The Texas Barbeque

This week was highlighted by the birthday of Texas the rapper on Saturday night. He was going to be celebrating it by having a big camp out and barbeque in Mie ken which is the next prefecture over. Having never been to a Japanese rappers camping party, I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was well excited.

I met with Callie and Bob in Nagoya, and we took Bobs car into Mie ken. Im not sure where in Mie Ken exactly, but anyway it was well beautiful. After about an hour and a halfs drive, we met Texas and followed his car (pimped up to the 9s of course!!) to the camp site. The camp site was well remote and the journey took us down loads of dirtroads. It had a load of worn down flags lining the road, and being as it was pitch black by the time we arrived, it had a well “Silent Hill” feel about it which, when Bob left the car to chat to Texas did lead us to believe that we might end up getting eaten.

After a while though Bob came back, and we drove to the lodge. Japanese “Camping” it seems is more often than not done in lodges that u rent, and not in tents. Still, given that it was well cold, I had no problem with this.

We were the first guests to arrive, and as such had to help get the barbeque started. As time wore on more and more people arrived and after a while there was about 15 people there, including members from Texas` rap group “Long Castle Million Street”.

There were 2 barbeques going so the food came pretty thick and fast. There was all these Yakiniku style, tiny slices of beef in a barbeque sauce that we started with, and they were awesome. After that we had sausages, and the food continued to flow (does food flow?) throughout the night, including onigiri, chicken breasts, shrimp, yakisoba, and various other meats.

The other people at the party were all pretty safe although 1 person in particular was rather special. Calling himself “Dimbar”, he was a big guy who wore ludicrously baggy jeans (as did most of the hip hop crew there, but still his were immense). Anyway from the moment he got there he was shouting obscenities and doing impressions of comedians which apparently was really funny. I had no idea what he was on about but everyone else was laughing.

He took an instant shine to me and midsentence with someone else he would often scream “JACK! JACK!”, which always caught me offguard. When he was screaming loud Japanese in my face, and everyone was laughing, I did start to get the impression that he was taking the piss a little too much, Whilst Im sure he was just messing about, after I had been drinking heavily I started to take his jokes at my expense well personally and stupidly started to kick off with him (starting on someone is stupid enough, but trying to do it in Japanese was just ridiculous!!). Anyway luckily Bob calmed me down, and we made up although Im not sure Dimbar ever actually knew that I was offended. It seems fighting talk does not translate literally in Japanese, although I suspect this is for the best, as he was a pretty hefty guy!

The party went on, and after an hour or two of especially heavy drinking I went round the back of the lodge to throw up. I felt well better, and went back to the party although after another hour had to throw up again. Anyways after I had gotten that out of my system, I rejoined the party and continued to try and speak bad Japanese. I met some pretty interesting people, including some university students who go to a University in Nisshin (my hood).

As the evening had worn on more and more people had gone into the lodge to sleep. I hadn’t really noticed this though until there was 4 of us left round the barbeque at about 4am. We continued to talk (well they talked, I listened and occasionally put in the odd word. Usually “Ehhhh??!!” which is the only word you really need to convince someone you can understand Japanese).

Most of the food was gone by this point although we still had some crab legs which we barbequed, and also some cans of these meatball things which we also cooked on the barbeque. After that we resorted to barbequing anything we could including Nori (seaweed), and Potato Chips (crisps- my vocabulary has been well Americanized since I got here!).

By the time it was 5:30 and the sun had risen I decided it was best I got some kip and went into the lodge with my sleeping bag. Inside was about 10 sleeping bodies occupying every space on every mattress that was on the floor. With no resort, I put my sleeping bag on the hardwood floor and was asleep within a minute.

I was woken up an hour and a half later by Callie and Bob saying they wanted to go. I think they had been asleep on mattresses since 2 so they were ok, but I was in a bit of a trance. In any case, we got in Bobs car and headed back to Nagoya, although before that I took a picture of Texas` pimpmobile. Bob generously went half an hour out of his way to drop me off at my apartment, and I said my goodbyes and went home.

The next day was spent sleeping. Ayae had gone to her parents for the weekend so I had the house to myself, and the peace and quiet I deserved.

On Monday it was Callies birthday and she was going to celebrate it at an Izakaya run by Bobs friend. We had met him at the Sakura party last week, and he had offered Callie a discount rate. Being as it was Monday, I had work til 830 and so didn’t get there til well after 9. Also because I went straight from work I was still in my suit.

Before heading there though, I had arranged to meet up with Pon (who you might remember from the blog last month entitled “The Pon”). I had gotten his number that night, and Callie had asked me to invite him. When we got to the Izakaya (where Bobs friend had reserved Callie an entire floor!), it was like a trip down memory lane. Pretty much all the random people from the nights out we`d had were there, and it was kind of bizarre to see them all in the same place at the same time. Texas, Toru, Bob, Kana, Pon, Naho and many more who weren’t written about in these blogs were there, and it was proper awesome to see them all.

Most people had been there since 7 and so had already eaten loads. I however was starving so promptly ordered a load of Teppansaki (fried chicken), and some Caesar salad. In addition to that I ordered a load of Chu Hai which is like a shochu based alcopop. For the first hour or so of the party I stayed in the corner with a Canadian called Justin, who also hadn’t eaten before coming, and just stuffed my face with food. When some Sashimi arrived and no one else was touching it I dove in and took the plate back to our corner. After stealing and ordering (but mainly stealing) other peoples food, I socialized, and it was really great talking to so many awesome people. I had some pretty good conversations with Pon, as his Japanese, like Bobs is well easy to understand.

After a couple of hours the other guests demanded that me and Texas give Callie a birthday freestyle. I had given Texas a copy of my album for his birthday, so Callie knew that I rapped. Anyway I gave it my best but my lack of practice meant that unfortunately it was a sub-par Jack Dub freestyle. Texas flat out refused to rap despite the demands of the crowd, but luckily MC Pon was there to fill in. He started his performance by saying “Gomennasai. Boku wa chotto okashi”. Which basically means “Forgive me, I`m a little strange”. Having witnessed a Pon performance before I did not need to be told this, although it was well funny to hear him say that. Pon did his usual act of high pitched screaming coupled with “When I say MC, you say Pon” call and response bits, and the party was loving it.

Later on there was a cake, and people continued to order food. Because the ordering system of Izakaya parties is a bit all over the place, I helped myself to some Domburi and some meatballs, which were delivered to our table but which no one was eating. Before long, it was time to stop the drinking and eating and get the heck out of there as the last train was leaving. Somehow I had lost track of time, and all of a sudden I had 2 minutes to get to the subway station. Luckily it was right next to the Izakaya, and through sprinting my ass off, managed to make it.

Ok, that’s about it for this week. Next week Im going to my friend Steven`s wedding party which Im well excited about as theres an 11 course dinner included!! Til next time guys….

Take it easy

Jack