"Back to Tokyo" Week 21 Jan 25-Jan 31

After meeting up with Akiko in Sakae on Sunday night for dinner and a few drinks we returned on Monday night for what I had been waiting 4 months for, namely the opening of the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.   I have to say I miss movies quite a bit here in Japan as I was someone who went at least 2-3 times a month at home.  Unfortunately for me new film releases often come last to Japan so Quantum, which opened around Thanksgiving in the States, had its debut here at the end of February.  After being told movies in Japan were quite different than in America I have to say I am not sure what all the talk was about as the Midland Square Cinema across from Nagoya train station was quite similar to an upscale movie theater you would find in the States, maybe a little nicer even.  There were several differences.

Movies on the average are more expensive here than in the US.  A ticket for a first run film will cost you 1,800 yen (very nearly 20 US dollars).  Although this is more than the 11 or 12 dollars I paid in Philadelphia it is not so prohibitively expensive as to keep me from going as some do.

As with the rest of Japan the need to limit liquor and its consumption is not a practiced here so for the first time in my life I took in a film with a large draft beer in hand instead of the requisite soda.  It felt really strange walking to the theater with it in hand as if I was breaking some rule that any minute I would be discovered for.

There is no need as at home to worry about people speaking on cell phones or talking loudly during the film as you would imagine.  The polite nature of the society makes it highly unlikely this is a problem.

When ordering popcorn you are asked whether you want “salty” or “sweet”.  Salty gets you the normal popcorn you get at home minus the butter while sweet gets you what we call caramel corn (nice!).

Lastly when the movie concludes people remain in their seats until the close of the credit roll.  When leaving before it is like you are leaving before the movie is over.

My review of the film is similar to the reviews I had read from the States when it came out.  While Craig is still a great Bond I thought the story was a little complicated and hard to follow and was not nearly as good a film as the previous Bond, Casino Royale.  I felt really bad for Akiko since following a complicated movie in her second language I think was a little tough.  Also I had to laugh when after it concluded she finally admitted this was the first James Bond movie she had ever seen.  Even though she said she enjoyed it I am not so sure.  Again the politeness of people makes it difficult to tell how they feel or what they really want to do.  Even though she seemed really excited to go I think she was doing so just because of how excited I was to see it.

     On Saturday after work I quickly had to run home, change and pick up my bags as a group of about 15 of us were off to Tokyo this weekend to go to a huge club in Tokyo called Ageha.  After picking up my backpack I met the group at Nagoya station and we all boarded the Shinkansen for the 1 hour 50 minute ride to Tokyo.  The longer I am here the more I feel self conscious about exhibiting what is considered common “Western” behavior.  In the case of our group that usually means being too loud in places where the Japanese are quieter.  Although some in our group did get “shushed” for being too loud all in all the ride was fun as we had some drinks as we sped towards Tokyo.  Once arriving in Tokyo we headed to the subway and then arrived at the station were we stored our stuff and walked the 5-6 blocks from the station to the club, which sits on the water on the outskirts of Tokyo.  The place was massive in size with hundreds of people waiting to get in.  The only thing I can compare it to was some of the huge mega clubs I had seen in Panama City, Florida when I went on spring break back in college.  Before even getting in we waited in line for nearly 30 minutes in the bitter cold (sans jackets as we did not want to be saddled with them inside).  Once inside the place was packed with people in each and every of the nearly 10 massive rooms each featuring a different style of music from house to trance etc.  Although I like to pretend like I am half my age by 4 AM I was feeling every bit of my 37 years as I promptly left the group found a bank of chairs and sat down for nearly a half hour nearly nodding off.  Unfortunately the area was next to the pool area (which was open even in the cold) so again without my jacket and in a T-shirt I spent most of the time shivering before heading back to grab something to eat at the large food tent area outside.  Once finding the group we spent a little more time walking around and taking in the music.  Happily at about 5AM myself, Ryan and Alanna headed to the subway to catch the first subway into Tokyo to get some sleep at one of the many Internet Café’s to be found in a section of Tokyo known as Akihabra.  After an aborted attempt at one rather shady one we settled on a slightly nicer and more expensive one were we payed our money and then headed to our “rooms”.  Being just happy to be out of the cold and up now going on nearly 20 hours I grabbed a drink before falling asleep quick in my chair having completed my first night of “clubbing” in Tokyo.

