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Uhh... Japan trip day 3? Hanging out with Hitoshi Doi & friends
Right, today. We got up and got food from the bakery again. And of course again faced the eternal question: where are we allowed to sit and eat food? Sigh. We got kicked out of the excelsior cafe when we were done eating about half our food, and then I finished mine while just standing outside the Shinjuku station. Seemed like a good enough plan. I had this great 3-flavor bread thing which was 3 breads stuffed with 3 separate fruit flavours. Yummy as all heck.
Nykkel and I wasted an hour or two wandering around Shinjuku; we went to the Taito Inn, which has changed around a bit from the way I remembered it; notably they just got rid of their DDR machine, which made the bemani corner a lot better spaced out. We also went to Tower Records where I found out that the Be For U album simply isnt on any of their CD lists, but I did pick up the new L'arc album with the special limited edition DVD etc. Whee!
We walked around Shinjuku some more; I forget exactly what we did aside from finding a Kinokuniya, and a stand where they were selling Yomiuri Giants baseball stuff. We got back to the station and we met up with Hitoshi Doi, and a guy named Michael who is from Australia (and is like 6'4 or so, he really stood out). Hitoshi had to take care of some stuff in an internet cafe for a bit and we were waiting for a guy named Steve anyway so Nykkel and Michael and I went back to the Taito Inn and wasted time playing PNM and IIDX and whatnot. Eventually we met up with everyone, and went to a karaoke place.
We spent 3 hours in the karaoke place eating snacks and singing mostly anime music. Eep, everyone else knew all of these random songs that I totally didnt... also, I couldnt get my microphone to work right. Usually when it was on, there was feedback, but when it was off nobody could hear me. oops. Well. Anyway, I picked a buncha songs like "still for your love" and sobakasu and a bunch of Rayearth stuff and the Marmalade Boy opening theme and things like that; Hitoshi picked a whole bunch of Kouda Mariko (I think) and Nykkel picked a bunch of random weird stuff and Michael kept picking Azumanga music and Steve picked a ton of various stuff. There was a lot of Tokimeki songs and Sakura Taisen and whatnot. Of all the people I would say Steve had the best voice and sang the best, he was really amusing too.
Anyway, I made a real fool of myself since I suck so much at reading kanji quickly, but I did do "Best Friend" by Kiroro as my last song and I think that will be my standard karaoke song from now on because dammit I can READ the whole thing at the right speed to sing it. So yeah.
After that we went and made reservations at a shabu shabu place and then wandered around for an hour and a half. We saw a bowling alley and we did a bunch of UFO catchers (I got a Hello Kitty and a Doraemon), and OH! Hitoshi is my HERO! So he was wearing a Mariners shirt, and I mentioned to him how much I like baseball and so we got to talking about baseball and stuff (He hates the Giants. Heh. He likes the Lions. He also agrees with me that Shinjo sucks.) and he found a sports store but they didnt have baseball shirts, but I asked him about how likely it is one can go see games like the Giants and so he found me a ticket seller store that had tickets to the Giants-Yakult game on the 9th... and we figured out where the tickets were for seat-wise (they were outfield reserved seats for $20, left field, seems good enough) and he went in with me and did the talking for me so I could buy a pair of tickets and so WHEEEEEEE!!!! I have tickets to the Giants game on Friday!!!!!! I'm gonna drag Nykkel to it, shame he isn't as enthusiastic about it ;)
/me is going to a Yomiuri Giants game, /me is going to a Giants game...
/me thinks Hitoshi is super-crazy cool.
ANYWAY, we went back and met up with the rest of the group (Steve had run off to go shopping when we were all UFO'ing and Michael ran off to Kinokuniya at some point) and we had a ton of shabu shabu. Infact... nobody tell Robbins that they have tabehodai shabushabu in Japan or he might try to invade here. (tabehodai == all you can eat) I now know exactly how much shabu shabu I can eat, which is to say... way too much. They shoulda let us keep a plate count the way you do with kaiten sushi... oh well. hehe. So anyway, we ate a ton of food and I finally got over some shyness and started asking people questions at dinner about like, what they do for work, (we basically all have computer-related jobs, heh) etc, how they got to Japan, whatnot. I had splashed stuff all over the shirt I was wearing so I changed into the other shirt I had which is my longsleeve CMU shirt and Steve was all like "Oh! You went to CMU? Cool!" So I wish I had started really talking earlier... because, well, after dinner we all basically wandered right back to the shinjuku station. Michael ran off to catch a bus, and the other four of us went into a computer store for a bit but then basically all split to go our separate ways. At like 8:30. Early! Oh well.
