(no subject)
Not a bad week all things considered.
Wednesday was a lot of fun. The two New Zealand girls invited me to a party with their friend, a pediatric surgeon. Apparently that dept has like a drinking and eating party once per month, and the guy really likes westerners (lived in the UK and New Zealand for awhile), so we were invited along too. The surgeons assistant (a 30 yr old Taiwanese-British guy) came too, along with about half a dozen (mostly female) med students. Since it was on the department, we had literally like 10 courses at this cute little traditional japanese restaurant near the hospital, along with a lot of assorted booze to drink. Not really anything worth mentioning (nothing super weird this time), except for the whole tiny squids, which were a little off-putting. One of the NZ girls thought that maybe the surgeon and his assistant were gay lovers, but I friended him on facebook later and saw that his 'interested in' said women, so theres no chance at all of that being true.
Saturday I did some more shopping in the area around Tokyo station, which once again, is all expensive upscale dept stores. Looked for the pokemon center but couldnt find it. At 3 I was supposed to meet my boss at Ikebukuro station to teach his son english. I wandered around for 30 minutes and didnt find him, so I went off and did my own thing. I got an email from him Sunday night explaining that they had another appointment. Thanks, sensei. I feel like I did more Saturday but it's not coming to me. Bought some more anko (sweetened redbean desserts) at the bakery though.
Sunday was where the real action was. The new zealand girl that does karate invited me to go with her other NZ karate friends to visit the Suntory Premium Malt brewery in western Tokyo. The tour was all in Japanese and thus not that useful, but at the end they took us to a room where we could drink as much beer as we wanted in 20 mins. Me and one of the guys managed to kill 4 pints. Keep in mind this was like 1pm. That was fun. After this we all went food shopping before going back to the apartment of one NZ guy where he lived with his japanese wife and 8 yr old daughter. We sat around till like 10pm watching stand up comedy clips on youtube and eating and drinking a shit ton. They made us homemade okonomiyaki and kimchee. It was glorious. Toward the end we played several rounds of drunken uno and jenga with the little girl (...she wasnt drunk), so that was amusing. Had a lot of good conversations. One of the guys works for like the world kyokushun karate organization scouting talent and training fighters for their huge international annual tournament, so he had a lot of cool stories. Also just learned a lot of random things about New Zealand, as well as some good New Zealand slang. The wife made us some NZ sweet potato french fries with garlic cream sauce that were amazing and that Ill have to find a way to make at home. It got a little awkward when they went on long karate tangents, but I guess I learned some interesting stuff there too. Staggered back home at 11 last night and now my head hurts. Good times.
I also bought a sport coat yesterday because I always feel underdressed in Tokyo and I dont feel like pulling out the suit. Only 50 bucks at uniqlo (famous japanese clothing brand known for cheap clothing, though their shirts are mad expensive).
Wednesday was a lot of fun. The two New Zealand girls invited me to a party with their friend, a pediatric surgeon. Apparently that dept has like a drinking and eating party once per month, and the guy really likes westerners (lived in the UK and New Zealand for awhile), so we were invited along too. The surgeons assistant (a 30 yr old Taiwanese-British guy) came too, along with about half a dozen (mostly female) med students. Since it was on the department, we had literally like 10 courses at this cute little traditional japanese restaurant near the hospital, along with a lot of assorted booze to drink. Not really anything worth mentioning (nothing super weird this time), except for the whole tiny squids, which were a little off-putting. One of the NZ girls thought that maybe the surgeon and his assistant were gay lovers, but I friended him on facebook later and saw that his 'interested in' said women, so theres no chance at all of that being true.
Saturday I did some more shopping in the area around Tokyo station, which once again, is all expensive upscale dept stores. Looked for the pokemon center but couldnt find it. At 3 I was supposed to meet my boss at Ikebukuro station to teach his son english. I wandered around for 30 minutes and didnt find him, so I went off and did my own thing. I got an email from him Sunday night explaining that they had another appointment. Thanks, sensei. I feel like I did more Saturday but it's not coming to me. Bought some more anko (sweetened redbean desserts) at the bakery though.
Sunday was where the real action was. The new zealand girl that does karate invited me to go with her other NZ karate friends to visit the Suntory Premium Malt brewery in western Tokyo. The tour was all in Japanese and thus not that useful, but at the end they took us to a room where we could drink as much beer as we wanted in 20 mins. Me and one of the guys managed to kill 4 pints. Keep in mind this was like 1pm. That was fun. After this we all went food shopping before going back to the apartment of one NZ guy where he lived with his japanese wife and 8 yr old daughter. We sat around till like 10pm watching stand up comedy clips on youtube and eating and drinking a shit ton. They made us homemade okonomiyaki and kimchee. It was glorious. Toward the end we played several rounds of drunken uno and jenga with the little girl (...she wasnt drunk), so that was amusing. Had a lot of good conversations. One of the guys works for like the world kyokushun karate organization scouting talent and training fighters for their huge international annual tournament, so he had a lot of cool stories. Also just learned a lot of random things about New Zealand, as well as some good New Zealand slang. The wife made us some NZ sweet potato french fries with garlic cream sauce that were amazing and that Ill have to find a way to make at home. It got a little awkward when they went on long karate tangents, but I guess I learned some interesting stuff there too. Staggered back home at 11 last night and now my head hurts. Good times.
I also bought a sport coat yesterday because I always feel underdressed in Tokyo and I dont feel like pulling out the suit. Only 50 bucks at uniqlo (famous japanese clothing brand known for cheap clothing, though their shirts are mad expensive).