Weekend

Friday Night:
I fell asleep on my floor and listening to Explosions In The Sky at about 11pm. I moved to my "bed" at about 3am.

Saturday:
I was supposed to meet Yohei at Nagoya Station at 3:30, but I wanted to go by this vinyl store in Osu. I got directions, and left a bit early to go to Osu. The store was actually pretty cool, reminiscent of Gomi, but they didn't have the Eric So Pointman, nor the infamous Eric So Hellboy. They did have a lot of Kozik stuff, though, which I was surprised to see outside of the US. I ended up buying tiny guitars that serve no purpose, except to make me want to buy more.

The current fashion fad in Japan for girls is to wear tiny skirts or shorts, with street walker boots. The wind, many, many stairs, and people's carelessness resulted in more panties being exposed in my general direction than I thought possible. Honestly, it's winter, aren't you cold?

I headed to Nagoya Station at around 2 to walk around, then wait for Yohei. Nagoya Station has a lot of stores, which I guess is find if you want to buy clothes, or shoes, or cake, but nothing really interesting. I decided to grab some food before I met with Yohei, and I stumbled on a curry shop. The curry was alright, but this girl that works there easily has the best smile ever. We talked for a bit and I left her my cellphone address, but I have little faith in my horrible Japanese and what I can get across when using it.

I met with Yohei and we headed off to another station. There, we went to some donut shop to meet up with Nakamura and Kimihiko; and have a delicious almond donut. We then walk around this bookstore/sub-culture/probably a head shop, then go off to meet more AIESEC members at this huge shopping complex.

We had to take a train to the station, then a shuttle bus took us to the shopping complex. I was amazed. There, after a maze of stairs, we went to a cafe that specialized in parfaits. Now, it's winter, and it's cold, but that doesn't stop people from eating 7 parfaits at a time. A little bell sat on our table that we were supposed to ring, calling the servers. We would ring it, just to entice others to order more parfaits. Between three people, they ate 16 or so parfaits total. I was amazed, and satisfied with my seafood pasta.

Afterwards, we went to a bowling alley/arcade nearby. I suck at bowling, with the exception of wii bowling, and suck even more when the largest shoes they have are still 4 cm too small to be a tight fit. I get a ride to my apartment from Kimihiko, and call it a night. I've moved my bed to the floor also, instead of that stupid bedshelf. It just makes more sense, I can lay in bed and type, or watch tv, or not wake up and think I'm in a coffin. All are benefits.

Sunday:
Kimihiko picked me up today, and we went to the train station (avoiding the bus). We met with Nakamura at the entrance to a shrine pathway. Today was an anniversary for...something...and in honor of this, all the shrines in the area were open, and vendors abound. I'm always reminded of a combination of fairs when I walk through vendors on the way to a shrine. And that Bible story where Jesus ejected all the vendors out of the church. Well, these vendors make some mighty fine dango.

Visiting a shrine presents some problems for a tall, caucasian male. First, I stand out, and especially at a shrine that was rebuilt after WW2 because of bomb damage. Secondly, as the Japanese population ages, they seem to shrink. There were people literally knee high to me. I think I stepped on some lady's forehead in the process of getting to the shrine.

Over a lunch of chicken and rice, I learned a valuable lesson. Never, never answer the question "what sort of girls do you like" when around Japanese friends. Immediately after, anytime we saw someone that even remotely fit into the category I described, I would get jabs, and points, and gestures.

Bored with the shrine, we went to Osu, with the intention I thought of just to waste time. Apparently, the true intention was to visit stores in which potential dates for a foreigner might be found. For the record, the furniture store was a fairly nice store, but we really didn't need to go to the glasses stores.

We wandered for a bit with more jabs, when we decided to start to head back. At Sakae, I wanted to walk around a bit, and seeing as how I had an all day subway pass, it wouldn't cost me anything more. I parted with everyone there, to wander a bit, get rained on, then get back on the train. After a train and bus ride, a quick trip to the grocery store was necessary. I mistakenly bought "yogurt milk" the other day, and I had to rectify it as soon as possible. So here I sit, eating some sort of tentacles they had on sale at the store, and drinking cloudy water flavored with lemon? Melon? Well, hopefully it's flavored. And purposely cloudy.