It was still a pretty good day though. Wonder if I'll ever see any of those guys again...
So yeah. Nykkel and I went back to the Kimi, but since I couldn't just call it a night at 9pm, I went back out... headed to East Ikebukuro. Played a game or two of Bemani stuff at Moai but it was so damn loud... went to the UFO catcher place. I had the worst luck. I think I spent like 10-15 bucks... and the only time I got anything at all, I got two Hello Kitty plushies for 100 yen, but the rest I came up sadly empty. Bleh. I got ice cream and then decided to just walk back here to the internet cafe and all.
You know, so I'm going to get philosophical for a second. I really like walking around in Tokyo. I just love being here... everything feels so right... but at the same time, walking around alone tonight kinda sucked. I felt very, very, very alone; I saw no other foreigners wandering about; I saw very few other people wandering around alone period. And it made me realize... if I ever came to live in Japan, that's what my life WOULD be like most of the time. Wandering around alone. And that would suck. I mean, not that being alone doesn't already suck in Seattle, but this would suck even more. Or maybe not, maybe I'd make friends somehow. But eh, I dunno. I've always had such a good time in Japan because I've always had people to go around everywhere with. But this time I'm having the experience of going around alone and it's just kinda weird. I'm planning to try to catch the Marines-Fighters game one night this week on my own, too, and that will TOTALLY be an adventure in being alone... I've gone to baseball games alone in America but it may be totally weird to go to one in Japan. We shall see.
Anyway, my hour's almost up so I'm gonna go.
Nykkel and I wasted an hour or two wandering around Shinjuku; we went to the Taito Inn, which has changed around a bit from the way I remembered it; notably they just got rid of their DDR machine, which made the bemani corner a lot better spaced out. We also went to Tower Records where I found out that the Be For U album simply isnt on any of their CD lists, but I did pick up the new L'arc album with the special limited edition DVD etc. Whee!
We walked around Shinjuku some more; I forget exactly what we did aside from finding a Kinokuniya, and a stand where they were selling Yomiuri Giants baseball stuff. We got back to the station and we met up with Hitoshi Doi, and a guy named Michael who is from Australia (and is like 6'4 or so, he really stood out). Hitoshi had to take care of some stuff in an internet cafe for a bit and we were waiting for a guy named Steve anyway so Nykkel and Michael and I went back to the Taito Inn and wasted time playing PNM and IIDX and whatnot. Eventually we met up with everyone, and went to a karaoke place.
We spent 3 hours in the karaoke place eating snacks and singing mostly anime music. Eep, everyone else knew all of these random songs that I totally didnt... also, I couldnt get my microphone to work right. Usually when it was on, there was feedback, but when it was off nobody could hear me. oops. Well. Anyway, I picked a buncha songs like "still for your love" and sobakasu and a bunch of Rayearth stuff and the Marmalade Boy opening theme and things like that; Hitoshi picked a whole bunch of Kouda Mariko (I think) and Nykkel picked a bunch of random weird stuff and Michael kept picking Azumanga music and Steve picked a ton of various stuff. There was a lot of Tokimeki songs and Sakura Taisen and whatnot. Of all the people I would say Steve had the best voice and sang the best, he was really amusing too.
Anyway, I made a real fool of myself since I suck so much at reading kanji quickly, but I did do "Best Friend" by Kiroro as my last song and I think that will be my standard karaoke song from now on because dammit I can READ the whole thing at the right speed to sing it. So yeah.
After that we went and made reservations at a shabu shabu place and then wandered around for an hour and a half. We saw a bowling alley and we did a bunch of UFO catchers (I got a Hello Kitty and a Doraemon), and OH! Hitoshi is my HERO! So he was wearing a Mariners shirt, and I mentioned to him how much I like baseball and so we got to talking about baseball and stuff (He hates the Giants. Heh. He likes the Lions. He also agrees with me that Shinjo sucks.) and he found a sports store but they didnt have baseball shirts, but I asked him about how likely it is one can go see games like the Giants and so he found me a ticket seller store that had tickets to the Giants-Yakult game on the 9th... and we figured out where the tickets were for seat-wise (they were outfield reserved seats for $20, left field, seems good enough) and he went in with me and did the talking for me so I could buy a pair of tickets and so WHEEEEEEE!!!! I have tickets to the Giants game on Friday!!!!!! I'm gonna drag Nykkel to it, shame he isn't as enthusiastic about it ;)
/me is going to a Yomiuri Giants game, /me is going to a Giants game...
