nomi-kai confessions

some useful definitions:

nomi-kai - a drinking party that generally takes place at a nomi-hodai, an all you can drink/eat bar. most college kids here tend to go to ones sponsored by their respective clubs pretty often.

kampai! - what you say when clink your joy-juice filled glasses

amai wine - the bane of my sobriety. as expected, my tolerance for alcohol is like that of a five-year-old's - after one and a half cups of the sweet stuff last week, the room started moving too slowly and did not speed up until I conveniently passed out, inconveniently three hours later.

yopparatta ne? - see last night. "you're drunk, aren't you?," aka something I'd never hear back home since I don't drink. I decided to make a special exception for this Tokyo trip, though, because a) I'm legal, woo! and b) I have no plans to try out the messier side of alcohol-induced"good times." yup yup.

last night (disambiguation) - ha ha. I love when Wikipedia does that. my extreme coolness aside, all these words do come in handy when describing last night's activities, or my nomi-kai with Akiko-san's high school pals! Puuko-san and Yoko-san are the perfect friends for a person like my host mom, who we can call "Kumichou" (Yakuza boss) since she's the PTA prez. anyway, by the time everything was said and drunk, Steven, Akiko-san and I were weaving a path through the crowded train back, taking pictures, slipping in and out of terrible Japanese (just me and Steven, natch), and making wonderful new friends!

::picture soon to come. just imagine a smiling salaryman holding up the peace sign next to Steven::

here's a quote, post festivities from my host mom to Marina, who wanted to see if she could get a ride from the train station. Akiko-san spoke in English (she's kind of amazing at it), as she likes to do:

-"Marina, I'm sorry but I can't pick you up. I'm drunk! I can't drive... I hope you come home tonight... eego ga wakaranai... "

the japanese montell jordan??

nah, we probably shouldn't go that far. but toshi kubota is still pretty darn entertaining! it's like everything good about the 90s rolled into one extended carefree sequence of mushroom cuts and topknots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHugWXF2lPU

whenever I think about this song (which is often) I start smiling uncontrollably - until I realize that the lady I'm squashed next to on the train is now staring and likely trying to inch to safety. then I try to force my mouth into expressionlessness (is that a word?) but I just end up with this strangled half-grin on my face and a little more breathing room than even I should expect...

it's good that TK can get me in a such a nice mood, because registering for classes is a headache and a half. the only one I got was my Japanese (aka intensive Death), so I had to spend this past week trying to finagle my way into the anthro classes I want to/have to take in order to not have the worst senior spring ever. my daily 3-hour monster of a Japanese class kind of cut down on my choices, but that was cool because the one I really wanted to take since I was home in the States was open! Yes, the Anne Allison (famous anthropologist) course which, oh wait, EVERYONE wants to take because she's only here for the semester.

so yeah, I was pretty much ready to give up on this particular Tokyo dream and console myself with more La-La-La Love Song when I went to speak to her today (again with EVERYONE else). it was interesting, though... when it came time for me to give her my story, I felt especially uneasy about having to name drop to get myself in.

clearly I've been name dropping all my life, probably more so when I went Ivy and definitely last summer, when I had to get those rich bums in Connecticut to believe that I wasn't some black delinquent going door-to-door for the charity of Regina. I knew that if I gave A. Allison the one-two combo (pre-thesis at Harvard, and with Prof Bestor for an advisor, baby!) she'd wave the white flag, but I wish I didn't have to. I'd rather try to do the academic thing and have her judge me on that, instead of being tied to the amazing credentials of others I'm affiliated with. disappointing other people can turn into the worst kind of kryptonite, ne?

I'm not too worried about that right now, though. as TK says, "maware maware (spin, spin) merry-go-round/I wanna be your Shining Star." and indeed, the great merry-go-round of life shall spin, resulting in brand new la-la loves for some and fulfilling work experiences for others. thank you, Toshi.

the end of the beginning

(me and one of Shannon's friends at a Yoyogi Park o-hanami - when everyone goes to "check out" the pretty cherry blossom trees that bloom in early April. but don't be fooled, peeps: you really go to get drunk and stay that way for as long as possible! this particular one turned into a mini-rave, if my awesome glasses are any indicator)


yay! finally, welcome to the blog, aka the daily (probably more like weekly, though, if we're being honest) record of my reactions to the amazing city of Tokyo, over the 4 months in which I'll experience it. I actually got here about two months ago, but due to some serious technological difficulties and my complete laziness, I've only just gotten this thing up and running. but no worries - you didn't miss too much. we're on the Japanese school system, so I'm still in my first week of classes, clubs and general craziness. and I'll throw in stories about the random things that happened before now, like having an all-nighter at the gaijin nightclub, feeling my first earthquake (kanaa?) and standing next to Stevie Wonder :D

fyi, for the first month I was here, I lived in a dorm in an area called Miyazakidai. in Japan, dorms are a) privately owned, so you've probably got at least a half hour commute to school, b) single-sex, with no members of the opposite sex allowed past the front door, and c) usually equipped with really annoying midnight curfews. as in no one can get in or out from 12:01 am to 6:29 am. it sort of makes sense since the trains stop running from like 12:30 to 5:00 (taxis will take you for everything you're worth), but it still gives you a sucky ultimatum for those of us who don't like to choose between catching some z's and having a good time - either leave the night establishment you've been patronizing right when all the locals show up, or do the all night thing and die the next day! count yourselves among the lucky, American kids... but if I didn't think about that, or the relative lack of options on the cafeteria menu, dorm life was pretty ok. it was nice being able to keep yourself to yourself, and I could go to Harajuku and Shibuya for free with my commuter pass. anyway, after the first month, I moved to where I am now - with my crazy host family in Saitama, aka the burbiest of the Tokyo suburbs. when Akiko-san, Marina, and Stephen, my host mom and sister and exchange brother (he's from Oregon) and I are all together, it's good, ridiculous times.


I miss everybody and everything I know in a very absent kind of way, which people who've tried to contact me before are probably familiar with. as it turns out, even in Japan I accept where I am pretty quickly at face value. this has its advantages (homesickness usually only hits when I try to make appointments at the one stupid salon here that has an unfair monopoly on black hair care) but of course, the downside is a problem - I feel like this a lot of this trip is just passing me by. maybe writing all this stuff down semi-faithfully will help make this cherry-blossom fantasy that much more real...