It feels like an eternity since my last post but its really only been about a week. I can’t really remember all the things I did so I’ll look back over my photos and talk about each one based around it. A lot of the time I’ve been at home doing work so sometimes there hasn’t been much to talk about. The 22nd was planned to be Tsubasa’s wedding which Kaito and I were going to go together. I found out a little while before that also another guy that went to City College, Jordan, was going to come and would be arriving in Japan on the 21st. He was mainly Kaito’s friend but Kaito said he was busy that day until later so he asked if I could hang out with Jordan until then.
I met him at the train station around 1pm on the 21st so I could show him around. We had Gyoza and then found a bar with cheap drinks on Doutonbori. We were there until quite late and then once Kaito finished work we went to his house to meet him. I had to stop off at my house on the way to grab my suit and everything I needed since I would stay at Kaito’s house and then go early the next day to Himeji city. All three of us had some drinks and I was able to see Kaito’s mum for the first time since I was here last. Shes really nice.
The next day I strangely felt hungover. I also realised while I had brought my suit and tie and dress shoes, I forgot my dress shirt. I felt like an idiot but since I was kind of hungover I was just giggling about it. I wore my tie with the shirt anyway hoping no one would notice so much. Also just taking the tie off and wearing t-shirt only didn’t look that bad.
We took the train to Himeji and it took quite a while, maybe an hour and 20 mins. Once there we made our way to where the wedding was being held. Immediately I saw some people from City College who I hadn’t seen since then. We had the wedding ceremony, then after that wen’t for the feast. Overall the wedding felt very epic. The ceremony itself was nice and the area where we all ate had a big like view camera set up almost as if it was a stage to see the performer better and there was lots of pre-prepared videos and even videos that were immediately prepared from the ceremony played throughout the feast. There was about 6 courses, they were small but they were gourmet. Also it was all you could drink alcohol. I held off on the alcohol most of the day up until after we started eating but I started drinking about 2 or 3pm. At my table was Jordan, and two other guys had been to New Zealand. Once went to city college and one was living in Wellington. Other than those two there was about 5 other people that had been living in Wanganui. Most had gone to City College but one went to Wanganui High School. Even though I didn’t know them well or at all in the past I felt I immediately made friends with all of them. I felt kind of pissed that there was a ‘foreigner table’ which is where all the non native Japanese speakers were placed. It was a good thing for one of the guys at the table because he was Korean I think and couldn’t speak any Japanese but also I would have been very happy to suit with all the Japanese guys who went to city college. We took a picture of everyone from the ‘wanganui crew’ with Tsubasa the groom who obviously himself went to City College.
Looking at this photo I’m wishing I was able to cut my hair in time. I tried to order clippers but they didn’t come fast enough then it was too late for me to find a place to cut my hair. I’ve cut it now though. The guy to the right of me is the one that was doing an exchange to Wanganui High School. Hes from Tokyo and I made friends with him and he said we should hang out when I’m there so he’s kind of my third friend from that area. The guy to the left of me I knew at City College kind of, but him and I were both shy back then so we didn’t become friends. Now he said we should hang out some time if I’m ever in Hiroshima, which I plan to do.
The feast, or dinner, or whatever it’s called went till quite late. About 4. Then we had the after party that started at 5. There was again, more drinks and more food to be had. This place seemed really cool because when the event started they showed a video about the rules of the place, except they actually made it a joke and it was really funny. It said something like “We ask everyone stay in your… NO SIT WHEREVER YOU WANT!” and just a whole lof of things like that. They also started like a gameshow where you used an app on your phone to participate in quizzes, the questions were based around the bride and groom, and also one question was who can chug a bottle of cola the fastest, and they got me to be one of the participants. So I had to go up in front of everyone and then say a little something and then after people voted for who they thought could chug the fasted, all four of us started. Even though I got voted for the most (I guess coz I’m a big foreigner they would assume I’m a fatty who loves cola) I couldn’t even finish it, but besides that, another guy finished it within 4 seconds I was shocked. Also impressed with myself having no problem getting up in front of everyone and also speaking Japanese even thought it was only a little.
