So what have I been doing since I stopped school? Partying of course! First up: Playstation 3 at Michel’s (on his Beamy!), followed by Hiphop and Ramen in Shibuya.

Next up: Mimmi’s birthdayparty. Of course we started out with nomihoudai karaoke. Although the girls hogged the mic, so we didn’t get to sing much, it did set the tone for the rest of the evening (partaaaaay).

After the karaoke it was time for some more nomihoudai pleasure over at Pure. It does have a magical attraction, all you can drink clubs…

The next day, it was finally time to play some poker. Robin, Michel, Tosh, Chie and Mike (fellow resident) joined, so we had a nice 6 headed game. Needless to say, their Japanese genes kicked in, so Tosh and Chie cleaned us out the second tourney.

Last Friday, I met up with Robin to chill a bit. We weren’t gonna go out, since we were both very tired and had plans for Saturday. However, after a while we started investigating the neighborhood a bit, and stumbled upon a tiny bar somewhere near Robin’s house. The old Japanese people inside were very surprised to see two young gaijin standing in the door, and at first the owner lady shouted to us that if we didn’t speak Japanese, we couldn’t enter. Needless to say, we entered the place, showing off our “best” Japanese. We had to sing some karaoke on a classic Laser Disc karaoke set, and impressed everybody there by actually singing some old Japanese songs…

Saturday I set out to buy a new shirt. Robin joined me, as he wanted to look for some records for his DJ set that night. We walked around Harajuku and Shibuya all day. I found a nice polo, I even bought my first CD in years! An excellent minimal techno album by Akiko Kiyama. After shopping all day, we both went to our homes to prepare for the night, since Robin was supposed to do his DJ thing in a small club a couple of stations from Shibuya.

I got home, freshened up, ate some and left around 9 to meet up with Robin in Iidabashi. Got on the train, and just as the train left the station, I got a call from Robin. “Funny thing… my gig is next week!” So no DJing for Robin that night, which also meant, no plans for the evening anymore. We decided to meet up in Shinjuku and decide what the correct course of action would be that night.

We were joined by Frederico, an Italian dude who used to live at Robin’s guesthouse, and Aki, Frederico’s girlfriend. We first went for drinks in some small backstreets near the station. However, we choose some place, where we were only allowed to stay if we would keep on eating. Just drinking turned out to be impossible, and we were rudely requested to leave the place.

So now we had to find a new place. We walked around Shinjuku for about half an hour looking for an interesting place to go, when we actually stumbled into the “Golden Gai” area. I hadn’t heard of the place before, but when you enter the area, it immediately radiates Japan all over you. The small streets are filled with tiny bars (if you can fit 10 people inside, it’s big) and the whole area feels entirely different than the rest of the city.

We stumbled out of the place around 2, only to take a cab to Shibuya to keep up our party efforts. We decided to go for cheap and ended up in, you guessed it, pure! There, I met a nice Japanese girl, Midori, who was being closely monitored by her friends and little brother. However, I did manage to get her phone number, so I hope I’ll get to meet her again (will keep you posted on that one).

As of Friday the 25th of April, I am no longer in school. After four months of studying my ass of, it is about time I start relaxing a bit and see some more of Japan than just my school. I’ve learned a lot the past few months, and am by now able to have a simple conversation in Japanese. Of course full fledged discussions about politics are still quite far away, but at least I can have “pub conversations”. Now I’ll start focusing more on learning the kanji and extending my vocabulary in my own time.

However, before all of that, it was of course time to paaarty. I invited all my classmates for dinner in Shibuya and fortunately most were able to make it.

After dinner we quickly went for nomihoudai karaoke, to get the night started. Boy, did we succeed with that…

Since some of us had to catch last trains home, and others weren’t able to walk anymore, we decided to go find ourselves another place to continue the festivities. We found a small izakaya/bar kind of place, where we quickly continued our binge drinking. After about half an hour we were joined by Michel and his colleagues.

We were drinking so merrily, that after a while the waiter had to inform us that unfortunately they were out of draft beer. No worries, we just switched to Sapporo beer bottles! Until after a while they also ran out of those… So I can finally proudly proclaim we managed to finish all the beer in a bar!

As the bar was out of beer, it was time to go clubbing. We decided to go to Pure, because Mimmi had informed us that they had nomihoudai clubbing there. I must be honest, I don’t remember much of the club, other than the club itself isn’t very special. But being with a fun group, and having all you can drink helped a lot. I found a lot of pictures of which I had no recollection whatsoever taking them though…

Thanks everybody, for a wonderful time at school and of course an excellent party!

After almost three months of study and working my ass off, it was time for a well deserved break from it all. Where to do that better than in Japans most Northern region, Hokkaido. I left for Hokkaido on a Saturday the 22nd and took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Morioka first. Morioka is a small city on route toward Hokkaido, and I decided to spend one night there, because I didn’t feel like doing the whole trip in one go.

