose of barbeque sauce. This cost the better part of a 1000 yen so including travel expenses I had actually made a loss, but at least it gave me one picture for this blog.

Anyway that’s pretty much been my week, I wont bore you with the details of the films and TV shows Ive been watching, but its looking like a bit of a slack blog so Ill reflect a bit on my state of mind at this time.

A few days ago I hit the 4 month mark, meaning of course that I have been here for 4 months. Whilst this is a relatively short amount of time compared to prison sentances etc. it’s a long time for me. Also its given me a pretty cool blog title.

The teaching is going pretty good at the moment. Ive got a fairly stable stock of ideas on how to teach certain things, which although not really that interesting or innovative minimizes my worries before the lessons. Ive recently started a regular Tuesday teaching slot which should help recoup some of the losses from December (the day is long, and the lessons packed in) . Ive done 2 days so far, the second going considerably more smooth than the 1st.

On my first tuesday I arrived at school an hour and a half before the first lesson as it was a new bunch of lessons Id be teaching. This proved to be just the right amount of time which gives an indication of how much Ive still got to learn about this profession.

The next week I tried to arrive 30 minutes before, but as my first lesson cancelled I was given an hour and a half prep time again and being as this was not my first time at the dance was able to plan the day pretty well with only one real hiccup. One of the classes is a girl of about 10 who is taught privately but with her mum and sister present at all times. Whilst this was intimidating at first, the mother actually seems really nice so its not so bad. It does mean however that I spend more time planning this 30 minute class than any of my hour classes, as the pressure to perform well or at least to the best of my abilities is by far the highest.

Anyway, whilst the first lesson I did with them was awesome (as awesome as a 30 minute English lesson with a highly inexperienced not particularly motivated teacher can be), in the second one my lesson plan went to pieces a bit when the flashcards I was going to use for a game did not appear to be in my box of tricks even though I had just used them in the previous lesson. After a little too much dead time of me hurriedly rummaging through the box I resorted to the classic game of `Guess Who` (a great tool for teaching physical descriptions). Whilst I had used this before for the last 5 minutes of a lesson, this time there was like 10 minutes left and despite my painfully obvious attempts to pad out the game (“Are you wearing a hat with a feather in the middle?”), we finished the first game in 2 minutes. Needless to say we had 4 more games, but the mother luckily didn’t seem to mind, in fact praising me on playing such a fun game.

The rest of my lessons Ive just about got the hang of although in both my Saturday and Monday kinder classes the kids seem to be getting more and more unruly which aint a good sign. My Monday class in particular features one 6 year old complete and utter evil little bastard. Most of the time hes either bullying the other kids or trying to punch me in the balls, and on more than one occasion Ive had to physically restrain him. He really seems to enjoy all this attention though so Ive taken to ignoring him unless hes completely off the rails. This seems to work a lot better than constantly shouting at him, but he still tries to punch and kick the other kids. To be fair he was like that before I took over the class so it cant be completely my fault. I had observed the previous teacher on a couple of occasions and he was just as bad then. It was no surprise then, that I sensed a bit of relief in her when she was told I would took over her Monday classes.

Anyway despite being like this most of the time he still has that childish innocence on occasion, coming up to show me a toy he`s found in the school toy box, or show off a drawing hes done (even if it is of a rotting-flesh ridden zombie), and I think, awwwwwwwwwwww ……….. hes not really so bad…. Then the inevitable fist flies toward my nether region and were back to being Bart and Skinner, or Dennis and Dennis` dad. (Altho Im the cool one, Im no square dammit!).

Anyway except for the Monday classes Im pretty much on top of things and usually can come up with some way to blag my way through the lessons in a way that wont get me fired.

So that’s work. In terms of my living arrangements, Ive got used to calling our small but comfortable apartment home, and I know the nearby surrounding area fairly well. I know where to get a take away pizza, or homewares, or wheres nice to go for a walk at 6 in the morning. I know how to get to Nagoya cheapest, fastest and easiest and Ive got the bus timetable tattooed on the inside of my brain.

So that’s ok.

The food is still amazing and to my surprise, still surprising; the Loco Burger was evidence of that. Whilst I had little or no reservations about what I ate before I came, I feel an even greater urgency now to push the boundaries of experimental cuisine and to try to try the most random things possible, spurred on by the fact that it is getting harder and harder to find things Ive never tried.

And so this is the situation Im facing now. Whilst I just know theres miles more of Japanese randomness to be had, its difficult to do this on a shoestring budget, and after 4 months of experiencing a great deal of randomness, even more difficult. However, Im not gonna let this stand in my way. Theres still lots of cities Im yet to visit, and lots of experiences I have yet to have. One way or another I will persevere to find more and more cool, funny, obscene, outrageous and damn right random things/people/food.

After all, Ive only got about 4 months left….

