In the Club. November 20, 2008

Thanks for the support everyone!  I’ve been in a state in which I have to seek advice and encouragement from people who matter, and I’ve accomplished the mission.  I still don’t trust 99% percent of the people I know here in Japan, but it helps knowing real dudes and chicks are just a 14 hour plane ride away.

So I should tell you about my last clubbing experience ever.  That was also my first clubbing experience ever.  I got spiffed up at 9PM–layers: a sweater over a button up; this is important–and left my house for the train.  I arrived in Umeda (a huge stop in Osaka that’s close to us KGU kids) close to 10PM, found the people I was going with, met the new people I was going with, and headed for the next ride–this time, subway.  This subway ride was my first public transportation experience in Japan that was so packed with people that I didn’t have to worry about falling over if the train stopped too fast simply because I was being smushed on all sides by people.  It was uber packed with businessmen and Halloween-costume-donning foreigners.  The whole time I was excited about the coming long night, but was a bit scared as well.  You see, if you commit to missing the Shuuden (last train), you commit to staying where you are until the next morning.  And I just wasn’t sure how it would go, ya know?

The path to the club was crazy.  I took a picture at this one bridge we had to cross of the smelly, crowded city of Osaka that was lit the fuck up.  I think I heard from 1UP that Yakuza 2 presents an accurate picture of Osaka, but just check pictures or something.  It’s crowded as eff; lit-up as eff; smelly as eff.  It’s crazy.  Of course, Tokyo dwarfs Osaka. . . . which is to say I never ever want to go to Tokyo   So as we found the narrow street that club Pure was on, we had were getting brushed by cars, dodged by bicyclers and Excuse-Me’d by drunken old businessmen holding hands with drunken hostesses.  It was scary, but it was city life, huh?  I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing, because I was surrounded by it.  It wasn’t on TV.  I was there.

We got to the club before the main crowd.  It was around 11PM and the club had just opened.  I paid 4-GD-thousand yen to get in because I’m a man and I wasn’t wearing a costume.  Yup.  Actually the truth is, I thought that was a lot of money, even though I knew that included all-you-can-drink, but I realized it was a good value later.  In fact, it was a bit cheap, which makes sense because the club was fucking terrible.

My first two drinks were easy to get.  I walked up to the bar, chose my drink, asked the American bartender dressed like SFIV Ryu, and got it.  Easy.

The first several songs were easy to dance to.  Most of our group (Oh, the group: me, Chen, Shaun, Aki, Lauryn, Meiyo, Azusa, Lars, Andreas, Min, Ji Yon, Junko, and a few others I don’t know well) formed a circle on the dance floor and had plenty of room to enjoy ourselves.  Easy.

Talking was possible at first.  The music was loud, but reasonable.  Easy.

The bathroom was, I imagine, managable at first.  I didn’t have to go yet.  Easy.

There was an insanely high proportion of foreigners.  And since they didn’t look like students or JET teachers, I was a little scared.  Uh-oh.

The crowd thickened, the music got louder, the fog machines turned on, and the dance floor became virtually unusable.  Dammit.

I transferred to the pool (billiards) room where a few of my people were sitting.  I kind of re-met them all, because I hardly knew them at all before, and we were all beginning to feel the effects of alcohol.  At one point, someone told me not to sit in one of the chairs because the AC unit was leaking.  I was drunk and had a sweater on, so I didn’t feel the water until my sleeve was soaked.  Yeah, I immediately sat down in the wrong seat.  Fuckin’…

This African guy was playing pool near us.  The club was incredibly small and crammed, so he had to say Excuse me when he had to shoot from one side of the table.  He actually said it though; he was very nice, which I appreciated.  But at one point we started laughing, I think because it took our drunken minds a long time to notice he needed us to move, and he saw us laughing and said, with a smile on his face and a kind tone, but still a very scary air, “Yes, laugh.  Enjoy yourselves.  Because tomorrow you will all be dead!”  What the fuck?

