I know I said last week that I was going to try and lay low to save some money, but let’s be honest, who really thought that would be the case. At my birthday fiesta last weekend, Greg mentioned that he was getting together with some teachers from other branches for a night of debauchery in his city, Kyoto. At first I was sticking to my guns, I didn’t want to go out and blow a bunch of money, and I was thinking I should just stay home and relax. As the weekend got closer and closer, I came to realize that I would not be spending it in any sort of relaxing fashion. The weather forecast was saying it was going to be sunny and in the 60s. I figured that would be the last warm weekend of the year so I wanted to take advantage of it. It was also a long holiday weekend (for everyone who normally works on Monday) so things would be a bit more exciting than normal. It didn’t really take much convincing to be honest, but I did have some reservations.
I had committed to the Kyoto deal early in the week and was planning to do that on Sunday night. I was leaving my Saturday night open to just chill at my house and get some sleep. However, I got a message from my boxing friend Zenki on Friday inviting me to go to get some food and a beer with him after work on Saturday. Zenki is the only person I have met at the gym who speaks any English at all. I have seen him there a few times and he keeps suggesting that we get a beer, but our schedules haven’t matched up at all. This week I went to the gym on a Wednesday night after work and everyone was shocked to see me on a weekday in a suit. they told me I looked very different and were laughing at each other’s jokes, which I couldn’t understand. The next night the guys there must have mentioned to Zenki that the foreigner had come on a new night. Zenki messaged me saying he heard I came on a different night and then we made plans to go to his friend’s dumpling restaurant around the corner from the gym.
I met him around 7:30 and we ended up hanging at his friend’s restaurant until about 10 or so. The place specialized in dumplings, and the father and son who owned the place were also members at the boxing gym. The son worked at the gym too. He is 19 and is actually an amateur boxer. Since Zenki was the only other English speaker there and he was socializing with other people I got some good time practicing my Japanese. Of course I relied on him for a some translations, but I was able to talk a little bit without too much help. I talked to the kid there a good bit, he was cool. I think I am going to try and go to the gym when he works so I can try and chat with him some more. The other guys at the gym just laugh at me when I try to speak Japanese, and this kid seemed kind of curious to speak some English too. In addition to the language exchange, I got to eat some really awesome dumplings and the first raw chicken that I actually enjoyed. They make the dumplings there every day by hand and they serve them boiled or fried. We had some of both and they were all good. The raw chicken was cooked on the outside, but the middle was raw, which seems to be the standard. Not sure why this was so much better but it was. After eating and drinking a few beers, I headed home and watched a movie before going to sleep.
Sunday I woke up late and chilled out at my place for a while. I had some coffee and watched some of the later college football games. I finally decided to start making my way to Kyoto around 2. I met Greg at his place around 3. We got some sushi then hung out at his place for a while. We were planning to go check out some sites around Kyoto, but it was getting late and we didn’t want to have to rush so we just decided to postpone our trip until the next day.
We met up with the rest of our crew around 7. It was Greg and I plus Keith and Terry. Terry is an Irishman, I had done some follow up training with him a few months ago and we had quite a time there so I was looking forward to catching up with him again. Keith is from the US. Both of them have been in Japan or just a few months longer than Greg and I. We met at an English Pub and waited for the final piece to our puzzle to arrive. Our wildcard, and only Japanese member, Mr. Yuu Koyama. Yuu has become Greg’s main partner in crime in Kyoto. I have hung out with him several times now, and it is always a great time. His English has improved significantly since I first met him, back when he could communicate little more than profanities and a few other phrases here and there. Now he is able to participate in all of our discussions, but he has not shied away from his strong use of profanities. I will include a link to Greg’s summary of his best friend Yuu to help you get a better idea of the wonderful person he is. In all honesty though I really have become good friends with Yuu. He is far from what I have come to expect from the typical Japanese man, in many ways. Since his name is Yuu it often leads to confusion in English conversation, so we have taken to calling him “Mr. Koyama” which only adds to his prestige. I never have a dull time when he is around. Not until he arrived, where we fully prepared for the night ahead.
The Story of The Black Sheep: Mr. Yuu Koyama http://gregnasif.com/?p=275
Mr. Koyama and a big black dog
After the English pub, we headed to Kyoto’s main party district. We stopped at a hookah bar and had a few drinks and ended up running into a few of Greg’s other friends there. The hookah bar was cool, but we didn’t stay there too long. We wondered around for a bit then decided to go into a club. It was kind of early so it wasn’t too crowded yet. We hadn’t been there for more than 5 minutes when I looked down at my wrist and realized my watch was missing.
In the past month my watch had broken off twice. The link which meets the face became disconnected and it had just fallen off. I was sure that was what had happened this time too. I had been riding on the back of Yuu’s bike on the way to the club so I figured I had lost it somewhere along the way. I left the club and retraced our path looking on the ground everywhere. I didn’t see it anywhere. I was pretty pissed. That watch was my first real purchase in Japan. I had wanted a watch for a while before coming to this country, but I decided to wait and get one here so it would have a little more of a story to it. This watch had a bit of sentimental value for sure and I was not happy to have lost it. I went back to the club feeling a bit defeated, but everyone else was having a good time so I was able to forget my watch pretty easily and rejoin the party.
