My good weekend, plus some other stuff. BONUS CONTENT, you could say, except that last weekend is really the main attraction here. So Friday, we were all pretty pumped for having made it a week without any serious nervous breakdowns; as I had pretty much mentioned, it was basically right back to the grindstone as far as classes went, not a lot of catch-up going on there. We opted to celebrate in classic Far Eastern style, which is to say karaoke! All of us dudes, plus Toma, Taku, and Souma (Taku's pal who is definitely gainfully employed at the Gasto) met up after school and walked over to a place nearby called, according to the large red sign, "BIG ECHO". Let me tell you, dudes, as far as karaoke places go, this was one of the bigger places I've been to, and, um, I guess there was a bit of an echo there as well? Anyway, we showed up and got a room, and then we got--you guessed it--infinite drinks. That's right, we'd stumbled upon yet another venue offering quite a colorful selection of nonalcoholic beverages, including the delicious melon-flavored Icee-like drink. So we went back to our room, and we sang sang sang, you guys. Our mates did a few Japanese songs, we did some American stuff like GaGa, Michael Jackson, and, by request, Eminem. I also tried my hand at a few Japanese songs; I've picked up a few over the years as a consequence of my watching anime. Let me tell you something, you guys: Listening to a song a lot is totally different from being able to vocally reproduce it. Though I will say in my defense, I did nail a couple of songs pretty well. I'll tell you which one I didn't do well though, and that was the Pokemon theme song. Shocked? I was too. You see, Sean asked our pals if they could find the song, however Toma reported that it was only in Japanese. We were still pretty gung ho about it--we still remembered how the music went--so we decided to try it anyway. This was not a good call; turns out the Japanese version of the show had a slightly different theme, and by slightly I mean completely. We also sang Ken Hirai's "Pop Star", which may be somewhat old but is too awesome. I challenge you to watch the music video and not draw the same conclusion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qVSWqGPRnw&feature=related Indeed, this whole week, Diane and I have become a little bit obsessed, filling in nearly every space between conversation by humming its melody. So, we karaoke'd it up for 3 hours, and it cost us--are you sitting down for this?--500 yen, or 6 bucks, per person. Compared to what we pay in the U.S., this is nothing short of phenomenal. Fu-nah-men-all.
After karaoke, we decided to do It. What is It, you may ask? Well, It is a very momentous thing. It, my friends, is going to a real fucking sushi restaurant. We walked away from the karaoke place for some time until we reach Sushiryo, where we ascended its steps--in much the same way as the good people do when they pass on to the next life--and went in. This place actually served sushi on a conveyor belt, which means that we spent much of our time salivating as tempting dishes passed by. I had too much good stuff to describe here. Also I'm not sure what some of it was, which is another good reason for me not writing about it. I will say, though, that the sushi really is better; the seaweed a crisp, flavorful binding to the succulent fish contained within. About the only thing I didn't enjoy was uni, or sea urchin--it had a really bitter taste that was not really my fancy. I later learned from one of my instructors that paying 100 yen for uni means you're probably gonna get some poor quality stuff, so I guess I learned my lesson on that one.
So yeah, Friday was pretty sweet. Saturday, though, would be just as swell. We woke up in the late morning and rolled out to the center of town to go to Spa World! This 8-story monstrosity is home to multiple restaurants, an arcade (which are all really sweet in Japan), two floors reserved for each separate gender's hot springs, a water park on the top floor, and even its own hotel. Basically, this was where you wanted to be on a hot day, which is to say virtually every day we've spent here since arriving. We bought our tickets from vending machines in the lobby--I could almost say it's the preferred method of buying things in this wonderful country--and got in. First, we put our shoes in a locker, since there were absolutely no shoes allowed anywhere else on the premises. This may sound far out, but the upshot is, the entirety of the indoors were carpeted! So anyway, me n' Sean went upstairs to the sixth floor, which was reserved for men, while Karen and Diane hit the fourth floor. We changed into our suits and met up on the top floor for some pool action. The water park area was host to a large pool, several water slides, and a big lazy river running around the whole vicinity. We took a spin around said lazy river, and then Sean and I elected to hit a slide named the "Death Loop". It was a pretty nifty idea for a slide: after taking the stairs to the top of the water park, you get into a nearly coffin-like container. The floor drops out beneath you, and you drop down, gaining momentum until you hit a loop that goes up into the air, then finally back out. It was kind of lame that we had to wait for many times the duration of the ride, but it was still pretty sweet. After we'd had our fill of the pool, it was time for the onsen, or hot springs.
