Tokyo Orientation

It’s been almost two months since I’ve arrived. Things here have been very very fun.

Tokyo was absolutely ridiculous. We arrived on the July 27th which was a Sunday. That night, I went out with all of the Irish guys. They drink like horses. Literally the equivalent of Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton put together, at the time of their DUI’s and anti-Semitic facts. And on top of that , they make every Irish person in the States look like little bitches.

So while going out with them, I had this terrible idea of trying to keep up with them. So each of us kept pouring beer into each other’s glasses, and by the end…well I can’t really remember the end, but we each drank about a pitcher of beer, and they weren’t even buzzing. It’s almost as if they have a minimum blood alcohol level of .2. Nuts

The next night was our prefectural night where people from our prefecture all went out together. Obviously. First stop was an izakaya. We ate curry pizza (: /) sashimi noodle salad (: /) and French fries ☺. We were also pounding beer and sake. The most incredible thing here too, is that there are all-you-can-drink bars for like 30 bucks. It has to be the greatest invention of all time. After dinner and drinks, we went out to a karaoke bar. It got even more ridiculous because a few others and me would go to a convenience store and buy beer, sake, or vodka and drink it on the streets. Yes, drinking is allowed in public here. After the first time sneaking the alcohol into the karaoke bar, we felt shitty, so the next 7/11 run we pounded all of the alcohol on the steps of karaoke and then went downstairs. One of the most awkward things of the entire trip thus far was during one of our 7/11 runs, I saw some foreigners. A black girl and a white guy. I assumed they were on JET too and started up a conversation. When I was listening to the girl, I could tell right away she wasn’t from the states or from Canada, so I asked her if she was from South Africa…She was from London. AWKWARD. I can’t remember too much after that, but I did rip off a toilet seat cover holder from the wall in the hotel. The metal part. The next morning I heard stories of eating a rice bowl with no chopsticks, just my face, and getting into intense conversations/ eye stares with homeless people.

The last night, a few of us went out to a club. It was awesome because the clubs here are all the size of Vegas clubs (GIGANTIC), but not quite the same as the ones in Acapulco. All of the clubs are really lax too, and pretty much let everybody in. A funny observation about Japanese clubs is that everyone at the club dances with the DJ, not with each other. Literally what they do is stare at the DJ and dance. There were many instances in which one of us would go up to a girl and start dancing with her. After less than a minute, they would just walk away. FAIL. But later they would come back and gravitate towards you the rest of the night. We were all perplexed, because they seriously keep following us the whole night. But it was a great time. We got back around 5 am, with a stop at another rice bowl place. It was awesome

Cultural notes
1. Izakaya – Japanese style pub with tatami mats and tables on the ground
2. Tabehodai – All you can eat
3. Nomihodai – All you can drink
4. Convenience store – Everywhere in Japan, almost every street corner. AKA Konbini/Conbene ( Cone-bee-knee)
5. Beer – Tall boys are the standard, no little cans