After a long weekend of drinking with japanese people...

First of all, I'm not really going to bother with the things that happened during the school week, beacuse they were mostly just going to the local izakaya (they finally handed me a discount card) most every night and getting mildly buzzed... BUT, the weekend was something else. Friday night we decided to hang with a bunch of the kids from the Asia Center (the other hotel here that's keeping the exchange students), and we all met in Shibuya to pregame/eat before going to a club. (which was cool because I hadn't drank with my Belgin friends yet). we all went around the area (those of us that wanted to eat) and we ended up at this resdurant where you sit around a hibachi grill, just in the center of a normal sized table, and they bring you the raw ingredients and you cook the food yourself. It was very very good, I had made myself some beef steak bits that were fantastic. We then went to a "pub" and chilled for a little bit, and some of the asia center people and I decided that we didn't want to go to the club (the people that went said it was nothing different than what you find in america except there are lots of people that don't speak english). So I took some of the Asia center kids to the izakaya place that I go and hang out at.. and we had some merriment. Saturday, after sleeping in till 2, I went around did some shopping etc. and then we headed out for the afternoon to go to fireworks with Teru and his friends from school (sofia). We went and watched some fireworks from a hill side, and then we went down onto an open field and played "suica kitta" or "cut the watermelon". It's sort of like a pinata, but japanese style. A watermelon is layed out in the center of an open space (on a piece of plastic so you can get the bits) and a person is blindfolded a ways away from it, and spun several times. The people on the person's team tell them where to go, and they walk out until they're in front of the watermelon, and they raise a wooden sword above their heads and get one firm strike down. I have to say that I missed, but it was all good. I have a "date" to hang out with momoko, definitely one of the cooler japanese girls I've met here, look forward to that... After the watermelon we went back to ikebukoro, and went to Karaoke. It was something else having mostly japanese people singing, though they wanted us to chose mostly songs that we were familiar with. Teru, our event co-ordinator, decided that he'd go head to head with brandon, and they both got incredibly sick. I ended up carrying Teru back to our hotel (the trains were closed and our japanese friends were unable to get home until 5), and he passed out in my friend Jason's room. All in all an interseting weekend, I can't wait to see what the next one brings. Coming up, it's Mt. Fuji on wednesday night/thursday morning (trying to be ontop of the mountain right at sunrise) and this weekend I think I go to kamakura. hope all's well in the U.S.-Jud