(no subject)
So Friday night, at last. Not that it was a particularly hard week. There are probably about 50 funny things I forgot about that night. After a light Italian dinner (some people here REALLY like eating Italian for some reason) a couple of the LLM students - who are incredibly nice guys - wanted to do so pregaming and had something of a party at their apartment. Now the one complains endlessly that the apartment is not the 40 square meters that they advertise - and complains how much smaller it is than his one bedroom at home. This of course is rubbish - its easily 3 times the size of anyone else’s apartment here - and about 5 times the size of mine. Not to mention it has a porch with a view of the Tokyo Tower.
There were about ten people, 3 of which were native Japanese, the rest students. One side note - they open bags of chips at each end AND along the spine - and the resulting bag winds up forming a bowl shape with the contents neatly in the middle for serving. (Wasabi Doritos are AWESOME-btw) Why didn’t I ever think of that? It made the design of chip bags make perfect sense. Add some Asahi (much better here) and it was a jolly good time. I tried to interact as much as I could, but the language barrier made it ever so slightly tragic.
Although that said I’m glad to say I that I think on the bell curve of people in the program I think I’m actually closer to the cultural immersion side. I don’t have the language skills, and have definitely ranked up some faux pais; for instance you DO NOT tip here - I suppose its some kind of derogatory that they need the money - and the word for ‘no’, even in the restaurant order sense is somewhat rude, tough since I lack the language ability to beat around the bush if I don’t want something. That said - some people here have been doing nothing BUT drinking in Roppongi and eating familiar western food.
A couple of nights ago I was coming home all by my lonesome in Shibuya and stopped at noodle shop. It was a tiny room with a standing bar with a little kitchen behind it. It’s a common cheap quick eat in Tokyo. It has what looks like a vending machine outside with pictures of food. Now this is stupendously logical - you put the money in the machine, it makes change and it digitally adds your order to the queue. It eliminates you taking up dead space - and eliminates the need for a cashier. Then you hand them the receipt and they know what order was yours. So anyway, It was a fun experience - as a nice older Japanese gentleman showed non-verbally showed me the proper way to eat the noodles. I knew you were supposed to slurp - it’s a sign to the chef that it’s delicious - but its also perfectly okay to lift the bowl to your face while you eat and drink the broth right out. It was a very nice experience.
That said - not all local places are so receptive. We’ve had bars and restaurants turn us away before - because of the loud rude foreigner stereotype. Likewise people actively avoid sitting near you on the bus and subway. If there is a big group of us at an establishment - we sometimes get a little bit of the polite “hurry up and buy” and if there are too many of us in a place - people walk in - see us - and decide to eat elsewhere. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Anyway, back the apartment party. It went on for a while - was a pretty good time. There was Euro-club music the whole time that was - in a word - awful. Also, somebody brought up the age old question of “which country has the most attractive women”
. With 10 people from 5 countries present, everyone said first - and pretty much in unison - Czechoslovakia. I guess that solves that. Anyway - all of sudden the question came up about what to do for the rest of the night. You can probably guess the conclusion………. So we walked to Roppongi AGAIN.
The first bar we hit was pretty much an unapologetic gaijin bar. We’ve actually been there before. With 500yen beers it’s the cheapest we’ve found in Roppongi - but it was overtly foreign. It was one of these ultralounge kind of things - it was dark, had cool lights, was absolutely packed with people, had music way too loud to talk - but no dance floor. Everything centered around the bar - and some much competed over lounge seats.
I do have to concede the music was great. A couple of songs were electronic mixes (but not dance-music-y) off the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Pretty sweet in contrast to earlier. Btw - If you want an idea of my music tastes - check the songs on these entries. About half of us didn’t have a mind for the bar thing - so after that first drink we left. The building across the way said it all.
From there we grabbed some food at TGI-Fridays. BTW - Pretty much identical to back home - even the quaint American 1940s shit on the walls. I don’t think I would find a place like this outside Roppongi (except that Outback Steakhouse in Shibuya). again went to Chopsticks - the bar where Ryo works where we had played darts. This, as usual, turned in a great time. Ryo was drunk and hung out with us. A couple of us spoke enough Japanese to keep him informed of what were talking about. For instance it came out that one of us was (NOT ME) was quitting smoking. So when he lit up - battle ensued.
He assured him it was his last one - but Ryo was displeased!
