day 65! takadanobaba, iidabashi

I may have uploaded this to the wrong album, but oh well. I didn't really get a chance to take a good look at my hair until after I got home from the contest. It got....quite a bit shorter after the actual cutting part happened. :) And it's asymmetrical on both sides! I'm not against it, but I preferred my hair a little longer, I think. Oh well. Hair grows back.

Also there's a hidden pink splotch of hair at the nape of my neck. Easter egg! Haha.

Oh yah and I got a bug bite there the day before the contest. FUUUUUU mosquitoes. Anger. I've been having this problem in my room where for some reason, my AC starts putting out funny smelling air if I leave it on for too long. So I just leave my window open instead, which is better for the environment anyway, but then mosquitoes come in! And they seem to only come out when I'm sleeping, those sly motherfuckers. So I've kept my door closed but then the room is stuffy. :( :(

I think that my sleeping situation has been by far the worst aspect of this Asia trip. In Taiwan it was that cardboard bed with razors instead of springs, and fucking cockroaches raining from the sky. *shudder* My bed in Japan is really pretty decent, and I love the comforters, but the fucking mosquitoes............................I will slap a bitch. I have developed permanent bags under my eyes from this trip.

Nothing a little sushi can't fix though. :) Well actually sushi doesn't fix it at all but gorging oneself on raw fish is oddly satisfying. One of my protips for life. Take notes people.

I sleep pretty late most nights, partially out of terror of the swarms of bugs that are sure to descend on me as I sleep, but mostly cuz, you know. Internet. It does mean that I wake up late, around noon or so, to find Edwin bored and waiting for me to wake up so I can tour guide. Yah I really am the worst. :x I'm not going to have any positive Yelp ratings after this trip.

We're usually pretty hungry by afternoon, but are terrible at deciding what to eat. 4 times out of 5, I will eventually say "sushi?" and he'll say "....I could eat sushi." So sushi it is! It's gotten to the point where I know all the workers there, both for lunch and dinner shifts. I'm sure they recognize me despite my attempts to hide my identity through multiple hair changes, but are too polite to show it. But they judge. :( Oh how they judge.

Anyway I've tried quite a few of their selections over my like 10 meals at this sushi place, but my favorite thing by far is salmon. So I took a pic of 3 of the kinds of salmon sushi they offer here -- plain salmon, salmon + sweet onions & mayo, and grilled salmon. So good. T^T

The plan for today was to go to Ikebukuro, which I've already mentioned earlier in this blog so I won't go into details. It's only 2 stops away from Takadanobaba, and even though it's a bit dirtier than other parts of Tokyo, it's pretty cheap to shop there so I like it. :) It's also a big transit point (it's sort of the gateway to the northwest area of Tokyo) so a lot of people filter through here.

We went to Sunshine City again (the place that Kurt and I stumbled upon the fashion show) and  passed by this pastry booth. They sell shuu-cream's here (sp?), which are a popular dessert snack in Tokyo. You guys are probably familiar with it -- it's what Beard Papa's sells. :) Beard Papa's is originally from Tokyo...

Behold! The Chocolate Cookie Puff!

Made a loop of Sunshine City, and I did some lightening fast shopping so as not to bore Edwin. :x Actually I don't think he minded the shopping too much, it's pretty fun to look at the crazy clothes here even if you're not buying any, but I'M not comfortable shopping with people so I tried to keep it to a minimum. :)

Sunshine City also has an aquarium and planetarium on its top floor. I do love aquariums so I wanted to go but...tickets were like $20 and by the time we got there it wouldn't be open for so much longer, so we decided that the lovely waterfall fountain in the entrance was enough for us and we left. lol.

Still, humans are...kind of amazing. That much water, sitting on the top floor of a high rise building? I don't know how it can handle so much weight. :o My mind boggles.

By around evening time, we'd had enough of Ikebukuro, but we had another hour to kill til our next activity. :o My friend Mark (from college, at CMU)'s birthday was next week, so he was having a little birthday shindig starting around 8. Part of the reason I picked Ikebukuro for today was cuz there's a subway line directly from Ikebukuro to the birthday location, which saves us some transfer time and money. Yes I know, I am a crafty cheap asian. It's ok Edwin appreciates it as well. ;3

Since we had some time to burn, we stopped by this KFC to get something to drink. Now I've never been a fan of KFC but they seem to love it in Japan! I think I see more KFC's here than at home, even. And the ones at home are pretty ghetto and dirty, but here they're you know, decent enough to sit in at least. :) They've also been advertising these fruity smoothie drinks called "Crushers" that look like they absolutely do not belong at KFC, being vaguely healthy looking, but I'm guessing it's a Japan-only offering.

They have 4 flavors: berry, strawberry + banana, mango + apple, and chocolate cookie something-or-other. Edwin tried the berry and I got mango + apple and....sweet Jesus they were delicious. O_O We got a punch card for buy 5 get 1 free, and I'm pretty confident that we will fill it before I leave Japan. ^^ Since we're both milk tea deprived, and these are the next best thing.

