First of all, obligatory: Woo! I'm 21! My birthday just came and passed so I am past the key ages in becoming a full-fledged adult citizen in the US. Kind of exciting, though it's rather toned down being in a society where that age is 20 mixed with my distaste for alcohol, the main privelage granted. However I am pretty excited that I can basically go anywhere and do most things, as age is no longer a restriction. Being able to join my friends at a nightclub, even if I choose not to drink, will be a welcome change from past experiences (though I am becoming tired of nightclubs and so whatever).
Anyway, for my birthday Ben, Rike, and I went under Ben's leadership to an Italian Restaurant in Shinagawa, where he paid for my lunch. A few others were supposed to join us, but kind of wimped out at the last minute. It was pretty nice being in just a tiny group, and didn't tire Ben and me out too much for the bus we had to catch that evening. The food was pretty decent, the breads were surprisingly good, and the deserts were tasty. The pastas were a tad lacking, but way better than I would have expected from Japan. It was nice and fun.
That evening Ben and I caught our bus to Osaka, which was the worst of the nightbuses so far -- the seats were all narrow and there area infront of us was blocked at the bottom, giving us no leg room. Thankfully it was relatively short (8 or so hours, about an hour and a half of that spent off the bus at service areas) so the bus itself wasn't much of a problem. It got us to Osaka rather early, though, leaving us rather tired...but unable to check-in to the hotel (about 7AM for those wondering). Instead we wondered the city, eventually making our way out to Osaka Castle.
Eventually I'll put pictures of both up, but Osaka castle looked a lot like the Imperial Castle to me, only the architecture seemed slightly nicer and the gardens slightly less so, though I am inclined to believe my opinion on that would be opposite if I saw both when the sakura were in full bloom. We were able to enter the main tower itself, which was a kind of dull museum with a very few really cool pieces of art and samurai helms. The best part was undoubtedly the observation deck at the top of the tower, where you could see parts of the castle against the modern city. On our way out we ran across one of Ben's classmates from last year, who is studying abroad in Kyoto at Ritsumeikan. It was a pretty strange coincidence, but kind of cool.
After the palace we attempted to get to our hotel...but we had printed the wrong address. We ended up taking the subway to the wrong part of town and exploring, on foot, for something like 2.5 hours. It was kind of ridiculous, as we were both still really exhausted. However, the trains were rather nice and the area we explored was kind of cool to see - rather residential, a bit quieter than most similar Tokyo neighborhoods. I guess we wouldn't have seen it otherwise, and everything worked out so it is alright in the end. Though we crashed RIDICULOUSLY early (Ben was out by like, 4:30, I was out by 5:30). Haha, it was crazy.
My intial thoughts on Osaka: it basically feels like they took all the quieter machi (neighborhoods) from Tokyo and shoved them together, which is rather nice. Walks seem like they can drag on as there isn't as clear a line between an active city neighborhood and filler area as exists in Tokyo. If that doesn't make sense: Tokyo is basically a lot of small, active city neighborhoods connected with long roads. Between each neighborhood there is basically nothing interesting going on, often the streets widen up and all the area is filled with a lot more gray and such, and perhaps some small homes and businesses and such, spread out. The divide between the two is very distinct and obvious. It is much less so in Osaka, I am finding, which kind of makes it feel more unified. Also there are a few rivers in the middle of the city which is really cool and pretty.
As for today, I don't really remember everything Ben said he wanted to do, but I think we are supposed to go down and do...something, maybe go to the water front, head to the Otaku area, and later head to the gay club/bar area? It could be pretty cool, though I guess I am mainly looking forward to seeing the water and eating some Osakan food. Takoyaki, fried octopus balls, are supposed to be amazing/cheap here, so I guess I will be eating some of those. I kind of like them in Tokyo, but the octopus is always so chewy I don't really ever particularly want to eat more than one of them. We'll see how it goes!
P.S. I got my grades back! All of them A or A+ so I will have a 4.0 Fall 2009 Semester! I think I am supposed to be registering for classes this week or next week, either way I should have my next semester schedule ready by the end of the month.
Showing posts with label Night Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Night Club. Show all posts
Friday, March 12, 2010
Sunday, October 11, 2009
I am terrible at this
This week I am using the balcony/dryers outside...and the hangers for my shirts, I guess. Next week I might try the laundromat down the street, since honestly both the washers and dryers in the dorms sort of suck. I am pretty unsatisfied with these dorm facilities: Washers, Dryers, Bathroom Sinks, Showers, Key Holes, Locked Top-Floor Balcony/Windows, Pillows, Lack of Oven. Basically I appreciate that my dorm is rather cheap, but that's primarily because they're all doubles -- junk should work well. All in all none of it is that big a deal, but it is sort of aggravating - especially since there is a monthly utility fee and I am not satisfied with the various waterworks in the building. Oh well. Somewhat related -- sometime in the next week I'm going to try to get my iTouch connected to campus wireless. Apparently there is a blog with instructions, as the tech people here just turn anyone trying away.
This weekend I did some fun stuff, too. On Friday a few of us went to an arcade (Jason, Wu Chiang, and Megan) where we got an attendant to help Jason win Wu a bear, and I blistered my hands playing the drum machine with Megan. I got to play the Lucky Star theme song as well as Tank! The Cowboy Bebop theme! It was awesome.