I did keep my drinks to a minimum that night. I was low on money, and I was a bit pissed off about the watch so I decided to keep it chill. A few of the other guys were going pretty hard though. I was partying right along side of them in the club, but when we spilled out onto the street around 130 the difference in our BAC became immediately evident. Terry grabbed some flowers from a display in the club and was handing them out to girls on the street, and as we walked down the street he began to dance and shout IRA drinking songs at the top of his lungs, which of course we all joined in with. As our group joined in the chorus, a ton of others took notice as well, and sang along as well, or at the very least clapped along to the beat. What started out as a semi-embarrassing group of drunk foreigners shouting and dancing turned into the beginnings of a street riot protesting the oppression of the Queen’s army. We led the rebellion down the street a ways to another club, leaving a wake of puzzled faces and corrupted Kyoto locals behind us. Those that did follow us ended up at the next club, which was completely packed. I have never been a big fan of places where I cant stand still without being nudged or pushed one way or another, and this night I was sober so I had even less patience than I normally do in those situations. I was campaigning for everyone to head out of the place and having no success. When a random guy went to put an arm around Greg, swung wide and accidentally caught me on the cheek with his razor of a fingernail I finally just left. I was so pissed off at that point. I had a small cut where Edward Scissor Hands had caught me, and I set off to find a 7-11 for an ATM and a cheap beer. Yuu and Greg came down and caught up with me in a few minutes. They said they were tired of the place too, and decided to leave Terry and Keith for a while. When we were almost to 7-11 Terry ands Keith called Greg and he headed back to get them while Yuu and I continued the journey on his bike.
Yuu and I met the other guys at the McDonalds by the club and got some food. It was about 4am by then and the first trains were at 5am so we just hung out there and waited for the train. It seemed like a lot of other people had the same idea. There were groups of college aged kids passed out at nearly every table, it was really amazing how they all seemed to rise from the dead at exactly 5am to catch their trains. While we waited, we chatted with some other groups next to us. I was trying to talk up these girls next to us in my kindergarten level Japanese, Terry began to sing his IRA songs again- this time in solo, Greg sat down next to a homeless man and tried to elicit the story of his life and what sort of life decisions had led him up to his current lifestyle. The homeless man didn’t seem to understand a word, and responded by offering Greg some of his spiked coffee and loudly reading the words on his hat “How To Be a Boy: A Life Guide” to prove to us that he did in fact know English. Another less affluent man with bad teeth and a fedora was trying to force himself into our conversations and then showed me and my new friends some magic tricks. The girl next to me quickly called him out for his lack of wizardry and showed that she could do the same thing. Looking back, I think McDonalds was the highlight of my night. After the hour of excitement, we all parted ways. I went back to crash at Greg’s. On the way home, we decided to stop into the police station to file a report that my watch was missing and asked them to call if they found it. As soon as I mentioned it one of the cop’s faces lit up and he headed to the back room. While the other officer got my information the first cop returned with an envelope. It was my watch! Someone had found it on the street and brought it in. It looked like it had been run over by a car but it was still ticking. The face was a bit chipped, and the clip was bent up so it wouldn’t close but it is fixable! That will be next weekends chore. I am overwhelmingly impressed by the courtesy of the people here in Japan. If this happened to me in America, I would consider my watch an early Christmas gift to whoever found it. Things are so different here. Although I dislike some things about the culture here, the Japanese people are the most polite and courteous people I have ever encountered. I was so grateful to have gotten my watch back. I was able to go to sleep with a smile on my face.
Around one we woke up and decided to make our way to yesterday’s destination: Arashiyama. Arashiyama is a more rural area about a half hour to the northeast of Kyoto City. I have been there twice before and I may have posted similar pictures before. This past weekend Arashiyama was packed with people coming to see the colorful falls leaves covering the surrounding mountains. Greg and I went to sit b the river for a bit and wait for Yuu. As we sat, we were approached by Japanese men who wanted pictures with us. This was weird to me in my first months here, but I have kind of become used to it now. After a couple of photo ops with the paparazzi we walked across the river to see what was going on over there. The bridge was about 300m long, but it took us almost 10 minutes to cross because it was so packed with people. We walked a little ways along the river and saw a sign with a monkey, whose but was on fire, and fireworks going off behind him. We came to assume that this meant there were monkeys somewhere around and that the sign was advising us to not light fireworks in this area in order to make sure we did not set any monkeys on fire. While this sign did make us laugh, we became immediately determined to find the monkeys. After a little bit more walking, we found the entrance to a trail which led up to the top of the mountain to “The Monkey Park”.
After about a 20 minute hike up the mountain we got to the top, there were tons of people everywhere, as well as loads of monkeys running all around. These monkeys are wild and natural to Japan, but this place has been a place where tourists can feed the monkeys for many years, so the monkeys are very comfortable and sometimes a bit aggressive with people. The monkeys were chasing each other in and out of the crowds of people. Some of the park ranger people kept chasing a select few monkeys away from the people, saying that they were especially known to be aggressive. From the mountain top we could see almost all of Kyoto City.
We headed down and then had to catch the train to Osaka soon after. We were meeting up with Sam and Claudia to go to Costco to buy things for our Thanksgiving feast next weekend. Costco is like heaven for a foreigner in Japan. They have everything! and lots of it. So many things I had been missing from the States. I could write about how much I am in love with Costco right now, but I will save that for another day. I will definitely be going back. In short, we did find a turkey, they have great pizza there, I bought a massive block of cheddar cheese, and I will most definitely be back.
I made it home last night and passed out. Today was very rainy and I was pretty beat from the weekend. Also I was annoyed I had to leave for work in the middle of the Ravens game. I got through the day, but I am looking forward to next weekend’s adventures.
Thanks for reading everyone. Have a great week