New Name #1  As many of you enjoyed the first name I earned from my students I got a new one this week, during warm up of the children’s low floor classes I have large mats broken into groups likes fruits, vegtables, animals etc.  We go in a circle and get the kids saying “I like peaches”, “I like alligators” and the like.  One of my funnier and bolder 5 year old boys pointed to a picture of a mountain gorilla and replied at his turn “I like Brian” to the raucous laughter of the rest of the class.  The name was amended to “American Gorilla” which seems to have stuck.  Great!

New Name #2  My 10:00AM Saturday group is by far my rowdiest, 3 5 year old boys with boundless energy.  I have learned the hard way that a Friday night out too late with too many drinks is met with harshly when these three arrive ready to go.  As I sat down to begin class again an eruption of laughter when one of the crazier three jumped up and rubbed my newly shaven head and exclaimed, “Potato"!

"Bagels in Japan" Week 20 Jan 18-Jan24

As I begin another blog entry I do so with the knowledge that these things seem to be losing their steam a bit.  The longer I am in Japan I have come to the strange realization that even though you move to a country as far off and seemingly different as Japan your life becomes very much like the life you left behind.  At first in a country were you stand out like I do here it seems like every day is filled with strange and funny occurrences which provide daily grist for a blog such as this.  But as the time accumulates you begin to learn how to hold your chopsticks, how to order food and you begin to do something I would have never expected after being here for only a week, you actually begin to “fit in” in some respect.  With that said I will continue to try and mine any interesting or embarrassing stories that occur in hopes of keeping the blog at least readable.

     This week I got a late start to Nagoya where I was supposed to attend the AEON picnic that is held every other month on the Yada River.  Unfortunately the cold and rain that was forecasted had me leaving late and by the time I reached the train in the early afternoon the rain picked up from drizzle to a fair pace so I decided to head to Nagoya and take a wait and see approach.  After arriving I heard from Ryan they were packing up and heading to Adam’s apartment in Ozone for a post picnic party.  After picking up some food at a “conbini” I headed over to Adam’s where we sat around eating and watching Scarface on DVD before everyone starting arriving.  Once the party got underway I even got into some heated beer pong matches in which Adam and I cleaned up the competition quite handily.  The party was a good time I met some new friends and even got some time on Adam’s Serrado DJ equipment where I happily spun some mid 90’s rap and R&B which depressed me later when people starting sharing how they first heard the Chronic by Dr. Dre when they were in elementary school.  Usually when these discussions start I remain quiet not wanting to let anyone know that The Chronic will forever remind me of the summer before my 5^th year of college (yes 5^th year).  I also headed out into the pouring rain for the quarter mile walk back to the Ozone station to pick up Garreth, my friend from England.  Once at the party Garreth began telling Elijah and myself about a 40 page short story he was writing about 1 night he had spent in a pub in Manchester.  When Elijah asked him if he thought it was a good story Garreth deadpanned and replied, “No mate, that’s the thing its pure rubbish”.  Since the drinking was quite heavy a large group stayed at Adam’s once we missed our last trains back to our respective homes.

     After waking up and parting with friends I headed into Nagoya for a truly incredible find, namely a foreigner market, which had a large selection of American grocery items.  If anyone is planning a trip the following list of items I purchased are not available here so if you want to make some extra money pack your suitcases and you can mark them up 500 percent and sell them to foolish Americans like myself:

2 cans of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup

1 Old El Paso Taco Kit (Strangely looking at the packaging these are imported from Australia where I assume the Aussie’s like their Mexican food.)

