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 5th year of college (yes 5th 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.
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