/me thinks Hitoshi is super-crazy cool.
ANYWAY, we went back and met up with the rest of the group (Steve had run off to go shopping when we were all UFO'ing and Michael ran off to Kinokuniya at some point) and we had a ton of shabu shabu. Infact... nobody tell Robbins that they have tabehodai shabushabu in Japan or he might try to invade here. (tabehodai == all you can eat) I now know exactly how much shabu shabu I can eat, which is to say... way too much. They shoulda let us keep a plate count the way you do with kaiten sushi... oh well. hehe. So anyway, we ate a ton of food and I finally got over some shyness and started asking people questions at dinner about like, what they do for work, (we basically all have computer-related jobs, heh) etc, how they got to Japan, whatnot. I had splashed stuff all over the shirt I was wearing so I changed into the other shirt I had which is my longsleeve CMU shirt and Steve was all like "Oh! You went to CMU? Cool!" So I wish I had started really talking earlier... because, well, after dinner we all basically wandered right back to the shinjuku station. Michael ran off to catch a bus, and the other four of us went into a computer store for a bit but then basically all split to go our separate ways. At like 8:30. Early! Oh well.
It was still a pretty good day though. Wonder if I'll ever see any of those guys again...
So yeah. Nykkel and I went back to the Kimi, but since I couldn't just call it a night at 9pm, I went back out... headed to East Ikebukuro. Played a game or two of Bemani stuff at Moai but it was so damn loud... went to the UFO catcher place. I had the worst luck. I think I spent like 10-15 bucks... and the only time I got anything at all, I got two Hello Kitty plushies for 100 yen, but the rest I came up sadly empty. Bleh. I got ice cream and then decided to just walk back here to the internet cafe and all.
You know, so I'm going to get philosophical for a second. I really like walking around in Tokyo. I just love being here... everything feels so right... but at the same time, walking around alone tonight kinda sucked. I felt very, very, very alone; I saw no other foreigners wandering about; I saw very few other people wandering around alone period. And it made me realize... if I ever came to live in Japan, that's what my life WOULD be like most of the time. Wandering around alone. And that would suck. I mean, not that being alone doesn't already suck in Seattle, but this would suck even more. Or maybe not, maybe I'd make friends somehow. But eh, I dunno. I've always had such a good time in Japan because I've always had people to go around everywhere with. But this time I'm having the experience of going around alone and it's just kinda weird. I'm planning to try to catch the Marines-Fighters game one night this week on my own, too, and that will TOTALLY be an adventure in being alone... I've gone to baseball games alone in America but it may be totally weird to go to one in Japan. We shall see.
Anyway, my hour's almost up so I'm gonna go.
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2) Shinjo does suck, especially now. He swings early and tries to pull stuff, without power, and he's as slow as frozen molasses on Mars. Oh well, AT LEAST HE DRESSES NICE, RIGHT?
3) The loneliness thing... yeah. It varies from person to person, but I've always been a sort of loner in the first place, so it never really bothered me too much. Maybe it's because of the length of time, or the kind of crazy fucking madhouse I live in, but right now I cherish being alone like some people treasure rare gems. Again, I envy your road trips. :)
:O
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If you lived there, I'm sure you'd make friends pretty quickly. People seem pretty welcoming of Americans as best as I can tell. And you've already broken through one of the biggest barriers - language.
Have you thought about doing the JET program, out of curiosity?
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Yeah, I dunno. I'm not much for being alone though. It's been pretty tough since I stopped being engaged and all.
Re: :O
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My first trip here I was never alone. My second trip here I was rarely alone. This trip I've been spending a few hours each evening alone and will be probly trekking out to a baseball field alone too. It's weird. I don't think I'd make friends though... eh, who knows.
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b) Yeah, it sort of slipped my mind that you weren't alone up until like a month ago. Sorry about that.
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Oh, no big deal... I was friends-only for a while during the whole splitting up ordeal and you weren't on my friends list at the time, so you wouldn't have known. I'm a dork that way.
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You know what? As it turns out I very well may be in Tokyo overnight Wednesday night. At this hour it seems pretty definite; if they change this again in the next 24 hours I'm going to have to start breaking some thumbs.
Give me a call tomorrow evening if possible.
no subject
Re: :O