1 jar Old El Paso Taco Sauce (Also from Australia, strangely though Taco Sauce to Aussie’s is actually salsa to us, if you like Mexican food the differences are obvious).

4 actual bagels (I thing I truly miss is cruising down the dodgy end of Broad Street in Philadelphia to grab a bagel with cream cheese and a large Iced Coffee with Splenda and Coconut from Dunkin Donuts).  Bagels are almost impossible to find though Philadelphia Cream Cheese is widely available, it’s a cruel game.

1 box of Quaker Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal.

All though these items may sound trivial when deprived of them I have found I want them even more.  On the good side I decided against paying about 6 dollars for a bag of Pepperidge Farm Mint Milano’s (you have to draw a line some where).

So another week draws to a close in Japan and blah, blah, blah kids cute, scream when they see me, etc.  but anyway I will keep searching for new stuff and hopefully some new material will present itself next week when I head with a large group to Tokyo for the weekend.  On of the things on my to do list was to visit a cavernous Tokyo disco like you see in the movies and apparently our destination, Ageha was the large club used in the movie, Babel so I am looking forward to checking it out.

 Domo Arigato Gozaimas

"That's Mr. Mayonnaise Kewpie" Week 19 Jan 11-18th

Sunday had me heading into Nagoya to meet Akiko and then on to the Elephant’s Nest Bar in Fushimi where my Japanese friend, Yoshi works as a bartender.  Once we arrived we had some fish and chips as well as some Guinness, watched some Premiership Soccer (unfortunately I did not have the staying power to stay up to watch the Manchester United/Chelsea matchup the bar was staying open late for that began at 3AM) before heading home for the night.

     On Monday Akiko and I spent the day in Gifu checking out KinkaSan as the large mountain in the town is known.  This was my fourth trip to Gifu and the town is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in Japan.  The town’s natural beauty and close proximity to Nagoya make it a good place for a quick and cheap day trip.  After reaching the mountain via the cable car we spent about an hour taking in the view as well as walking up to take some photos near the castle that sits atop the mountain.  Although we were too late to enter the castle it was a nice day and we got to see some snow on the top of the mountain (never though I would seek out snow).  The rest of the week was quiet in fact I am noticing that the blog is sounding less and less interesting each and every week.  All I can explain is as I get more acclimated to me new home there is less that is really as interesting as it once was.  I actually find myself seeking out strange things just so I will have some new things to right about.  As I said to a friend recently you can only write I went to work, ate dinner, watched TV and then went to bed without making it sound rather boring.  After stopping in to the Backbeat on Friday I took up my friend Dean on a proposed trip to what is known as a “hostess club”.  I do not think I have wrote of these before but these clubs which are rather prevalent in my town especially are basically bars that cater to mainly businessmen and feature sexily dressed woman who serve you drinks and sit and chat with you as you drink.  Although from the outside they appear to be gaudy strip clubs there is no nudity just drinking and the chance to speak to random woman.  Actually once you are here the whole things makes perfect sense.  Since Japanese men are quiet and polite they appear to like these places where woman are essentially paid to be overly friendly while serving drinks to you (it is kind of like a Japanese Hooters).  Also interesting is that there seems to be no shame in going to these places in fact they are the most popular bar scene in my small town on Fridays and Saturdays (I happen to live next door to one of these places).  The best thing is the names of these places since they have very suggestive names and placards outside along with flashing lights, anything to attract young guys to enter (my favorite name is Sweet Cheetah near the train station).  Since I had never been to one of these places Dean agreed to take me to a local place so I could see what it was all about.  And as I said before I figured at the very least it would make for some good blog material.  These clubs feature pricing where you pay for “a set” in where you pay anywhere from 30-50 dollars an hour but it is unlimited “all you can drink” for the time you are there.  Sadly the club we attempted to go to was full so Dean agreed to take me again soon.

Amendment to my Name  As I said before I was given the name Kewpie by several children at school.  That name has been changed now to Mayonnaise Kewpie as Japan’s most popular mayonnaise brand is called. 

I have led with a picture to see if the name is fitting.