I kept laughing and going along with it because I felt like he meant nothing by it–just giving us the “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry” bit, but he kept saying “You will all be dead tomorrow!” in his cool African accent, and it was super weird.  Weeeeiiiiirrrrrd.  But nothing happened.  I survived the next day!  But still weird.

It became nearly impossible to get a drink shortly after the club started really bumping.  Giant black guys were hogging the bar counter, flirting with slutty Japanese girls; and otherwise, more slutty Japanese girls were hogging the bar counter.  Just standing there like they weren’t in someone’s way.  Plus, you had to basically throw your glass at the bartender’s face to make him notice you.  It was like Hungry Hungry Hippos, but with people and alcohol.  Ugh.

Min, this super sweet Korean exchange student, got too drunk too fast, and combined with her extreme lack of sleep, she became totally dazed.  So dazed that she had to go outside and sit on a stoop on the side of the street next to a pile of garbage bags and try to sleep and recover.  A few of us checked on her for a while and rubbed her back to make her feel better, but it didn’t really help.  Shaun stayed for another hour until they both came back in, but Min was in such bad shape that the bouncers kicked her out for what I assume was Taking up space and not clubbing hard enough.  Lame.

After that, the rest of the night was spent searching for lost party members running around Namba, Osaka.  Stressful.

I finally really had to pee, so I went to the club’s bathroom.  I went into the one stall, found out the lock was broken, but toughed it out.  It was super crammed and I could, of course, still feel the bass shaking my body standing there.  And tons of people were crammed in the bathroom waiting, too.  But at one point, a guy opened my door.  I quickly grabbed the handle and pulled the door shut, but I could not possibly go in that situation.  I waited a while longer, and the dude opened the door again, to which I replied in my thoughts, “Fuck this, he can have the damn stall.”  So I ran around the city looking for a bathroom, and finally found one by pretending to want ramen from this one restaurant.  Terribly painful.

We all stayed outside the club for the rest of the night, but every time I reentered, I was a little more sober, and I realized more and more that I hated that place.  I didn’t drink but maybe 5 drinks because I was concerned about Min and the well-being of others, including myself.  It was such a horribly trashy experience.  Plus, at 3AM, time slowed way the eff down.  Noooooo!

We finally just walked to the subway station and rested on the floor next to the ticket machines until 5:30AM or so.  By the time we got on the train home, the sun was rising and we were all either sleeping or laughing hysterically.  I was laughing because I was hysterically tired.  I couldn’t believe the night I had just had, and I knew for sure I would never do that shit again.  I got home by daylight, slept till 2PM, and fucked most of my plans for the next day accidentally (it was the weekend of the school festival, so I had a LOT of plans).  Yep.

I’ve heard not all clubs are like that; and that Pure itself is better when it’s not Halloween.  But I just feel like…fuck that forever.  I know what clubs are.  I know why people go to them.  I even know why they enjoy that kind of stuff.  And I certainly know why I do not.  But I am glad I met the people I did; and I’m glad I did it once, so I have a better foundation on which to judge clubs’ shittiness.  Wow nightclubs.  Wow.

For now, I’m off to eat dinner with some peeps, then drink a little for Anna’s birthday.  See ya soon!

From the Global Lounge! November 18, 2008

I appreciate the quick comments!  It looks like WordPress is officially part of the DKrew, with four active members!

Anyhoo, I too noticed the freely used huge amount of f-words in these blogs yesterday when a friend began to read it.  I followed along with her and thought, “Ouch, were all these necessary.”  But I actually say that word a lot, too; and I think lately I’ve been typing in a more speech-like way.

As for beer: good lord have I been drinking it.  Greg, I have had a lot of Asahi, but will have another for you.  I even went to the Asahi Beer Factory a couple of weeks ago (have I mentioned this?).  My friend’s host mom took us, who makes that friend buy his own beer.  Not only that, but one of the corridors on the tour path in the factory is lined with huge plastic Asahi beer cans half-embedded in the walls, and I actually saw his host mom, probably in her 40s, run up to one of the giant cans and wrap every limb she could around it in a loving embrace–huge smile and everything.  That was the second indicator.  Lastly, about this lady, I’ve learned that she gets drunk almost every night, stays up till 3 or so (which is crazy late for Japan), and often sleeps in and doesn’t make my friend–her host kid–breakfast; or even lunch sometimes!  She’s quite funny.  The cool think about the factory is that the tour is free and you get three beers at the end of it!  So….I’m going back next month.

