Of Snow, Gyoza, and Karaoke

So yesterday our program had the going away party at Shakey's for our 4 students who are returning to America. Keaton, Austin, Josh, and Brittany are going home on Tuesday. It is really sad that they are going back so early. I have had a blast with all of them this past half-year. I really hope that we can keep in contact through the internet and whatnot. Finally, to all of them,

I will miss you guys!

After we parted ways, I went with Kyle and Vaso to the local game shop. Kyle wanted to get another Gamecube controller for his Wii. He is going to Shimane with 8 other people and wanted to have 4 controllers for Smash Bros. The shop did not have any regular controllers, but they did have the elusive "keyboard controller". It was only 900 yen, half the price of a regular one. I convinced him to buy it ^_^ We went over to Kyle's humble abode and gamed for a couple of hours. He has unlocked all of the characters, so I got to try my hand at the new Game and Watch, Toon Link, Snake, and Rob the Robot. It was a ton-o-fun. Here is Vaso and Kyle getting ready to play:



I would have stayed longer, but my host family had planned to have dinner together. It is usually not a problem to skip out on dinner, but they were taking Aaron out to Kaitenzushi (rotating sushi). This meant that I could eat all I wanted at my host-families expense. Do I feel bad for taking advantage of them? Of course not! I only eat dinner at home half of the time anyways. Let's just say that they owe me :)

Today was Tokyo's second snow of the year. By the time I got out of bed, there was already a good deal of snow sitting outside. When I finally got around to leaving, it was apparent that I had to trudge through it. The first thing I noticed when stepping outside was that a guy walking by was carrying an umbrella. I thought nothing of it and continued to the station. Along the way I began noticing that everyone was carrying one. "What is this?" I thought. Nobody in their right mind would carry and umbrella for snow. Snow does not get you wet when it touches you! It is not rain! It brushes off like dust! These Japanese people are crazy. Yet another cultural thing that confuses me. I decided to be the foreigner for the day. I was the only one not carrying an umbrella.

The original plan for today was to get a group together and go to Karaoke. That plan fell through because everyone was busy (or didn't want to come). It ended up being just me and Junko (a 4th year student from Waseda). I met her at Shinjuku station. She was almost 30 minutes late. I was a little worried that I came to Shinjuku for nothing, but finally she called me and we were able to meet up. The first thing she asked was why I did not have an umbrella... Go figure.

I took her to the amazing and cheap Gyoza restaurant that Steve introduced me to earlier. It was once again extremely filling and delicious. Afterwards, I followed Junko to Kabukicho to go Karaoke-ing. I have only ever been to Karaoke in Takadanobaba before, so I figured it was best to let her decide where to go. She took me to this place that I had seen many times but never actually went in. We signed up and waited about 20 minutes for a room. This place was a little more expensive than the places in Baba, but the trick is the drinks are free. There is a drink bar much like McDonalds where you can get something and as many refills as you want. I was unaware that there were differences between the Karaoke companies. We sang together for an hour and a half, all Japanese songs of course. I wanted to hang out longer, but Junko said she needed to go home and work on her thesis / presentation. With that, we parted ways and returned home.

Upon arriving, I noticed a bunch of people shoveling the streets in front of their houses. I thought this was really weird because we have snow plows to do that job. When I reached my house, my host father was also outside shoveling. Out of the kindness of my heart I offered to help. Together we cleared off the road.

Tomorrow I need to pack for Niigata!