On Friday, a group of us managed to pull what I believe was our first all-nighter. We drank in the streets, we drank in the subways, we drank in the bars and clubs. Around 3:30-ish, we got in a couple of cabs and headed over to Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world, to watch the hustle and bustle as it opened up. I'd already seen it, two summers ago, but I wanted the inevitably sushi breakfast that would follow.
Unfortunately, getting there at 4 was a good hour too early. Now, I thought that, last time I went, it was before 5 o'clock, but that might have been because we were on a tour with the executive chef of the Park Hyatt hotel. So we went into some fast-food place to waste an hour.
It was there that we entered that special stage of exhaustion wherein everything seems hilarious. Most of the hour was spent laughing about the purported contents of one of the items on the menu: bracken. For the life of me, I cannot now comprehend what was so funny about bracken, but we all thought we'd struck a vein of comedy gold.
Anyway, after that, we went into the fish market, where the busy fishermen riding around on their bizarre-looking little cars through the labyrinth of ichthyic aliment spared no effort trying to run us over. Especially the girls in their nice dresses and heels. It was quite a sight. Once we'd had our metaphorical fill of fish, we proceeded to have our literal fill of fish at one of Tsukiji's overpriced sushi breakfast places. It was delicious.
Saturday was a little less interesting, but still fun. We went out to Kabukicho, the red lightiest of Tokyo's many red light districts, whereupon we were escorted by what I can only call a pimp to a pretty crappy club. After walking around for a while, we managed to find a neat horror-themed bar/restaurant, which required us to walk through a dark and spooooky hallway that must have made some noises or something, because everyone ahead of me freaked out and tried to escape. I helped the sane among us push the others inside. One of us also had to stick his hands through a hole in the door or something to have them handcuffed before we could be let into the restaurant proper.
The waiters, who wore baggy striped prison outfits, crammed us into a tiny prison cell of a room, which became only increasingly cramped as other friends joined us later in the evening. We ordered various horror- and drug-themed drinks, like some cocktail with an eyeball in it, a row of shots and mixers in test-tubes, a drink inside a big plastic syringe, etc. It was all very charming. I naturally ordered the strongest thing in the house, some tall titration beaker filled with a 50% alcoholic liquid that was probably some variant on limoncello.
Since Kabukicho is in Shinjuku, we were able to walk back home in about 20 minutes and didn't have to stay out all night.
The only thing worth mentioning from the week proper was Tuesday, on which we went to a Tokyo elementary school to learn kids some knowledge. Actually, we were just there to teach them games. After the opening welcome ceremony, during which we all introduced ourselves on a stage before hundreds of watchful young eyes and then listened to the dulcet tones of their (quite frankly amazing) school band's rendition of John Williams' unforgettable masterpiece, the opening theme from Star Wars, we went our separate ways to teach our classes... alone.
As putative "advanced" students, we were assigned the oldest kids, and I ended up with 6th graders. Still, they were good kids. I prepared a Pictionary-variant game for them, and I'd spent precious time (which could have been spent watching Highlander: the Series online) contemplating, writing and cutting out slips of paper with 50 Japanese words of varying levels of difficulty. We did 4 of them.
Turns out, all the classes already had plans for us, which I believe universally involved playing Musical Chairs and Fruits-In-The-Basket. My kids also introduced themselves individually and told me what they thought made their school in particular and Japan more generally so great. Apparently, the school is very clean, with fighting markedly absent, and Japan has lots of culture, food and public transportation. See? It was a learning experience for everyone. We also had lunch in our individual classrooms. The kids were amazingly serious about preparing and serving lunch, with the assigned students dressing up practically like hospital surgeons for the job. During the meal, the kids at my table mostly asked me about what anime and manga I liked. I never thought I'd hear Fullmetal Alchemist be called "old." Damn.
All in all, they were great kids, and I had good time. And I'll never see or remember any of them ever again. Ever. :D
Now, on a more serious note, I've heard concerns that I should take my current educational opportunity more seriously, or at least pretend to take it more seriously on my highly public blog, which is supposedly read by Light Fellowship staff. In response to said concerns, I would just like to note that I am here to learn Japanese (among other things), and I am learning it. You don't need to get an A+ to learn something (and I think I got a B or B- on my midterm, even with my previously noted lack of studying). In fact, I am surprised every day by how much more Japanese I can read on sight. So please forgive me if I don't stress out and bury my nose in my books to squeeze out the extra 10 points. Or, if you can't forgive me, kindly blow it out your ear. (See, I can be slightly genteel, if I try.)
SUPER HAPPY FUN DELICIOUS PICTURE TIME!
Me examining one of the drawings. Man, some of them really sucked. I've got a good one I'm going to keep, but unfortunately I returned the camera cable I loaned, so I can't upload a picture of it just now.
Me, about to start another round.
Introducing myself. Me! Me! MEEEEE!
This is how they serve lunch.
This pretty much underscores how staggeringly different my 6th-grade experience was from theirs. Especially given that this is not my classroom and is in fact filled with 2nd-graders. We're talking major discipline here. Major discipline and concomitant societal tension.
This random delight comes from that Italian dinner we had with our buddies way back when at the beginning of the program. Damn, my hair was short.
SO CUTE! I CAN'T STAND IT!
Family pic.
This might give you a better understanding of the awesomeness that is okonomiyaki. Probably not, though.
Waiting for our sushi and sashimi. That Japanese girl in the front was with us. The incredibly sketchy guy in the back was most decidedly not.
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