Also, I used to drink Kirin only when I lived with my host family.  I don’t know why they liked it so much.  Asahi Super Dry is way better.  But I’ve had my fair share of Kirin Green Label.  Otherwise, I’ve been drinking Guiness everytime we go to this Irish Pub near here, and it. is. the. shit.  I highly recommend it, although I’ve heard draft is far better than can.

So, I had another freak out night yesterday.  I’ve only had maybe a couple of these so far, which is a good thing, but they’re never fun.  See, I haven’t applied for internet yet; and when I do, it apparently takes weeks to install.  Well, I mentioned that yesterday.  Just know that I’d rather be able to see my family and friends when they’re able, but I am not able at the moment, and it’s making me feel a little isolated.  What’s more, though: Well, I think you all know that I’m an extremely harsh judge of people’s characters, and very minor actions or words can ruin someone’s personality for me for a long time or ever.  Because I do that, it’s very hard to make friends.  I mean, in that way, I wish I could get along with any ol’ asshole, any ol’ inconsiderate, shallow, impressionable jerk–even those leaning towards average.  But I cannot.  It hurts a lot.  I mean, it usually hurts me to judge harshly more than it hurts the people I don’t like.  On the other hand, I don’t completely ignore people who I think lack a good character.  This too happens because of my conscience.  It’s instintive.  I can’t help but be nice in most situations to people I don’t like.  I do this to avoid social pressure and “drama.” 

So, I keep running into faults I didn’t know existed in people I know here, and it’s unbearable sometimes.  Honestly, this is kind of whiny weak behavior, but that has never convinced me to stop; it’s never enlightened me enough that I tolerate people.  Again, I really can’t help it at this point in my life.  It seems.  So, my heart is very delicate, as you can see.  And when I get into a groove–when I find a sizable group of people who seem to have very few faults–the groove gets fucked and I realize some people were not as perfect as I thought.  And I just suck at forgetting what people do.  And I suck even worse at letting little things slide as a fluke or a minor thing or whatever.  Damn, it’s really no good.

So, that realization combined with severe homesickness made me crazy sad last night.  There wasn’t much I could do, but I thought about either texting my former host mom and asking if I could visit her to use her internet for just a bit, or taking my laptop to an internet cafe (which I would first have to find in the middle of the night) and hoping they have a private room where I can speak out loud.  But I finally composed myself and accomplished a bit of homework, a bit of Bebop, and a lot of music listening.

Oh, foods I’ve eaten.  I believe I have explained a lot of the traditional foods that are common here in my vlogs and such.  Okonomiyaki (savory pancake with onions, veggies, seafood, suh-muh-thered in thick sauce and mayonnaise–blech!) is something I no longer eat very often.  Oden is a pot of constantly boiling broth with a standardized list of ingredients, for example, fish-wrapped vegetables, potatoes, tofu in various forms.  I feel like the taste is as bland as the color of oden.  Just look it up.  Sukiyaki is mushrooms, cabbage, noodles, and thin slices of meat cooked in the middle of the table, and you willingly take whatever you want, dip it in a bowl of raw egg (I used to shake my head when I typed that, but it doesn’t even phase me anymore) and enjoy!  Donburi is by far my favorite food here.  It’s extremely simple: big bowl of rice topped with meat and sometimes scrambled eggs and small bits of vegetables.  It’s so easy to eat, so cheap, and so filling.  Katsudon, for example, and oyakodon and ebi-curry-don and chicken oroshikatsudon.  All very good.  I actually don’t eat ramen much, because it’s just as expensive and not as filling as donburi.  But ramen here is fantastic.  Without boring you with details, I’d say the bowls are actually as full as they appear to be in Naruto.  Lots of party goin’ on besides noodles.  I’ve been semi-forced to begin eating McDonald’s again, which is tasty, but just awful.  I’m upset every time I finish, but it’s cheap and everywhere and that’s where we end up a lot of the time.  Pizza here is way the fuck smaller and way the fuck more expensive.  Sucks.  Fruit is more expensive, too, but that’s what I’ve started eating for breakfast usually. 