Of course I had to go and party before I left, so on Friday me and Michel went clubbing in Shibuya. The evening was a bit weird, but enjoyable and we ended up at good old Atom again. We stayed until first (or was it second… third?) train, so I decided I wouldn’t go to sleep, but wait until it was time to catch my train, and sleep on my way to Morioka (a good 4 hours ride). However, getting this well needed rest proved to be a bit of a problem.

I was seated next to a nice elderly Japanese lady, who immediately started chattering away. As she was very nice, and it was of course a good chance to practice my Japanese, I had no choice but to stay awake and chat with her. We talked about Holland and Japan and I found out she was on her way to the wedding of her cousin. The wedding was at Sendai, so I knew then I couldn’t sleep for at least 3 hours .

After a while we kind of ran out of conversation material, so I started to doze off a little. Luckily (?), this was quickly remedied by the lady swapping places with her husband, who of course also liked to talk with this nice little gaijin. So there I sat again, chattering away with the husband. And you know what, although I was tired like crazy, it was very enjoyable and I had a great start of my journey.

When I arrived at Morioka around half past 1, I decided to look for a hotel first and catch up on some sleep. I found the towns plan in front of the station, and was trying to figure out which hotel to go to. Immediately a woman came up to me to help me find what I needed. I thanked her, but explained her that I was ok, since I had just found the place I wanted to go, with a name I just couldn’t refuse: R&B Hotel. I went into the hotel to book my room, only to find out I could only check in from four in the afternoon. So there I was, packed with my huge backpack, not able to get a room. I walked around town a bit, trying to figure out how to handle this and decided upon just hanging out on the square in front of the station.

Which was a bit… boring, but I was so tired by then, I didn’t care. Around 3 o’ clock I realized it would’ve been better if I had put my bag in a locker, and just went to sleep in a coffee house or something, but by then it was of course too late, so I just stayed and waited at the square until the precious hour had arrived. At 4 ‘o clock sharp I checked in and found… The best bed ever!

It was only then that I realized I really, really miss a normal bed. So glad my next room will have exactly that. I slept until about eight and then went out to get me something to eat, and find a bar mentioned in the Lonely Planet. It was called fukakusa and it looked like it was pretty close to the hotel, so I decided to walk there. About 20 minutes later I kind wished I hadn’t, although I got a nice view of the city walking to basically the other side of it.

After a while I found the television tower, where the bar should be near, but couldn’t really see anything that resembled a bar from a distance. I went to the location on the map anyway, only to find a very, very, very tiny bar. The sign confirmed that it was the place I was looking for, but it felt like walking into someone’s living room. However, inside I found one of the coziest atmospheres one could encounter. Only a couple of people there, but everybody was very nice and we spoke a lot about a lot of things, in Japanese!

The bar closed a bit before midnight and, since I was still very tired, I decided to go back to my hotel. Walking back again, I passed a small place, playing very loud house music. As I passed the place, a dude dancing inside beckoned me to come in and join the party. At first I walked on, and then I thought… What the heck, I’m leaving tomorrow anyway. So in I went, to find a nice little house party going on in the small bar.

There weren’t even 20 people inside I think, but again the atmosphere was very nice. I got received with a huge cheer and immediately felt very welcome. I ordered a drink, sat down and started enjoying the nice party going on here. After about half an hour the music suddenly stopped, and one of the girls present was called up front. Apparently it was her birthday, everybody congratulated her and she got a nice birthday cake.

After that fun break, the music started pumping again. I spoke with some of the guys inside and with the owner of the bar. A very nice young Japanese woman, who walked around the place all the time partying along with everybody. After a while the guy who beckoned me in started spinning the records and treated us with some very nice minimal techno music! It was a blast.

Around 2 at night I staggered out of the place, promising everybody I would return here, as soon as I could. I went back to my hotel and fell asleep very satisfied. The first day of my journey was a blast! Where in Tokyo people are a little bit fed up with foreigners (or so it seems sometimes), in Morioka everybody’s really excited when they meet you and wants to hear all about you. It was a really nice change of pace… Morioka, I want to visit you again!

Anybody curious about how my date with the Brazilian girl went? Currently I’m trying to stay awake to catch my train and head off toward Hokkaido (the Northern region of Japan) , so I just as well update my blog a little. However, writing a full fledged story is a little bit hard in my current state. So I’ll just stick with the basics:

Karaoke rocks!!!

This is what karaoke was meant for, go Robin!

Today I’m off to Hokkaido and will finally take some time off everything. I’m leaving my laptop behind in Tokyo, so I won’t work, I am going alone, so I won’t be obliged to do anything for anybody, and I have got some study books with me, to finally catch up with my Japanese language course!

I am gonna check out the quieter side of Japan; Onsen (hotsprings), National parks and temples, that’s what it’s gonna be (probably).

mata ne!