That's right, guys, hot springs. For those of you who are at least a bit acquainted with Japanese custom, then you know it was naked time. To reiterate, I had to strip down in front of dozens of other gentlemen, which was, to say the least, a unique experience in my life. But I quickly got over the absurdity a Westerner views this practice with; the trick is really to just not think about it, which is easy enough. Quite bemused, Sean and I hit a variety of baths; indoors, outdoors, super hot, ice cold. Generally, one does not stay in one bath for longer than a few minutes, like in any other hot tub, but for that brief time, it really is such a chill and deeply relaxing activity. We hit a sauna as well, which was really interesting insofar as it felt much like being immersed in the core of the sun; breathing in was like inhaling pure liquid heat. In short, it was pretty awesome--they even had a TV with baseball on!--but we didn't linger for long. After having our fill of the area, we went to explore the rest of this enormous resort. I had a delicious chocolate and whipped cream crepe, played some Mario Kart in the arcade (yes, fellow gamers, you read that right), then we did dinner at a basic Japanese cuisine cafeteria-like place full of low tables and cushions. Afterwards we departed into the early evening, and chilled out for the rest of the night.
Sunday morning, I actually woke up early on my own volition. This was yet another massively important occasion: our visit to the Osaka Pokemon Center. Yes, scattered across Japan's big cities are Pokemon centers, where one can purchase Pokemon merch and heal their party. We fancied ourselves devout pilgrims as we walked under the big archway bearing the Pokemon logo into the store. There was...so much stuff. Sooo much. Every variety of figurine, action figure; dolls, enormous plushies; tableware and household items; clothing, including an inordinately large assortment of underwear; stationery and school supplies; and of course, the most recent installments of the fiendishly popular game series. I was about ready to drop every yen I had ever earned, but I restricted myself to a small hand towel for toweling oneself off in the infernal heat of the city in summer and a coin purse in the shape of Pikachu's face.
I'd like to take a moment to justify these purchases to the non-Japanese readership. First of all, this city has been quite hot for some time--about as hot as Houston is in the summer. Here's the kicker, though; air conditioning is not a regularly-occurring phenomenon, on account of the high degree of power conservation (due to both popular environmentalism and the ridiculous cost of energy). In short, being inside a building is scarcely cooler than being out. Being perpetually bathed in heat, many people wisely use a handkerchief or similar soft, flat object when out and about. As for the coin purse, managing one's coins is kind of important here. As our resident director put it, dropping a few coins in the U.S. is no big deal, but here, where coins commonly appear in 100 and 500 yen denominations (about $1 and $5), you've got to stay on top of them. Also, since the smallest bill size is 1000 yen, one tends to carry around lots of change. But yeah, now I can look awesome and manage my change well, so problem solved.
So yes, that was perhaps the holiest of Sundays. This week involved more school, of course. We did get to met the rest of the exchange students, all on direct exchanges from universities all over the globe. This week was also the start of elective classes which we'll be taking; I haven't quite settled on a schedule yet, but I'll touch on that when I do. Oh! I forgot to mention that we toured the Asahi brewery and factory just a train station away from school. This was pretty sweet; even though it was exclusively in Japanese, it was nifty to learn about the process and watch that happy juice nearly fly off the production lines, as if launched from some gargantuan automatic artillery piece. We also got to try a few glasses at the end, which was a bit awkward since it was only our sensei and I who went for it. But the good news is, it was really delicious, having likely been produced that same day about three seconds from where we sat. The bottom line is, that class was pretty sweet.
Okay, so I know that was a pretty compressed account of the past seven to two days ago, but I think I touched on the important stuff. We're all really psyched to hang out with new exchange kids; it's a pretty good deal when your group of friends increases by almost twenty times. I'm about to go out to get some sushi, so I'll write again in a little while, dudes. Don't worry, I'll get an extra roll for you too.
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