Snacks are quite different here.  Oh and cup noodles are actually really really good here.  I mean, the variety is astounding, but they all have lots of ingredients and a substantial amount of noodles.  It’s cool.  I need to smash any misconceptions here about Japanese people not eating fast food.  They fucking eat the eff out of it.  Conbini (convenient store) food is uber popular here.  I will admit it comes in the form of tofu, seafood, and rice balls often.  But mark this, friends: Japanese people love mayonnaise like it’s their job.  I hate it.  Refusing mayonnaise-covered dishes reduces my options way more than it should here.

I think I’ll finally talk about my nightlifing next time.  Basically 1. I do it. 2. I drink while I do it. 3. I hate clubs. 4. I’ve had to accept that spending time outside of my room costs money.

Until next time!

Commandeered! November 17, 2008

So, how long has it been?  I’m not sure.  Having no connection to the outside world in my dorm besides a Japanese cell phone and a large window is . . . kind of taxing, in a way.  I cannot stay abreast with the news as well as I’d like; I cannot keep in touch with my family in close friends as much.  I absolutely cannot use the webcam to see my beloved peoples.  So I’m stuck with the visuals of this country only for the most part.  I didn’t think I’d mind as much as I do, but it’s stressful having to adjust to adult life once again–almost exactly as I did at Abbey West–in Japan, while getting work done for school and keeping up with my friends here and making new friends, too.  It’s the one part I don’t want to deal with besides school work, yet I really have to.  I mean I just went into my first Japanese drugstore yesterday.  I didn’t have to think at all about what type of trashbag I used, or where my next drink of water was coming from, when I lived with my host family.  But alas, I was forced to move and must adjust.  Here we go.

Actually, I’m not as mad at the dorm anymore.  I’ve found out that–about the shower–if clean out the drain once or twice every time I use it (if twice, I do it in the middle of my shower), then it drains almost well enough to keep up with the water coming out of the faucet.  Oh yeah, and I wanted this to be a Twitter, but I’ll forget if I wait so:

Japan: the only place I know of where you can go to brush your teeth and accidentally turn on the shower.

I laugh everytime I do this, but it’s also fucking stupid.  there’s one water source in the bathroom, with two faucets connected to it.  So you have to switch this lever on the sink depending on whether you want to shower or just wash your hands.  It’s crazy.  But I’m getting used to it.  Plus, I’m eating out a lot, but I’m not as mad about it anymore.  Honestly, I’m learning how to conserve a little money here and there and still avoid eating Cup Noodle all the fucking time.

So, I’m actually being accosted by more and more friends, because I’m writing this blog in the Global Lounge, which, when translated directly, means: Room Where Foreign Kids and Japanese People Who Like Exchange Kids Go and Remain Forever.Com.  So, I might continue this later.  But I have a lot to say.  So I’ll be back!

Lauryn says, “Hi.”  She’s foreign. (“I’m from the same country as Chris; he’s an idiot.”)

Aki also says, “Hi.”  She’s even foreigner.

とりあえず November 9, 2008

So, I’m just utilizing the internet as best I can at the moment, because I won’t have a lot of time to use it for a while, now that I’ve moved into the dorm at Ojikoen.  I have to sign up for it myself and shit, and it takes a while, so I’ll quickly update here in Kobe University’s library.

I was taken here by Akane (maybe you know her? She studied at UGA last year), and she’s working with a fellow UGA alum, Yuka, on a report about…UGA actually.  She has to advertise UGA for people here, ya know.  So I’m chilling.  There’s a very loud, but very impressive rock band playing right outside this room, and it’s really setting a mood.  The music feels very thick, only slightly angry, but very emotional.  It’s intense and a little dark; perhaps between Tool and Radiohead.  I’m liking it.

