Debauchery

I fully expected December to be an awesome month, but this month has been a blast so far. This week at work was the same as it has been. Tuesdays are my chill day, where I plan, and readjust to life after the weekend. Then the rest of the week is busy, and I am so occupied with loads of classes and meetings that I don’t even notice the day going by until it is time to go home. I like it. Staying busy makes the time pass much quicker, and I always operate a little more efficiently if I am busy. Most of all, it prepares me for the weekend, and encourages me to take advantage of my free time.

This Saturday we had our work party to celebrate the end of the year. It was 6 of the 7 people from our school, plus 5 people from 2 other branches which were a few stations away. Everyone in our office was looking forward to the party all week. We were the main organizers and also the first to arrive. I think we were way more excited about it than any of the other people in attendance. As we were waiting for the other school’s employees to arrive we were arguing with each other about how long we had to wait before we could order drinks. In Japan it is impolite to even order a drink before your whole party has arrived, but being that we are an English school, Elizabeth and I often try to encourage the adaptation of more western practices, especially in situations like these. Eventually, we convinced everyone (which wasn’t hard) to order the first round. Just after our drinks arrived, some other guests started to trickle in, and they joined us with a drink right away. Our manager set up the party at a local izakaya (Japanese Tapas bar) and scheduled the all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink options. When she asked everyone in the office a few weeks ago if that was OK we just laughed, it was hard for her to even keep a straight face as she asked the question. OF COURSE that is what we wanted!

The unlimited-ness went from 745 to about 1030, which was longer than we had scheduled, but of course no one was complaining. We actually ended up ordering like it was our last chance to do so for the last 45 minutes, so we left extra full. Most everyone else went home after leaving the izakaya, but myself and a few others went to another pub around the corner which I had been to a few weeks before. As we were walking over there, I warned everyone that it might not be that exciting. I was not sure what to expect since I had been there on a week night last time, and no one was there. When we walked in there was a band playing and it was pretty crowded. I was pleasantly surprised. We had beer or two there, then some of the band members began to leave and the remaining musicians encouraged us to join them. Initially we just started playing on the little drum they had, but eventually we were all passing the mic around singing any English song the band was able to play. Elizabeth was playing the piano and I tried my hand on a full drum set, which I am proud to say did NOT ruin the rest of the band’s “mojo”. It was a really fun time. There was one other foreigner in the bar and as he was leaving he told us to come play with him the next week at the same bar. So either he was really drunk, or we really didn’t suck that bad. The other spectators seemed to be enjoying the show as well, I am not sure if it was because we were just being loud foreigners, or if we really were entertaining them in the way we were intending to. Either way, we had a blast. We stayed there for about 3 hours.

When we left, it was well after last train, so we went to find a cab to take us home. We went to the station where cabs always stop, but there were no cabs. We waited for a few minutes, then decided to start walking. We walked a few blocks, and I half heartedly tried to hitch hike, but no one stopped. We got to a stop light and a Mercedes stopped and looked at us with his window cracked open. I hollered to him in my best Japanese asking for a ride to our station. He rolled down the window, and hollered back, seemingly accepting my request. Panicked, I yelled for the only Japanese speaker with us to come over and close the deal. She chatted with him for about 2 seconds and turned around laughing, telling us to get in the car because he would take us home.

Takahiro was a 41 year old pharmacist, who lived about 30 minutes away. He had been at his friends restaurant that night and was on his way home when he saw me running down the street to catch up with my partners in crime. He said he thought we might have been in trouble so he felt he should offer to help. The ride home was about 15 minutes so we all exchanged life stories. I am sure he was a bit overwhelmed by our drunken ranting, but when we got to our station, he offered to take us to get some ramen. Of course we were more than happy to get ramen at 330am! We drove to his favorite place which was closed, then to a few other places which were all closed, then had to settle for some udon, which is another, much thicker more doughy noodle. When we finished eating, he wouldn’t even let us pay! this guy picked us up, drove us home (twice) and bought us a meal at 330am. What a champ. When dropped us off I felt bad that he just went so far out of his way for us. I didn’t know what to do so I just gave him my card and told him thanks and I hope to see him again. Everyone else exchanged numbers with him and we all thanked him again and headed off to our own beds.

We went from an all you can drink party with our coworkers, to singing and playing with a Japanese band, to getting rides and free noodles from a stranger in black Mercedes. That night was one of the most epic nights I have had in Japan, and it was all in Nara, my hometown.

The next morning I woke up in disbelief at the previous nights events. It all seemed like a dream, like I became a rock star for a night. I do think that is an acceptable synopsis of the night.

Sunday, I had made plans to go to Kobe with a friend. I was set to meet them there at 230. I left my house a little before 1 and made it to Kobe around 2. We walked around China Town, the Harbor, got some food and then went to see the Christmas lights. There were soooooo many people around, but it was really nice.

China town

The weather was pretty decent, and Kobe is an awesome city. I think if I were staying in Japan long term, I would want to live in Kobe. It is a very new city, very clean, and bright, and it doesn’t seem to have so many narrow streets with looming high rises blocking the sunlight like in Osaka. I didn’t interact with many people but the city had a really nice vibe/atmosphere to it. Also, it was surrounded by mountains and had a beautiful harbor area, which reminded me a lot of the inner harbor in Baltimore.

When it started to get dark we headed to the park where the main light display was. There was a street about 200 meters long which had about 20 or 30 lighted archways lighting up the sea of people trying to make their way down the avenue. We went around that part. It was hard enough to walk around in other places, and that street looked impossible. We headed around on a side street to see what everyone was walking towards. The park had a massive lights display. It was not really Christmas themed like so many lights displays in the US. It was hard to explain. Basically there was a big area that was surrounded by these walls of lights. It was very beautiful, but very crowded. I still prefer the lit up Santa Clauses, Reindeer, and Snowmen in front lawns of US homes, but this was very cool.

After the lights I headed home. Monday was a pretty chill day. I got to take a nice nap and then went to bed early. I also bought a new coffee machine. So basically I am fully prepared for this week. Next weekend there are some parties my friends are having, but I am unsure if I can make it. Sunday I am going to the Koshien Bowl, which is the Japanese Collegiate championship for American Football. My student and friend Yuki, and his wife Kana are going with me. They don’t know anything about football so it should be an interesting time. I am really looking forward to it.

As always thanks for reading everyone, and have a great week.