HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Resolution: Post more new blogs.

Okay, so I know it's been awhile and a lot's happened. "Boyscouting" in Kobe with Lexi, Illumination (sounds like ruminashion in Japanese) finishing at Toyotomi Junior high school, Christmas in Ehime with Josh, a trip to Nara and Kyoto, and chillin' with some French kickboxers on New Years. I meant to post earlier, really I did. I think this will have to be done in several installments.

Let's see, December... So being raised in the suburbs of Indiana, then attending Oberlin, I haven't ventured out much into the world of "clubbing". So one fine Saturday evening, Lexi and I embarked on a journey to the delightful city of Kobe. We had a late start to the evening, as Shirasagi Residence hosted a going away party for the Australian ALT's who had to return to their country. After stuffing ourselves with the most delicious variety of both Western and Japanese foods, Lexi and I 'got ourselves dun up' and caught the train to Kobe. By "dun up" I mean dressing up as Lexi's version of J-girls. I was sporting my jeans and black boots, a black and grey stripey shirt with a designer T over it, topped with a tealish colored poofy vest with a faux fur hood. Lexi however, outdid me, as per usual. Let's see, I believe her gettup included cowboy boots (with heel), purple hose, a ruffled camo miniskirt, neon yellow tank under frilly black tank under black vest with fir hood. I feel like I'm leaving something out... I don't quite understand what we were wearing and was pretty cold, but Lexi assured me that we were pimpin it Japanese style... I have no idea. At least it was amusing.

The first half of the train ride we spent trying to ignore a really drunk old Japanese man who kept escaping from his friends to jump across the aisle and sit next to us. Once sitting down, he would try to access his extremely limited English vocabulary, which consisted of "nice body" while gesturing at Lexi's chest. We got off the train, and wandered around Sannomiya for awhile. Kobe seems to be a much friendlier city, we had lots of (guys) yell "hi" to us, some really crazy dudes from Osaka invited us to a college party (in Osaka), but they weren't students. We saw a guy dressed as Hard Gay (a TV character) in a really really expensive car, the driver waved to us, and the Hard Gay guy (dressed in S&M black biker leather gettup) pretended no one could see him. Anyway, we eventually wandered into a bar Lexi knew. Now, this was no ordinary bar, it was distinguished largely by the crassness of the hosts, which is fairly uncommon in Japan. Lex and I performed a karaoke rendition of Eminem (Em Dirty) where the Japanese host boys chimed in on the PeeWee Herman chorus (eh eh eh eh eh eh). After we sang, we hit the streets again to find a club to hole up in. We wandered back down to the station and picked up a couple of boys on the way. One was cute, but quiet. The other was very friendly, thought less cute. We asked them where a club was, and they took us up the street to some disco, where they left us at the door. Apparently, the cuter one was only 18 and couldn't get in yet.

Lex and I paid the cover charge and stepped into an enormous club where Japanese reggae and hip hop pounded out of the speakers. We exchanged our money for drink tokens from the vending machine and put our orders in with the bartenders, all wearing black suits with white collared shirts. The bar was packed, but not around the bar. Everyone was crowded around the dance floor, watching what was going on. I squeezed my way through the crowd, to see what was going on off the reflection of a mirror. Girls Girls Girls. Girls in the skimpiest thing that could ever be classified as "shorts" doing some of the raunchiest dancing i have ever seen. Apparently we came on an "event" night, the "event" being these hip hop dancers. Anyway, that went on for awhile. Don't get me wrong, the girls were really good, I just never expected to see that kind of dancing in Japan, or outside of a strip club.

After the performances, I guess the club returned to normal, Lexi and I danced in a corner of the dance floor. We spotted a Japanese dude in these awesome faux aviators. A little later he came over and danced with us, and damn he was good. Later in the night, he started dancing with me, so I put my hand on his hip, with the result of him running. Like, fast. I looked around, and although the floor was packed with both girls and guys dancing, absolutely no one was touching at all. Ahhhhh crap. Note to anyone reading this- no touching while dancing!!! Not if you don't want to terrify your new friend and embarass both them and you horribly. Ahhh well. I saw him later and appologized, and he seemed cool with that. I'll um, count that one as a learning experience. The club closed around four, four thirty and lexi and I once again trekked down to the train station, where we grabbed some soba noodles and waited for the trains to start running again.

And so ended A Night in Kobe.
Next up, Illumination.