The dorms at Oji-koen are–get this–fucking dorms.  It’s narrow and the bathroom is private but it’s like a fucking space ship bathroom–uber crammed (the sink hangs over the bathtub!) and the shower is weak is as hell, and it feels like a port-a-bathroom.  Anyways, the unbelievable amount of shelves does not help the narrowness of the room.  Seriously, I’ll post pics soon.

For now, I’ve been trying to stay out of it as long as I can.  When I’m there, I actually have to consider the electricity and water that I’m using; I have to worry about getting my own groceries and cleaning my dishes and doing my laundry.  These are totally feasible things…in America.  It’s a little more troublesome in Japan.  For instance, I don’t even know where the hell to go to get dishwashing soap, nor do I know who to ask, and how to ask, about fixing my clogged shower drain, nor do I understand how to separate my garbage and what types of bags to use (it’s very complicated and all on the consumers, not the trash guys).  I’ll figure these things out soon enough, I’m just saying these are the problems that I think about while I’m there.

Friday I had an 8am-1am day on Friday.  I had a 9am class, then an uber break (during which it’s no longer convenient to return home), then a 5pm class.  Me, Chen, Shaun, Aki, Meiyo, Johnathon, Lauren, Tomoko, Ayumi, Viktor, Odile, and some other folks ate at a really cheap Chinese restaurant right after class.  It was a tatami room, so the table was super low and my legs hurt the whole time >_<  But it was fun.  As one of the guys was leaving, a drunken 50-year-old lady caught him and asked him if he was from France.  He is, so he said yes.  She said she recently divorced a guy from France, one drunken thing led to another, and she came in our room (in Japan, sometimes big groups get private rooms to eat in), and told us about her life for a while.  It was the weirdest thing ever.  She kept apologizing for being old and drunk, but in Japan, that’s just fishing for the okay signal to continue talking.  She used to be a hostess (lady of the night), and has had a lot of foreigner boyfriends.  She also used to due drugs, and is getting over breast cancer.  It was wild to have her there, but since I didn’t understand her at first, it was really boring me because, when there’s a drunken former druggie hostess 50-year-old Japanese stranger speaking loudly in your circle of friends, you can’t really help but listen.  Anyways, the OGs–Me, Shaun, Chen and Odile–were the only people left after a while, so we hit up a Japanese Irish Pub (yep) and watched Armageddon with Japanese subs.  I had Guinness for the first time, and it was great.  We all caught the last train home and I quickly crashed.

I have midterms and papers to due, but I don’t care about them at all.  I’ll do the papers, and I’ll study and shit, but I really don’t care.  I like being out and about with friends, speaking half Japanese, half English–this is my preferred method of study.  So, as much as I want to learn Japanese, I still think class is boring and stupid.  But isn’t that the way it goes when school is a college student’s 4th or 5th priority?

I watched some Wolf’s Rain last night, which was my first time watching anime in a long time.  It made me realize that I like anime.  It’s great.  But of course, the music of Yoko Kanno is a huge part of my fondness.

I mean, my two years spent in typical college dorms were actually great.  I had a lot of trouble due to my lack of privacy and abundance of assholes surrounding me, but I made so many good memories.  The problem is, I knew for sure that after that second year, I’d never have to deal with it again.  The dorms are nice and quiet here, for a change, but I just want a mom to make me hot food and clean the bath towels for me, and tell me goodnight and shit, ya know?

My family actually threw me a going-away dinner party on Wednesday night, which was really nice of them.  My mom made my favorites: sushi, sashimi, tonkatsu; and our friends the Nakamura’s joined us, and Ms. Nakamura actually made a cheesecake.  Seriously, I think I’ve said this before but, I like sweets here because they’re very mildly sweet; I really enjoy sweet and savory combinations, which is why I like pastries.  But my host family and everyone they talk to thinks I just pour sugar down my throat 24 hours a day.  They think I love sweet shit more than anyone in the world, and as long as something has sugar in it, I’ll LOVE it.  They’re nuts.  Hence the cheesecake.  But the party was very sweet of them.

From now, I think I’ll just write a lot of music, watch the little anime I own, and eat incredibly unhealthy food.  Two outta three ain’t bad.