Looking Up

This weekend turned out to be surprisingly eventful, which wasn't exactly how I had thought it would be. I had too many things that I wanted to do, but was able to do the majority of them.

Saturday morning, I decided that I needed a new book to read. I left the apartment for Nagoya station, where I picked up Pratchett/Gaiman's Good Omens, and I'm really enjoying it. Sayana, the trainee from Russia, is leaving Japan this week, so she gave a presentation about her internship, and afterwards we ate at a friend's house. On the way to his house, I noticed that everyone had their trash already set outside. Now, I've found some interesting things in the trash, such as my bicycle in Austin, so I know to keep an eye out on trash day. I found some ski poles, but I didn't have any use for them, or any room in my apartment for a large, free-standing ski-pole-art-piece. We continued on, when I saw what looked like multiple heads in a trash bag. Some salon had thrown away a bag of 5 or so mannequin heads. They were in a separate bag from the other trash, so I took it.

Apparently taking trash isn't highly regarded in Japan, but I had searched ebay/craigslist for a mannequin head before leaving. I have 1950's era Russian gas mask that I wanted to display, and this is perfect for it. It appears they were used as practice for stylists, as they all have haircuts that are a bit off and uneven. She now sits in my apartment holding my headband and headphones when I need to store them.

I didn't have room for the others, as we were going to go to a club immediately after dinner, plus I probably don't have room in my luggage for 5 mannequin heads. Nakamura, who's apartment we were at, was afraid someone would see me carrying the head and think I was some sort of pervert, precariously wrapped the head in a plastic bag, then let me borrow another man-purse to carry it in. He also had some extra beer that he didn't want, so I was walking around with a bag full of beer and a mannequin head. I hope this isn't the last time I'll be able to say that.

We rush to the club, since we all had tickets that let us in without cover if we got there before 9pm. After running from the station, we barely made it. We slowly worked up and down the 6 floors of music, which was surprisingly a lot of reggaeton. Hip-hop floor; reggaeton. Reggae floor; reggaeton. Both electronic/dance music floors; reggaeton remixed. Lounge floor; reggaeton. The did play some dance hall, though, which I don't think I've ever heard in a club. Although before coming here, I didn't normally go to clubs with the exception of seeing shows. Around the time the last trains were leaving, everyone else except for Diana and myself left for home. So we continued going to different floors until the club closed at 2am.

We had 3 hours to kill before the first trains started, so after a brief Denny's stop, we tried to a find a bar someone had recommended to us. It was deep within the Filipino redlight district, which is a whole different variation of shady compared to the normal redlight district. We hung around the bar until the first trains started, then went home to sleep until 1.

I had plans to meet with Yohei, from AIESEC, and an alumni AIESEC member that owns his own company and wanted to talk to me some more about meeting with other companies to help them get over their apprehension of accepting a foreign trainee. Before that, I really wanted to go couch/record player searching, and make my weekly trip to Osu as well as the coffee shop by my apartment (where the only 3 people in the area that are around my age work). Oh, and figure out how to work a Japanese ATM, which I do successfully.

I order some random cream and coffee and ice and who knows what else drink from the coffee shop, and immediately head to Osu. I waste more money on gifts for people in Austin, and stumble on a used record shop that has a much wider variety than the one I normally go to. I again waste even more money, and come across the first non-tag graffiti piece that I had seen in Nagoya.

I run through the pawn shop to check prices on record player and guitars, but still decide to visit a closer, smaller pawn shop sometime this week before deciding. It was getting close to the time I was supposed to meet for dinner, and I still wanted to visit the International Center's library. I get on the train, don't pay attention, and miss my transfer. I figure I'll waste some time at the station I'm at, which is a good thing. The station is directly under a multi-story store called Tokyu Hands, and I end up finding an actual, full sized pillow for under $10! I can stop using this awful couch cushion that I've been using, and without spending $70+!

I make it back in time to go to the library, and meet for dinner; arms loaded with a pillow and records. Mie meets with us as well, which gave me someone to talk to while Yohei and the AIESEC alumni member talked. Between my awful Japanese and her incredibly good English, we were able to keep ourselves entertained while walking from restaurant to restaurant to try different foods.

Resolved to walk from the subway back to my apartment, we go for desert, but by the time we finish, I still make the last bus home, which is a really nice surprise. I get home and start going through my recent purchases, and find myself even more surprised with how pleased I am with the blindbox items I got. I then remember that I have cake in the refrigerator, and only a 4 day work week. I'm taking off Friday to go watch naked people slapping each other, and on Saturday I'm hopefully visiting Takayama.