I didn’t get many photos of the place, but here are two. It was dark outside by this point. After this, our group discussed what we were going to do from now and we told them that us three (Kaito Jordan and I) were going to take the train back. The others decided to stay until the next day. They had thought about coming to Osaka with us (the two in the photo to the left and right of me in the large group photo and also the second guy from the left) but decided against it. Once we got to station ready to leave it turned out all trains were stopped due to the incoming typhoon with no indication of whether or not they would start again. The wind was pretty crazy. I couldn’t help but think it wasn’t really that bad compared to Wellington but I guess it was still worse than that. Yusuke’s umbrella broke and it was crack up. In fact, everyone’s umbrella broke except mine because I know how best to hold them in the wind so they don’t turn inside out.
We contacted our friends again and we all ended up hanging out at an Izakaya drink and eating even MORE in the hopes that later the trains would start again. I pretty much drank all day but somehow was fine.
After the after after party, we went back to the station. The trains were still stopped. Just some were going, one of the guys got to go home. The other two had a hotel in Himeji so they left. Us three sat down at the station and waited for about an hour. There was still scheduled trains even till 12:30 am so we wanted to see if it might be going. But nothing. We ended up just going to sleep on a train that was sitting at the station. It was a terrible sleep but it was free. At 6am we woke up since thats when the first train of the day should start. But still nothing. The first train didn’t come till 9am and since there had been no service for nearly 12 hours it was absolutely packed. People had to squish in and it made the trip which should have taken just over 1 hour take 2 hours. I was stuck standing the whole time and squished to the point where my chest was noticeably compressed. I just relaxed and closed my eyes. Good thing I genuinely don’t mind being in that situation normally. I was so tired though and just wanted to go home so it was kind of hell.
Because of all this Jordan actually missed his flight back to Tokyo. It was pretty stressful coz there was just nothing anyone could do. If he wasn’t able to get back to Tokyo by that night he would have also missed his flight back to New Zealand. I showed him to the station to buy a Shinkansen ticket to Tokyo. He ended up making back to Toko. I just wanted to sleep. I think i got back to my house 1pm. I just slept.
The next days were a blur I didn’t really do anything. But on the 24th my friend Carling and her boyfriend arrived to Osaka to spend a couple days leaving on the 26th. We had a plan since long ago that she would stay and I would show her around. First place I took them to was Sushi train since they were hungry for lunch. Then we did some shopping for snacks. Later we went to Dotonbori and I took them to an Izakaya with drinks for only 300 yen each. Carling is a vegetarian and they had a few nice things for her like butter corn, cabbage dipped in miso paste, and edamame. Me and Jordon (her boyfriend, same name as the Jordan from the other day) got some meat skewers. They were both so into Calpis chuuhai (calpis soda mixed with alcohol) and were mad they didn’t know about it earlier since before Osaka they were in Tokyo and went to some other places.
They also had never been to karaoke yet so I took them to a good one. We got a few more drinks there too.
They loved karaoke. They paid for my food and stuff throughout the day which was really nice.
The next day we had planned to go to Universal Studios Japan together, but I realised I felt too tired and also needed to do some work. For the morning they went to Kobe without me and I did some work. Around 4pm they came back and we went out for dinner with Sae to a really cool place that had lots of local vegetables from all over Japan and also pizza. We told them Carling was a vegetarian and they were very understanding and checked which items were ok since some things had chicken stock in it and the dipping sauce had anchovy based flavouring. Not what you’d normally expect in Japan since usually they will assume somethings vegetarian but completely forget about everything in it that’s actually not. They gave her special stuff.
I didn’t take any photos of this place sadly but after that we spent a bit more time at a cafe that also has alcohol. I had a cocktail and a jin and orange juice. Carling and Sae has a sangria. It was fun bringing Sae because she can speak good English.
They had their flight to Korea the next day and were getting tired so we said goodnight to them and me and Sae hung out for a bit longer and had 2 more drinks and McDonalds. I brought my speaker to a park and we had a little party.
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