After my previous little cliffhanger, it is time for a full fledged update. But first a small explanation of what the video was all about. We were going out in Shinjuku, nothing special, just some food and drinks, when we decided to meet up with Chie, who was having dinner with a colleague near us. We were waiting for her, to come and pick us up, when suddenly we heard some commotion across the street. This turned out to be a very drunk “salary man” running around with his pants on his heels. I grabbed my camera, but while I got it, he pulled up his pants. Of course we couldn’t let him pass just like that. And hence we got his attention, and a cinematographic classic was born.

After this nice little distraction, we met up with Chie, and went to the Izakaya where her friend was waiting. We had drinks and food at the Izakaya , after which we of course went for karaoke. We were all quite drunk, so it was awesome and I finally got to sing “If I can dream” by Elvis!

The next day it was time for Igrushka’s final concert. With Artem going home, this unfortunately means the end of this nice little band. They will search for a new drummer, but will probably continue with a different name when they find one. The show was excellent, their best show so far, very sad though, that it was their last. Luckily this didn’t destroy our mood, since soon after their show ended, we were treated with the appearance of the next band.

About this next band, what do you think about the singer?

A: She’s a hot chick
B: She’s a lolita goth chick
C: She’s a visual kei dude

Let’s just say, it ain’t A, which I became painfully aware of, when (s)he started to sing… Visual kei is basically trash metal, where the band members dress up as extravagantly as possible. Everything is good, as long as it looks impressive. Another example of visual kei, a bit closer to home is the singer of Tokyo Hotel. Anyway, although their music was not good at all, the show they gave was very funny and entertaining, and gave us plenty of opportunity to throw around Yuji, Artem and myself!

After the visual kei show, we were treated to the sweet jamming tunes of gypsyconnection. These guys really know how to create smooth music. I ended up sitting in the middle of the dance floor, chilling to their groovy tunes. They even had a sing along tune, with the magical chorus: “kiko kiko, rin rin,” which comes down to, I’m cycling around, ringing my bell to pretty girls (go Japanese language).

After the shows, we went with Igrushka to an Izakaya to drink and eat all night long. It was very cool. We drank and ate a lot, like is usual in Japan. After a while Naofumi and Miki fell asleep, but Yuji and Nao held strong. Until we started playing drinking games (“One woman… got fucked… up the ass… whoohoo. Two women… two women… got fucked… got fucked… ah well you get it… whoohoo!), that quickly got Nao wasted as well, Yuji held strong though. Nao, Miki and Naofumi went to wait for first train in a manga cafe, while Artem, Kelly, Yuji and me stayed at the Izakaya.

Hold up, did I just say Kelly? Oh yes I did, Kelly used to be a colleague (or was it superior?) of Artem at the Gabba language institute. She an Australian girl who came to Japan to work as a study counselor thingy for Japanese people applying to learn English. We had a lot of fun, and she even renamed everyone of us (Hi, my name is Ben).

The next week was filled with school and aikijujutsu. Of course it was heavy eating and drinking with sensei afterwards, so the week was quite wrecking, but lots of fun! That Friday we had a special event at school. They had organized a speech contest. The higher classes had to write a small essay as part of their course, and the best writers/speakers of each class got to compete in this contest. Every contestant was introduced by his or her classmates in the most creative of ways. It was very funny to see, although we couldn’t understand a lot of it yet.

On Saturday I wanted to go to a drum n bass party in Womb, one of the hottest clubs in Shibuya. So I contacted the usual suspects and we met for drinks in Shibuya. We went to the cheap bar, where they serve pints for just 300 Yen (~2 Euro), and started with the binge drinking to get in the mood. Unfortunately people started bailing out at that point, Artem didn’t have any money, Joy went home early, and so on and so on. So I ended up with just Swaroop and some weird Korean dude.

While we were drinking, Swaroop suddenly got his glass filled by a dude who gave him some strong Japanese liquor. He kept on filling everybody’s glasses with it, but fortunately I had just ordered myself a beer, so I got spared. After a while, it turned out the guy had stolen the bottle he was using to fill our glasses. Of course the bar personnel found out and got really really mad (duh), at which point he just bolted and left the place.

Because of that incident though, we started talking to a group of girls standing near us. I started talking with a Brazilian girl, Marcia, and Swaroop managed to establish contact with a French girl, whose name I do not know. They were there with a Japanese girl, a Japanese guy and a French guy. All of them were very fun, and since it was quite late already, we decided to skip Womb and join them for another party.

The other party became Gaspanic. Gaspanic is comparable to Amsterdamned and such places in Amsterdam, although the music is mostly hip hop. It is a chain with Gaspanic places everywhere around Tokyo, and usually the drunk American marines hang out there, molesting Japanese girls. This time though, it was very fun, and there were now obnoxious Americans to be found.

Of course we drank a lot, and I ended up dancing quite a bit with Marcia. Damn those Brazilians can move! I am fairly confident about my dancing skills (taking into account I’m a white guy ), but damn, at several points I simply had no clue what to do with this twirling and grinding chick in front of me. Quite the experience!

We exchanged phone numbers and went for a lunch date last Saturday, but that’s a story for another day…