On Tuesday the 11th I went to Round 1 again with my friends Maral and Emily. This was my third time going to Round 1 which is like a rec center where you pay a flat cost and can do tons of stuff all in one building over 6 floors. There is a bus that can take you from the station in Akita to Round 1 which is probably about a half hour walk away. The last bus is at 10pm and we got there a tiny bit late. As we were walking towards the bus maybe 100 yards away the bus left so I ran over to the stop light where I could cut it off. I kinda ran in front of the bus and he luckily stopped and let me on and waited for my friends. The friends I was with were Maral who is from Mongolia and Emily who is from Kenya. I played the drum Taiko game a lot that I've mentioned in the past. I like rhythm games and the drum one is really fun. When all was said and done we left at 6am. There is no bus in the morning so we walked back which isn't so bad, especially if you like morning walks.
On Saturday the 15th I went to a St. Patricks day dance. The dance is at a club in Akita City and the St Patricks day dance is an especially big even that goes on yearly. It's cool because half of the profits for it go to charity. It was my first time ever going to a club and it was interesting. One of the most surprising things about it was how it was a lot like how I pictured it to be based on movies and what i've heard from people. Usually when you have a pre conception of what something will be like it ends up being completely different and in this case it was a lot like how I thought it would be. That ended up being something very surprising. There were maybe around 100 people there but I'm not too good with estimations. It was kind of a small club but it was very full with people. One reason I had never gone to a club was the cost but the cost at the club was only 1000 yen (about 10 dollars) if you showed your student ID. Plus you got a free drink when you get there. One weird thing about being there was everybody was older than me. I met a number of people there and the youngest one was 25 years old. Also throughout the night I asked 3 different people how old they thought I was when age came up in conversation. All three different times they thought I was 24 years old. Really weird haha. It was a little bit hard to connect with people because of age because age difference in Japan can sometimes be a bigger deal than in the USA. It depends on who you meet but there is definitely a lot more respect for somebody older than you, even if just by a few years. I met a lot of people but I would say I only made one friend while I was there. I talked to a girl because she was wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt. Ninja Turtles are not super popular in Japan and as I was passing I just randomly decided to talk to her. She ended up being really easy to talk to so we talked for quite a while. It was weird when I found out she lives in the same apartment building as me. Then even weirder when I found out she lives on the same floor just 2 rooms down from me haha. Anyways It is interesting to meet lots of people but realize that out of those only a small percent have a chance of being a lasting friend. Kind of sad but true. If nothing else lots of acquaintances made. I actually went to the party with Yasuko who is a good friend from my part time job. I went drinking with Yasuko on Wedneday the 12th and it was a fantastic time. I usually speak with people in Japanese but Yasuko spent a couple years living in Los Angeles so she can speak English well. Since I was able to speak English rather fluently with her I was able to speak my mind and say a lot of things. I can usually say what I want/need in Japanese but speaking with Yaskuko in English made it easy for me to just talk a lot. A combination of her speaking English and her personality I think made us talk about a lot of things that you normally only talk to people you have been friends with for a long time about. It was funny because we talked and drank late into the night and when we were going to go home she said she was going to take a taxi. Then I said we should just hangout until the first train that was at like 520am. The train ticket was less than 2 dollars but the taxi might be around 50 dollars so we hungout/waited around a little extra time til the train came. Anyways I went to the dance with Yasuko, Yukako, Kano, and an Israli named Gal. We actually all went and ate/drank before going to the club. Overall it was a great time. It's strange because for me it is a lot easier to talk to and befriend people older than me so that is kind of what I did/have been doing lately. This coming week the blog will be on time and might have a couple cool things in it. I teach a cooking class this coming Sunday. I'm really not a good cook but I'll be teaching some Japanese how to make French Toast. Which is the most American thing I know how to make within reason. Also I'll be going to my universities graduation ceremony. It is late so I kinda rambled while writing this so congrats if you read all the way to this point. Now I'll post one or two pictues.....
Here is a picture of Yukako on the left, me, and then Yasuko. It was lucky this picture turned out as well as it did. The light flashing on my face made this the best out of like 5 pictures taken in rapid succesion.
Here is a picture I took of Maral on the way back from Round 1 on Tuesday. Theres a picture of us all but I didn't take it..
Here is a picture from the dance I took of the DJ. Overall they played some cool music. Not just the hits of today so that was nice.
Here is a picture I took of Maral on the way back from Round 1 on Tuesday. Theres a picture of us all but I didn't take it.. Here is a picture from the dance I took of the DJ. Overall they played some cool music. Not just the hits of today so that was nice.
Some of the pictures didn't post, please re-post them. Football? Ogres? LOL!!!! Yeeesss!!!
ReplyDelete