Hung out for about an hour and then hopped on the subway to Iidabashi, where Mark was waiting with a few friends to walk us all over to the bar. We went to a small bar called Mine, which apparently Mark frequents often, and so is friends with the bartenders there. They'd set up a nomihoudai (all-you-can-drink) course for us, with some small portions of food to eat while we drank. We got a really really cute room, in the back, that was semi-private. I mean overall the whole bar was about the size of a 1BR apartment in California, lol, and the small room was the size of a closet but you know, it is Japan so I was pretty delighted with the setup. :)

The food wasn't bad! Though there wasn't a lot of it. There was a salad, these little roll things...

...and a plate full of sausages?? Lol. And yes yes, we all made the proper obligatory sausage jokes.

At the start of the evening we had about 6, but people kept trickling in as the night went on, and we were expecting I think 15 altogether?

There was Kyle, Mark's ex-housemate, who is this loud friendly Australian guy that I actually met last time I was in Japan, although he totally didn't remember me. Kyle had been searching for a Japanese wife 2 years ago, because he wanted to stay in Japan after teaching English, and it appears that he was successful because Kyle's wife joined us as well! Toshi, a Japanese guy with exceptional English as well as his new bride came along as well. The two married couples sat on the other side of the room though so I had limited exposure to them.

On my side of the room there was Edwin, and Eric, who I met last time at the Szechuan hot pot dinner.

Before long, Lulu and Phil joined us. They're both part of the graduate degree program at Waseda that Mark went through. Lulu's Taiwanese, but went to college at NYU, and Phil is Thai and has a strong Thai accent. They're both kind of hard to place ethnically cuz they're so international. Actually everyone there that night has just been all over the place, it was kind of inspiring. :)  ALSO, Phil's name totally isn't Phil, it's FILM. All Thai people have insane first and last names, and so they all pick quirky and cute nicknames to go buy, and Film is, Film. Totally heard Phil though.

Jerry was another Taiwanese guy at the grad program, and his sister Wendy joined us later, I believe she is also studying somewhere in Japan. So there was a big group of Taiwanese people in the middle of the room, and Chinese made its way into a lot of conversations. O_o Eric is also  Taiwanese, but has never been to Taiwan. He grew up in Thailand (and speaks that as well as fluent Mandarin AND Taiwanese), and his Japanese completely trashes mine as well. But thanks to living in the States for a long time he has flawless English so basically, FUCK YOU ERIC you make us all look like lazy stupid amoebas. No I'm kidding. Eric's cool. :x

Didn't talk to Jerry much but in my never ending quest to make girl friends, I tried chatting with Lulu and Wendy (who are good friends) as much as possible. It wasn't hard cuz they're both really sweet and cute! Lulu is really classy and very NY-looking, and Wendy is well O_o super hot and very sweet. Hahaha actually she thought we were going clubbing so she came in wearing a really cute outfit. She assumed we were going clubbing because she saw Film's name on the guest list. What a rep.....

A blurry pic of everyone. I think at around this point, I took it upon myself to take pics and document Mark's bday, since I figured he'd want some memories. It's impossible to take pics of your own bday party, since you're so busy entertaining and everyone's so focused on you.

I forgot to mention Yamada-san! He was introduced to us prior to arriving by Mark describing how he's a ridiculously huge and tall Japanese person. That sounds absolutely nonsensical but it's true! Yamada wa yama da. (A terrible Japanese pun, please don't hit me over the head with a fan). He's Mark's boss at work apparently, and I really liked him. He's super goofy and good at torturing the night's intended victim, but you can tell he's a really good guy and kind of motherly. Anyway that's him in the glasses.

Jerry's the one in the Snickers shirt, Kyle is behind him. Jean came in a bit late as well, she's standing next to Jerry. We were a bit far apart so I didn't talk to her much either but she was super sweet and nice! Also American, I would guess from the accent.

Wendy's peace-ing, and Film is next to her. And the pale ginger in the front is Mark. :p

We had a nomihoudai course for 2 hours, and we did try to make the most of it. While we were eating we mostly had cocktails, but they were just way too weak so I started ordering stuff on the rocks. It was still all fruit liquors (mango liquor, peach liquor, etc) so very very delicious and still kind of weak, but it was a start.

And then the shots came...oh god the tequila shots. A fun video of everyone trying to well, kill Mark. If you can't hear what they're saying, here's a transcript...

Everyone: What do you want to drink, Mark?

Mark: I don't care, anything but tequila.

Everyone: SUMIMASEN!! Tequila shots onegaishimaaaaasu!!

Mark: FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Aaaand now everyone is happy happy. I think Mark is unintelligible at this point. Here he is with Jerry and Eric.

