Noise, Shopping, Women

As already mentioned, my pace of living here in Japan is quite fast these first few days, which is why I have neglected to write about a lot of things. A few I’d like to mentioned follow here:

My dormitory is situated right next to the sports area. This means, every morning (except Sunday) at around 8 o’clock I am woken up by screams, shouts, etc. of sports club practicing mainly on the big field: football, American football, rugby, lacrosse, hockey.. Frisbee. This could work out as an advantage for getting up in time for classes, but at the moment it robs me of sleep. They even practice in abnormal weather and seem to yell even more then.

Stop the noise

I have been stocking up on goods for my room such as shampoo, listerine, bin, kettle, cleaning things, etc. I also got me some cheap speakers because my laptop speakers are plain terrible. My wallet and I would like to thank Tatsu for driving us around Fuchu to shop in cheaper places than I could have possibly ever reached. We even got a rice cooker and made a delicious meal together in Tom’s room: Miso soup, gyoza, beef, rice, soy sauce.

rice cooker n shiz

too hungry, forgot before picture

After shopping with Tatsu, we went to an izakaya (居酒屋) that lured us in with a 10% off voucher. We had wonderful food (each dish 270円) and a few drinks. The most interesting part of the evening was, that in a booth further away from us in the same restaurent there were 7 Japanese women having drinks. At least one of them knew Tatsu, so they invited us over for drinks, and we accepted. We had fun times trying to introduce ourselves in Japanese and having little conversations. It was good practice for us, and for them we were the entertainment for that evening. I think at least one of them was hitting on Tom. We parted promising each other we’d all go hiking together one day, but I doubted they’d remember the next morning.

Women and us, Kat taking the pic (thanks Kat)

Speaking of restaurants, I also failed to mention that the day we went to buy our keitais, Koichi took us to a maid cafe. Basically, everything in there is cutesie, the servants are all dressed in a maid costume (revealing more than usual) and the prices are horrendous. Furthermore, you’ll hear cheesy cute music in the background and the maids talk to you in the same fashion. It was an interesting experience, but I doubt I’ll ever go again. Slightly creepy.