Settling in

After almost 2 weeks of class, it seems like I've started to hammer out a routine. I do the homework, watch lots of TV online, generally make and eat dinner with a few of the other students, etc. The weekend is reserved for good times.

Last Friday, we went out. After briefly seeing the Whiffenpoofs--and thus my roommate from last summer--in Roppongi, we managed to get into Muse. The process was actually pretty funny, since they let all the girls--who were clearly with us--into the club without comment and then stopped the rest of us for ID at the door. Again, they wanted business cards or something. However, we calmly explained that we were all students for the summer and, more importantly, that we were with those girls who had just gone in. They let us in, and the aforementioned good times were had. I also met up with another friend, who works for Bloomberg in Tokyo.

Unfortunately, getting a cab back was a bitch and a half. Somehow, a group of rain-soaked gaijin just couldn't get a break on the busy streets of Roppongi. We ate at a cheapalicious ramen place to pass the time, finally managed to hail a cab and got driven to a spot that was a good 7 minute walk from our apartment building. I don't know what that driver's problem was, since he had a GPS. Fucker.

On Saturday, we went karaokeing, which was lots of fun. The last time I did it in Tokyo, it was with a smaller group, and more people definitely made for more excitement. If you don't know how karaoke works at a real karaoke place (not a bar with a karaoke machine in the main room), it's like this. You and your friends get a private, soundproofed room with your own machine, TV, mics, the works. We paid by the hour, but you can get a good deal on all-night singing, and some places have all-you-can-eat or all-you-can-drink rates.

Skipping ahead a little, we repeated the experience (with an even larger group) on Tuesday, which was the birthday of one of the students here. By and large, it was a lot of fun. Many a glass was accidentally broken, though not by me. There is more of a story to that night, but you'll forgive me if I make you ask me about it directly. I'll throw three little tidbits your way: 1) We pregamed the event. 2) We brought booze in with us. 3) We won't be showing our faces at that karaoke place anytime soon.

Anyway, you get the picture: weekdays work, weekends wackiness. Unfortunately, SANC does not get the picture and likes to make us do stuff on our weekends. Last Saturday, there was some kind of tea ceremony type thing at 1:30. Now, if I had not already participated in a tea ceremony at a real live Japanese person's house, I might have considered attending for a few minutes. As it was, I just said, "Fuck that, it's Saturday" and slept from 5am until 3pm, at which point I woke up extremely hungover and ornery. Everyone else had long since left, and someone was nice enough to cover for me. You know who you are! お世話になってありがとう！

This weekend--well, starting Friday afternoon--we have a homestay. For some reason, each student gets to stay with a Tokyo family, except for me. I'm taking a train out to Kamakura, which is about 30 miles from Tokyo. True, it's barely far enough out to be considered a separate city from Tokyo, but the teachers were incredibly apologetic about the distance nevertheless. Now I know what you levelheaded, reasonable blog-readers are going to say: "Come on, it's a homestay, it'll be fun. Plus, SANC is giving you Monday off." Well, first, it's creepy that you know so much about my schedule, and, second, while I realize that it will be fun, it will also be work, after a fashion, and I'm not big on that sort of thing during what should be my time off, as was intended by our Creator, Lord and Savior, Richard Dawkins.

Whatever. I'm sure I'll get over it, as long as they have the Internet. Alison tells me that Japan has the highest rating worldwide for wireless access per household, or something like that, and I'm not going into the deep countryside, so my chances are looking pretty good.

また今度