At one point we ordered about 20 tequila shots and all had em together. Then they tried ordering 26 shots, 1 for each of us and 13 for Mark to drink with each of us. I think I had to step in at this point and say NO, NO MORE DRINKS FOR MARK. I don't mean to be a party pooper at all but I could see him half-retching as he forced down shots already, and seriously, since when is projectile vomit EVER fun??? I don't understand the need to make people puke. Drunk, yes, puke/death, no. So I played the role of the party pooper mom, fetching water and trying to deflect as many shots as possible. Sometimes by acting as a ghost drinker for Mark....that was not super pleasant. Me no likey the tequila.

Also hahaha, Mine ran out of shot glasses since we were ordering so many. Japanese people are more of sippers/nursers, they don't really have the whole shots mentality there. (Since a few beer makes them puke all over, I shudder to think how they would be after 1 or 2 shots). So typically bars aren't equipped to handle 15 crazed foreigners downing shots. At one point, the sweet little girl that was on the floor for the night had to come in and crawl around the singing and dancing revelers to fetch the strewn shot glasses to take back and clean for our next order...I felt sorry for the bartenders for the night so I started trying to gather the shot glasses. Yah I know I really know how to have fun. :D But I noticed Yamada-san doing the same. We started carrying out the glasses to the bar and he was like "Why are we doing this??"  and I was like "ahahaha I don't even know!" Just thought it was cute and kind of Japanese. Doing things out of unspoken inferred social obligation. Ah well.

Our 2 hours ended before long, and Mark said normally you can extend by 1 hour for an additional 1000yen, which everyone was amenable to. But when we went to ask about it, they said that we wouldn't be able to do it. I think...they lost a ton of money for this bday ^^; Not a ton, but they weren't really earning any. Another hour and I'm pretty sure we would have emptied their inventory. So. Makes sense I guess. :) We just ordered a la carte instead, it's only 500 yen per drink which isn't terrible. Started doing mini-rounds of drinks among a few people instead of as a whole group.

From left to right, Mark, Film, Lulu (squashed), Wendy.

Ahahahahaha. We all gathered around for a group shot that Film took for us. 3...2....and then he swings the camera back at himself and takes this shot. AHAHAHAHAH! My favorite picture ever. Jerry commented that he looked like my favorite character, the llama/alpaca. AND HE DOES!! Omfg. I can't stop laughing when I see this pic.

(left to right) Edwin, me, Mark, Lulu, Yamada, Wendy, Taku, Kyle, Kyle's boobs.

Forgot to mention Taku, he sat at our table. Half Japanese, half...? Thai I think. Also has lived everywhere, and is no working in Japan.

Slightly more presentable. :) Except for Film.

Can't really call it a successful night without some male-on-male action.

People starting leaving and also going out to the bar to drink (it was really crowded and loud in the back room). Saw a white guy and Japanese lady drinking at the bar...turns out they're also regulars, and so they're friends with Mark. Invited them to come back and say happy bday to Mark, and they ended joining us for the winding-down portion of the evening.

So here's Wendy (how does she look great in every photo???), French guy, Mark and Jerry.

And then the night got a bit odd. At this point we were all sort of done drinking, and we all sat around drunkenly talking. Half the people were out at the bar, but the regulars sat down for a heart to heart with Mark. I wasn't there for the beginning of it but the Japanese lady for SOME reason really wanted me to date Mark. Who knows how that conversation came up, but I'm guessing it's because I was trying to take care of Mark and bring him water and stuff, so they all thought aww how nice she must like him. (Why can't people just be nice to each other without questions about romantic interests popping into everyone's minds??) Anyway she was actually quite insistent about it, for a Japanese lady (though she spoke very good French so she must have lived abroad for a while) and was very direct. It was kind of awkward but I was pretty buzzed so I just blew right by it. She kept saying dump the boyfriend, come to Japan. And I was like uhhh no? O_o what the hell lady. I know she was just trying to take care of her friend Mark but still that's sort of fucked up to say to someone you don't know, don't you think?? She kept saying to Mark "You can't go on like this". Anyway it was very surreal but I remember that went on for a while. :/ Awwwwkkkward.

Since we started at 8pm, the time for the last train arrived quickly, but I made an executive decision to just miss it and take a cab home later. Never taken a cab in Japan before! :) It's relatively expensive, but ok if it's just once in a while. I just hate how jarring it is to be chatting and hanging out happily, and then for people to jump up and be like LAST TRAIN GG SEE YA.

Can't think of any other real highlights for the evening. But basically chatted a lot with people and it was a really really fun night other than that weird nonsense at the end. Mark's friends are super fun; Film, Yamada, and Kyle especially are that loud, fun type that you want to have around when you're out. :) Japanese people call them "mood makers". But everyone was really nice and friendly so it was a good time. I remember snatches of making it back home; had to give my wallet to Edwin and ask him to pay for the cab cuz I couldn't count at that point, and then it started raining on the walk home...but it was pretty soothing when you're all flushed and drunk. Stumbled into my room, chugged some tea (it is Japan after all) and passed out..........

Didn't puke. ^^v I win again!