Saturday night Ben and I went to Nichome, the sort of gay district of Shinjuku. It was kind of...really small and lame. It was maybe two~four blocks, depending on how you count it, and it was mainly tiny one-room bars and sex hotel things. We ended up going to this club, that kind of picked up and was fun after about 11, and a bar called Usagi (rabbit) where there was a cosplay event. At Usagi I got creepily stared at by a worker dressed as a pirate, then we conversed with some drunk middle-aged locals/regulars. At the club we danced with some various groups -- most notably these two, probably straight, girls. I am rather satisfied with this club experience solely because they played Daft Punk (One More Time!! Though I would have been more impressed/excited with something off of Alive 2007 or with Superheroes or Digital Love) and not Kanye West's song that samples Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. But....other than that, basically the people dancing were doing one of two things: Trying to show off their poor dance skills to pick up guys, or just sort of grinding against their boyfriend and making out. It was rather disgusting and I could not have stayed much longer than we did because of that. Oh well, sometime I will go to Roppongi to one of the clubs that plays bad-90s pop music. I basically can't see any way a club like that could not be loads of fun.
Sunday I went to Yokohama in a rather large group, which was enormous fun. It is a harbor, and home to China Town. Basically we got there, walked around taking pictures of the pier:
After the pier we went to an International Food Festival thing, which means I got to have a delicious Peruvian Burrito filled with Chorizo, a Mango Smoothie, and Indonesian Fruit Tea!
Soon afterwards, we went to China Town...which resulted in a lot more pictures and really delicious dinner. Some highlights:
After all of this we got some Anman (adzuki bean filled buns) and walked around the pier area at night. Basically, what I came to Tokyo for:
I'll update later with a full photo-gallery.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Folk Village, Itaewon, and Night Life
Yesterday was an extremely intense day. I woke up around 6:30am, and we were all on busses by about 8. We went to a traditional Folk Village -- of which I have over a hundred photos. In it, buildings were set up to be like a traditional peasant's house and a traditional rich man's house, as well as various shrines, mills, performance arenas, and a Buddhist Temple. There was even an amusement park with a Viking Section (didn't go), and a Haunted House (did go, it was...alright. Really long.) Early into the trip I met my buddy(Sue) through SISS and some of her friends(Jin Tsu and Chon Ye, maybe. I probably butchered both of those), I pretty much stuck with them for the entirity of the Village.
While here we got to see a traditional music/dance performance, which was amazing -- I have a few videos of it, but they don't do it justice. The traditional outfits are all colorful, and they have various hats on their heads -- one with a few colored pompoms, like a clown, one with a giant flower, and one with large streamers. It was like something out of Dr. Seuss.
Afterwards we got to see a traditional tight-rope walker guy. Apparently what he said between crossings was hilarious, and the show was a mix of comedy/suspense. Sue translated some of it, so I can vouch it sounded pretty funny, but it's really not the same as knowing the meaning as he speaks. Oh well.
We went to a Traditional Wedding Ceremony, which was sort of interesting. The man and woman didn't really touch or get very close at all during the procession, and the whole thing was fairly short. Not my favorite part, but it was alright.
It was pretty cool hanging with Sue and her friends (and some of my friends), they were very helpful and sweet. Also, two of them speak Japanese (Better than me, Sue's major is Japanese), so I can get even more practice.
When we had some free time, we checked out the haunted house -- already noted somewhat of a dissappointment, and the Buddhist Temple. The Temple was amazing -- even the path to get there was great. We had to cross a river, and it was surrounded by woods, and the gates and buildings were all magnificent. I can't do it justice through describing it, nor do my pictures do it any justice. It was amazing.
Afterwards we went back to campus, and a fee hours later I went out with a group (Rommy, Ara, Juin, Steph) to Itaewon. Itaewon is the foreigner's district. It has pretty much everything not Korean. A lot of things were American, but the mix of countries was still rather wild. For example, there was a Turkish ice-cream vendor working the street. We ended up going to an Arabian restaurant, as it's Rommy's favorite (Rommy, Ara, and Juin led us around since they have lived here a while. Rommy and Juin for some numbere of months, Ara wasborn and raised here.) It was really good, and pretty cool. It was something of an authentic restaurant, the staff all spoke arabic and such, which was rather surprising considering the lack of foreigners I've seen before this.
Later in the night (we stopped at the dorms than left) we went out to this Night-club district near Sinchon. I really wish I knew what it was called, but I don't. I'll try to find out. It was crammed with restuarants, bars, and clubs. Extremely bright and vibrant, it was amazing. We ended up going to a bar for a few hours, and then a nightclub.
The bar was not especially interesting, but the nightclub was really cool. Thumping beat, strobe lights, a laser light show, blacklights, and fog machines were on the dance floor (and pretty much everywhere), and the bar was littered with clear monitors with LED's in them with a menu(They changed color too!) the whole thing was an awesome first clubbing experience.
A lot of interesting stuff happened in the night club, as I'm sure is standard, so I'll try to avoid getting into too much detail. However, it is of note that there were craploads of foreigners, and gay Korean guys. The first because we met a few (we ended up dining with one and her Korean friend after the club), and Steph was nearly picked up by an American In-Fighter (and some of his friends, though they also tried to pick up Ara for a while, and Juin before Rommy stepped up). The latter because I was hit on by a plethora of gay Koreans. One even danced with me for a while, and then tried to buy me a beer (There was some misunderstandings going on. At some point in the night I think he sent a friend to ask if I was gay, though I couldn't hear the guy so well and didn't know they were affilliated, so I didn't really answer. Later we found him at the bar, with the friend he sent nearby, and he sorta punched his hand in the air like we did when we were dancing. I did too, he punched a beer into the air, Rommy did too, as we thought he was just sorta doing a cheers to us for dancing with him. Then the guy ordered a beer and tried to call me over. It was all rather awkward). For the record, just about every Korean there was at least as awkward a dancer as me, if not more so. Which, to anyone who has seen me dance, certainly must be hilarious.
All-in-all, it was a pretty cool night, though I was exhausted from it. Today I should be going to the Electric Market, finally, with Steph and Zach. Tomorrow classes start, so I'll probably go out a bit less often/subsequently have less to say.
--Daniel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)