But after some cigarette keep-away it all ended well. (this actual series of pictures is like 11 long btw)
There we drank until very very late. Then we had some sticker shock about the check, and made asses of ourselves asking about charges. You see, talking about money is base and vulgar I in this culture. In Tokugawa Japan merchants were the bottom the class - under farmers, artisans, and Samurai all of whom pursue more noble and honorable ends. Again I return home from Roppongi - my wallet lightened substantially.
There were about ten people, 3 of which were native Japanese, the rest students. One side note - they open bags of chips at each end AND along the spine - and the resulting bag winds up forming a bowl shape with the contents neatly in the middle for serving. (Wasabi Doritos are AWESOME-btw) Why didn’t I ever think of that? It made the design of chip bags make perfect sense. Add some Asahi (much better here) and it was a jolly good time. I tried to interact as much as I could, but the language barrier made it ever so slightly tragic.
Although that said I’m glad to say I that I think on the bell curve of people in the program I think I’m actually closer to the cultural immersion side. I don’t have the language skills, and have definitely ranked up some faux pais; for instance you DO NOT tip here - I suppose its some kind of derogatory that they need the money - and the word for ‘no’, even in the restaurant order sense is somewhat rude, tough since I lack the language ability to beat around the bush if I don’t want something. That said - some people here have been doing nothing BUT drinking in Roppongi and eating familiar western food.
A couple of nights ago I was coming home all by my lonesome in Shibuya and stopped at noodle shop. It was a tiny room with a standing bar with a little kitchen behind it. It’s a common cheap quick eat in Tokyo. It has what looks like a vending machine outside with pictures of food. Now this is stupendously logical - you put the money in the machine, it makes change and it digitally adds your order to the queue. It eliminates you taking up dead space - and eliminates the need for a cashier. Then you hand them the receipt and they know what order was yours. So anyway, It was a fun experience - as a nice older Japanese gentleman showed non-verbally showed me the proper way to eat the noodles. I knew you were supposed to slurp - it’s a sign to the chef that it’s delicious - but its also perfectly okay to lift the bowl to your face while you eat and drink the broth right out. It was a very nice experience.
That said - not all local places are so receptive. We’ve had bars and restaurants turn us away before - because of the loud rude foreigner stereotype. Likewise people actively avoid sitting near you on the bus and subway. If there is a big group of us at an establishment - we sometimes get a little bit of the polite “hurry up and buy” and if there are too many of us in a place - people walk in - see us - and decide to eat elsewhere. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Anyway, back the apartment party. It went on for a while - was a pretty good time. There was Euro-club music the whole time that was - in a word - awful. Also, somebody brought up the age old question of “which country has the most attractive women”
. With 10 people from 5 countries present, everyone said first - and pretty much in unison - Czechoslovakia. I guess that solves that. Anyway - all of sudden the question came up about what to do for the rest of the night. You can probably guess the conclusion………. So we walked to Roppongi AGAIN.
The first bar we hit was pretty much an unapologetic gaijin bar. We’ve actually been there before. With 500yen beers it’s the cheapest we’ve found in Roppongi - but it was overtly foreign. It was one of these ultralounge kind of things - it was dark, had cool lights, was absolutely packed with people, had music way too loud to talk - but no dance floor. Everything centered around the bar - and some much competed over lounge seats.
I do have to concede the music was great. A couple of songs were electronic mixes (but not dance-music-y) off the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Pretty sweet in contrast to earlier. Btw - If you want an idea of my music tastes - check the songs on these entries. About half of us didn’t have a mind for the bar thing - so after that first drink we left. The building across the way said it all.
From there we grabbed some food at TGI-Fridays. BTW - Pretty much identical to back home - even the quaint American 1940s shit on the walls. I don’t think I would find a place like this outside Roppongi (except that Outback Steakhouse in Shibuya). again went to Chopsticks - the bar where Ryo works where we had played darts. This, as usual, turned in a great time. Ryo was drunk and hung out with us. A couple of us spoke enough Japanese to keep him informed of what were talking about. For instance it came out that one of us was (NOT ME) was quitting smoking. So when he lit up - battle ensued.
He assured him it was his last one - but Ryo was displeased!
But after some cigarette keep-away it all ended well. (this actual series of pictures is like 11 long btw)
There we drank until very very late. Then we had some sticker shock about the check, and made asses of ourselves asking about charges. You see, talking about money is base and vulgar I in this culture. In Tokugawa Japan merchants were the bottom the class - under farmers, artisans, and Samurai all of whom pursue more noble and honorable ends. Again I return home from Roppongi - my wallet lightened substantially.