Tonight was a fun night. It started at Katrina’s apartment (where I was quite late due to the fact that I get off work at 9pm and everyone else had been partying for three hours already), then went to a little dive bar with karaoke, then ended at a gaikokujin bar near Okaido.
This may make very little sense to you, and that’s okay, because here are my takeaway lessons:
- Japanese bars have the coolest karaoke machines. The tiny place we went had a WiFi remote for their karaoke machine. The remote had a touchscreen that let you search by song name or artist name, and the microphones were also wireless.
- As much as I may like (or not like, depending on my mood) my apartment, Katrina’s is better. She has three (albeit smaller) rooms to my one larger one, with a full-size couch (it’s a pullout!) and a regular western-style bed.
- Japanese people really know how to cut loose. At Sala Sol (the gaikokujin bar near Okaido), I saw a number of Japanese businessmen that were totally plastered. It was a little surprising, because although I’d heard of the stereotype, I’d only seen Japanese people during the daytime with their professional faces on. I was introduced to a whole new part of town, with a multitude of watering holes and stumbling suits.
- I discovered that there really is a foreigner contingent in this town outside of the JET ALTs. In Sala Sol, I met a number of native English speakers who have nothing to do with JET (okay, two, but that’s independently surprising just the same).
Anyway, it was a fun night (morning!). It was my first real night out on the town since coming to Japan, and I was so very glad to have it (even if it did involve fixing Katrina’s computer). 🙂
This being Halloween, I thought I’d share with you a video of the setup for my school’s annual Halloween party. You can see the size of the hall we use and get an idea of how we entertain 100 of our students for two and a half hours.