fridays aren't always the best
I made sure to wake up today. I had to first revise my history oral report at the library and then somehow study for Japanese. The oral report turned out okay...the Japanese exam, not so much. I didn't realize it before but I think I'm sick or something because my throat is pretty raw and I must have had a fever. This also didn't help the listening and essay makeup exam that afternoon... I spent six freakin hours today taking Japanese exams. But I tend to do alright on essays so I'm hopeful about it.
The make up made me late for my Japanese Society class where we were watching a movie. It was the weirdest movie ever: when people die they go to this place that looks like an old college building, the workers there ask them to pick one memory from their entire life, they use antiquated filming techniques and recreate that memory, the person watches the memory in a film screening theater and magically disappears to spend eternity with just that one memory. Missing the first half of the movie, I was struggling just to piece that information together let alone figure out what all the character interactions were. To quote Strongbad, Japanese movies are weeeeird maaaan.
Oscar, Akira, Leah, and probably a few more people just finished a giant International Relations project or something and they were celebrating at a place called NYX. NYX has great chips and "tako-takos" so I met them there after class ended at 7pm. Being in Japan is really awkward and funny sometimes as a foreigner and this was one of those times. NYX is tiny (it seats like less than 20) and a white guy named James just started talking with me because we were a group of foreigners. He ended up buying us shots of tequila and telling me his life plan which involves funneling money into poor countries. He was a pretty interesting guy and he works with translating mutual funds into English so I'll have to keep him in mind with contacts. I had to leave to catch the train but evidently Oscar, who I thought was leaving right after me, got convinced to stay for one more beer paid for by James and then James gave him about $55 to cover the taxi ride since he missed the last train to hang out. But the taxi ride was only about $35 so Oscar actually *made* money tonight. Every week here is filled with random little situations like that and there seems to be no shortage of new people who just run into you and chat for a while. Not just foreigners either - Japanese are rigid when sober but when hanging out they can really loosen up...sometimes to much and end up dropping their pants but that's a new one for me.
Which reminds me of what happened on the way home. Riding the last or nearly last trains in Tokyo is sure to give new experiences every time. Last night I caught the second to last train at 12:47am and I see mostly businessmen asleep on their way home. A side note: they say that businessmen read porn on the trains because they're so busy they don't have any other time to read it. In reality, I hardly ever see that but sometimes you'll see a businessman perusing the pages of his favorite smut magazine and everyone acts like it's normal and doesn't make a spectacle of it. But I'm still not used to it so when I stepped onto the train I about busted out laughing at a businessman who was proper passed out (head cocked back, mouth gaping open) holding a bundled of papers cradled and propped up in his lap like a baby with a porn magazine heading up the visible part of the stack. I really wanted to get a picture because he looked like such a perv but for some reason I didn't - mostly bc I didn't want to embarrass the poor guy. And when I got off the train I saw another thing common to late night Tokyo - some businessman lost his cool all over the train platform. He must have been riding the same train as me but one car up because as I approached it looked like he had projectile vomited out the door as it opened, barely making it out of the train in time. It looked like Punch Kool-aid with chunks of watermelon in it and there was sooo much of it. Then I saw him further away from the train near the fence finishing off the job he started.
Ahh, Japan. You and your crazy crazy antics.
The make up made me late for my Japanese Society class where we were watching a movie. It was the weirdest movie ever: when people die they go to this place that looks like an old college building, the workers there ask them to pick one memory from their entire life, they use antiquated filming techniques and recreate that memory, the person watches the memory in a film screening theater and magically disappears to spend eternity with just that one memory. Missing the first half of the movie, I was struggling just to piece that information together let alone figure out what all the character interactions were. To quote Strongbad, Japanese movies are weeeeird maaaan.
Oscar, Akira, Leah, and probably a few more people just finished a giant International Relations project or something and they were celebrating at a place called NYX. NYX has great chips and "tako-takos" so I met them there after class ended at 7pm. Being in Japan is really awkward and funny sometimes as a foreigner and this was one of those times. NYX is tiny (it seats like less than 20) and a white guy named James just started talking with me because we were a group of foreigners. He ended up buying us shots of tequila and telling me his life plan which involves funneling money into poor countries. He was a pretty interesting guy and he works with translating mutual funds into English so I'll have to keep him in mind with contacts. I had to leave to catch the train but evidently Oscar, who I thought was leaving right after me, got convinced to stay for one more beer paid for by James and then James gave him about $55 to cover the taxi ride since he missed the last train to hang out. But the taxi ride was only about $35 so Oscar actually *made* money tonight. Every week here is filled with random little situations like that and there seems to be no shortage of new people who just run into you and chat for a while. Not just foreigners either - Japanese are rigid when sober but when hanging out they can really loosen up...sometimes to much and end up dropping their pants but that's a new one for me.
Which reminds me of what happened on the way home. Riding the last or nearly last trains in Tokyo is sure to give new experiences every time. Last night I caught the second to last train at 12:47am and I see mostly businessmen asleep on their way home. A side note: they say that businessmen read porn on the trains because they're so busy they don't have any other time to read it. In reality, I hardly ever see that but sometimes you'll see a businessman perusing the pages of his favorite smut magazine and everyone acts like it's normal and doesn't make a spectacle of it. But I'm still not used to it so when I stepped onto the train I about busted out laughing at a businessman who was proper passed out (head cocked back, mouth gaping open) holding a bundled of papers cradled and propped up in his lap like a baby with a porn magazine heading up the visible part of the stack. I really wanted to get a picture because he looked like such a perv but for some reason I didn't - mostly bc I didn't want to embarrass the poor guy. And when I got off the train I saw another thing common to late night Tokyo - some businessman lost his cool all over the train platform. He must have been riding the same train as me but one car up because as I approached it looked like he had projectile vomited out the door as it opened, barely making it out of the train in time. It looked like Punch Kool-aid with chunks of watermelon in it and there was sooo much of it. Then I saw him further away from the train near the fence finishing off the job he started.
Ahh, Japan. You and your crazy crazy antics.