Jack

The New Years Eve

Once again Ive been too busy to write an up to date blog but o well, better late than never!

So last week I went to Tokyo to meet up with my friends. I took the nightbus there, as my finances have been really rather tight recently. The trip was ok, although at one point the bus stopped at a service station for people to stretch their legs/go to the toilet (theres no toilet on the bus). I got off, used the toilet and went back toward the bus. It was at this point that I realized the service station car park was absolutely huge and there were about 50 buses parked there. In my half asleep wanderings I hadn’t bothered to take down the location of the bus and was now promptly lost. It was freezing cold due partly to the fact that it was 2am and partly to the fact that it was late December. Also I didn’t bring my coat out with me.

After a long and slightly frantic search I eventually found my bus just as they were gearing up to go. Phew!

I arrived at Shinjuku station around 6 and having had no sleep went immediately to Itabashi to find my friend Dans hotel. I had agreed to meet him at 7 but arrived around 630 and so decided to go for a wander. The streets of Tokyo is not a great place to be this early in the morning, the only people around being crazy people and tramps, one of which I swear was following me.

At 7 I managed to meet with Dan and we went to the hotel where he and his girlfriend were staying. Since they had a late checkout time (10pm!), they lent me the room for the day to catch up on some much needed sleep. Dan and his girlfriend had booked the hotel just for them for the 2 nights they would be together, after which she would head back to her hometown and Dan would stick around in Tokyo with us guys for 5 days in a weekly apartment we had rented.

Dan is quite into his kickboxing and mixed martial arts, so when I awoke we headed to a sports bar to see some K1 action. The sports bar was ridiculously overpriced even for Japan (a pint for a fiver!), and the system they had in place meant you had to spend at least 15 quid to be allowed in. After seeing some fights my friend Sam joined us. Me, Sam and Dan were good friends together at uni so it was cool to be back with those guys and getting drunk. And drunk we did get!

After spending a whole lot of money, we left and headed to Shibuya to get in a club in time for midnight. When we got to the station, we realized there wasn’t actually any trains until 20 past 12. And so we ended up having our countdown on platform 3 of Shinjuku station. Not exactly the new years I had planned, but at least I was with friends.

We eventually arrived at Shibuya station and then had to re meet up with Dan. He had gone back to the hotel with his girlfriend, as she was feeling a bit ill. This proved to be harder than expected due to the fact that he didn’t have a cell phone (I had contacted him through his girlfriend up to this point). After repeated calls from a payphone and getting lost several times he eventually made it back to us, and we headed straight for Womb. Because we got there after 12 we had a 5 quid discount so it cost us only 20 to get in.

I don’t really remember much of this evening except dancing a lot and drinking even more. Eventually the club finished at half 7 and we headed out to get something to eat. Since the apartment we had rented had a check in time of 3pm we could not go there, and so facing no other opportunites, headed to a comic café. These are all over Japan, and they basically consist of a small cubicle which you rent for a given number of hours during which you can read from their library of manga, or surf the internet. Lots of homeless people use these for places to sleep as they are 24 hours, and being as we were basically homeless til 3pm decided to do the same.

We managed to get 3 hours sleep after which we headed to meet Dans girlfriend to see if we could check in early. Since the apartment was booked in her name, we had to go there and check in so she could get her flight at 2pm. Needless to say it was pretty essential that we got an early check in. So the room was booked for Dan and his girlfriend, when actually it would be Dan, Sam and me staying there. This was due to the fact that we are all poor and could never afford a normal sleeping situation. Because they had a strict policy against guests having guests, we spent the whole week having to sneak past reception and wait round the corner for each other.

When we got into the room we tried to sleep, but ended up staying up all night messing about on youtube (our room had an internet connection and Sam had brought his laptop). After eventually going to sleep around 5am we woke up in the late afternoon and went and got some food and some drink from a convenience store.

We went home and started drinking. We then headed out into Roppongi which was where we would be staying. Roppongi is famous for its nightlife although maybe its not the reputation it wants. Lonely planet describes it as a place for “punters fresh off the plane and gormless riff raff out trolling for local talent”. However, it was where we were gonna be calling home for the next week so we decided to give it a shot.

We started off at a bar called Motown House. They played about 3 motown records before they moved onto Abba and assorted cheese. We were all quite far gone by this point though and ended up meeting just about everyone in the bar. Any attempt to speak Japanese was quickly discarded and we slurred our way through many a conversation about nothing. After a while we decided to leave our new found friends behind and head to Karaoke. We booked a room just for an hour, as Sam said he had to go meet some people the next day and didn’t want to be too knackered.

