On Monday, I went to cake-houdai for my friend Kelsey's birthday. It was actually more like a cake orgy than a feast. SOOOO MUCH CAKE... We went to the Shibuya Branch of Sweets Paradise, which was full of cutesy middle/high school kids filling tiny bowls with scrawny portions of sweets while my gaijin friends and I stacked our plates with spaghetti, curry, potatoes, kanten and cake. Lots of cake. Puttin' those dainty little Japanese kids to shame.
On Tuesday, we went to kaiten-sushi, otherwise known as sushi boats. I ate 9 plates of nigiri... aka: 18 pieces of pure, uncooked deliciousness for under $10. I didn't need it to be someone's birthday to go completely hog wild on sushi. I just go for excellence.
Yesterday was my friend Natasha's birthday. She had her party at a tabe-houdai and nomi-houdai izakaya in Shinjuku. The food was definitely sub-par... nothing but appetizers and flavorless nabe... but I must have downed at least 4 glasses of beer and 6 or 7 gin tonics... followed by a brief 2 hour karaoke sesh with the birthday girl and crew. *Note: this is what most college kids do on a school night.
Whilst on the way to the karaoke box, we were all unabashedly intoxicated on the 10:30 train. We were all foreigners, exchanging words the way most inebriates do: at a more than audible decibel level... and we were told off. To be more specific, my friends: Nick, Harriet and I were told off my an old Japanese woman who curtly informed us, "This is a public train." in perfect, accent-less English.
God, I've never been so ashamed in my life (in Japan). I've always made fun of obnoxious foreign assholes on the train, but now I've lived to see myself become one. One that makes Japanese people cringe... One of their own converting to the crass and ugly form of communication that is only reserved for shameless gaijin with no regard for the observed dead silence of the sacred train. I sobered up real quick and wanted to die then and there. I hope I never see that woman ever again.
After that public shaming, I kept insisting that I wouldn't go to karaoke, "Nooo, no... I have a midterm tomorrow..." But unfortunately, because of the presence of an extremely hot err-- persuasive French neighbor of mine, I was convinced it was a good idea. After a few good rounds of Disney songs, The Cardigans, David Bowie, Queen, and Britney Spears-- Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On came on, and my friends and I decided to call it quits.
I showed up to my midterm today-- without a (debilitating) hangover! Amazing how Celine Dion cures that... maybe her music reeks of ginger and not French Canadian post menopausal bliss.
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