After singing for about 45 minutes Sam left me and Dan and shortly after we got a call from the reception downstairs saying something in Japanese we couldn’t decipher. A few minutes later they came back and my attempts to bribe them into giving us a couple more hours didn`t work and we had to leave after paying a somehow astronomical bill. By this point it was around 5 and me and Dan decided to head to a club. We got in there, got a beer and left shortly after. As I left the club I threw up a bit on the street and felt much better although still heavily inebriated. Dan wasn’t much more sober but decided he knew the way home. After walking for an hour in the wrong direction, we eventually decided we had no idea where we were and got in a taxi. The driver had no idea about the apartment we were staying so we got him to take us to the nearest subway station. The length of the journey was a testament either to how far we were walking in the wrong direction before we got a taxi, or how much this driver could cheat out of 2 drunken gaijin. Since the Japanese are relatively honest when it comes to scams, I suspect the former.

We eventually rolled into our room around 730. I headed straight for the toilet and threw up. Heavily. A few hours later Sam woke me up as I had fallen asleep on the floor of the toilet. I stood up and then passed out on the floor for a few hours before someone got up to go to the toilet and put me to bed.

When I woke up I felt horrible. Sam, having gone to meet his friends was gone, and so me and Dan headed to a restaurant to eat some food. We ended up in Matsuya which is a chain of gudon places similar to Yoshinoya specializing in bad meat and bad rice (how can you make bad rice?!).
We then headed home and went to sleep. When we woke up, Sam was back and we watched a couple movies. Sam was totally knackered as he had not had much sleep and had gone out and done a full day, whereas me and Dan had pretty much slept all day.

Despite the excesses of the night before we ended up drinking some Shochu (a Japanese spirit) which was proper cheap and rank. Around 4 me and Dan decided to go out and find a club since we had a second wind. Because of the sheer amount of money spent on the previous nights out (I had spent over a hundred quid on each), we decided to set ourselves a limit of about ten quid each. After searching the streets for a while and not finding anything that interesting, we ended up at Gaspanic, which is probably the sleaziest, worst, most degenerate bar in all of Tokyo. However, they did have a drinks deal meaning we could get 4 drinks each with our meager budget.

When we got in there, it was packed with greasy gaijin and sleazy Japanese girls. Almost immediately we were put upon by this older Japanese woman, who whilst not too bad looking was absolutely nuts. She was all over the 2 of us and as a last resort we told her we were a gay german couple, which she believed. She then regaled to us about her homosexual friends and how much she loves the gays. After getting a little tipsy we decided to head home to prepare for the next night which would be a Friday, and our last night together.

When we awoke we started playing drinking games, including one where we watched the movie “300”, and drunk every time someone mentioned the word “Sparta” or “Spartans”. After this we finished the remainder of the Shochu, Chu Hi and beers and headed out to meet one of Dans friends who would also be in Tokyo at the same time.

Once we met them we headed to an Izakaya to get some food with “Nomihodai” ( this means an all you can drink bar). After drinking ridiculously heavily, we left and decided to head back to Womb. We got in there after paying another hefty entrance fee, and stupidly went to the bar to drink more. After a few hours dancing we all decided to leave early, the music not being too good and the alcohol not having the desired effect of making us happy and stupid, (well we weren’t that happy anyway).

When we awoke the next day we had to check out, which was going to be a bit of a mission due to the fact that me and Sam weren’t meant to be staying at the apartment, but had to get a whole lot of baggage past reception. In the end we decided to just do it calmly and confidently and we got out with no problems.

Sam and Dan left me at this point, Sam going back to Kofu where he goes to Uni, and Dan going to Kyushu where his girlfriend lives. However, since I had booked a nightbus I would have to wait around until 11. I decided to stash my bag in a locker at Shinjuku station and explore Shinjuku and Akihabara. Whilst I thought this would be really boring, it was actually alright and I ended up meeting a safe American couple in a tempura restaurant, and chatting for a while.

Eventually I got on my nightbus, and got to Nagoya around 7am on Sunday. I then slept for a few hours before Ayae came back from her parents. She came back around 12 with her Dad, and loads of fresh fish from the fish market! Because I had said that Unagi (eel) was my favourite fish, they had got me 12. As in 12 Eels! This brought me no end of happiness and they are chilling in our freezer as I speak.

The next day I had to go to work which was ok, although I had to question where all my money had gone and what I had actually achieved with my week in Tokyo. I guess I got some memories. And pictures, I got some funny pictures. I should be grateful for that much.

Ive just about adjusted my body back to the routine of sleeping at night and eating 3 decent meals a day which feels really great. In Tokyo I was lucky if I got 1 meal a day and it was usually from a convenience store. The hideously grimy pig sty that was our weekly apartment has been replaced by mine and Ayaes lovely clean Nagoya flat, and I haven’t drunk anything for about 4 nights. I think it will be a while before I embark on another Tokyo adventure, mainly because I really can`t afford it, financially or physically.

Still Ive got a feeling Im not done with the Electric City just yet, and Im sure before this year is up Ill end up back there, wallowing in my own filth and hanging around my fellow gaijin scum.

Peace

Jack