Shabu Shabu
Yesterday I had the final for our business class. It was (as you would say in Britain) pure bollocks. Barely anything had to actually do with International Business. And nothing was really even talked about it class. But I'm glad to be done with that. This was the class by the way where we had to learn the prefectures of Japan. None of us could really figure out what it had to do with International Business. Luckily we had class evaluations so I could tell someone higher up what a waste of time that class was.
Last night was aki's birthday. Aki is one of the fellow exchange students from England. At first we went to this "Shabu Shabu" place. Shabu Shabu is pretty much like Japanese fondue. In the middle of the table you have this huge bowl of bowling water/oil. And you put meat or vegetables in it and eat. It was kind of funny since they just give you a huge plate of meat and a huge plate of vegetables. Probabaly would be some sort of health code violation in the US. Shabu Shabu is a motion word by the way. Japanese has lots of these to describe certain actions. Like the heart beating is "Doki Doki" and shaking something is "Yusa Yusa". So I was asking the Japanese people at my table if you can "Shabu Shabu" anything else. And they thought I meant putting other things in the bowl to eat. Like I wanted to play around with it. It took us a while to finally get down to what I was actually trying to say. Crappy Japanese strikes again.
After that we went to an Izakaya. Izakaya (居酒屋) litterally means drinking place. Since most Japanese people go there to have drinking parties (飲み会). We had a room reserved for us, it was pretty nice. It had a karaoke machine and one of those tables that are low on the floor but have actual leg room underneath. You were supposed to order from a little phone in the room. Even though a majority of the people either were Japanese or spoke it fluently, they decided I should order. So I talk to this guy on the phone to order drinks and such. It sounded like a drive thru speaker. Everyone in the room was staring at me while I was ordering. Good times. Well after
an hour I think, the first order of drinks finally came. Not all of them though. Another 45 minutes later we had our complete order. Since we only had reserved the room for 2 hours, this wasn't good. Adding to that, the karaoke machine was broken. After a while of messing with the wires it got fixed though....2 hours later. Aki told them off and we ended up getting free food and staying in the room for free until 12. (normally you have to pay 500 yen a person if you were to stay beyond the 2 hour time). It was funny because what Aki said wasn't really rude in english but when you translate it directly to Japanese it's pretty forward. Just because Japanese is really polite and you never actually say what the problem is, you just say "Chotto..."(a bit). After the complaning service picked up 10 fold. Then our good friend Atilla came and the karaoke began. This machine had a score that it would give at the end of the song. At first it was just out of 100, like a percentage. But then all of a sudden instead of a score, a bunch of blocks would come on the screen. And depending on the score bricks would come off. Higher score, higher bricks. And what was below the bricks. This is Japan, what do you think? Porn. Like what other country has karaoke where you are rewarded with naked pictures. In Japan, you get used to random porn moments, but I have to say this one takes the cake.
After that we had to get the last train back, and on the Keio line (the line that I take) it gets really really busy after about 11. So the last few trains are beyond packed. Once again I've broken my record and the train has been more packed than ever before. This time when we stopped the doors woudln't even open there were so many people. And when we left the stations, the doors took forever to close. I was trying to think what would happen if the US had trains, would companies ever allow them to get that crowded? I'm thinking there would a higher murder rate if that happened. Everyone needs to experience it once though. Nothing like being pressed on all sides by new Japanese friends. Especially when you are the tallest so you can breathe on top.
Last night was aki's birthday. Aki is one of the fellow exchange students from England. At first we went to this "Shabu Shabu" place. Shabu Shabu is pretty much like Japanese fondue. In the middle of the table you have this huge bowl of bowling water/oil. And you put meat or vegetables in it and eat. It was kind of funny since they just give you a huge plate of meat and a huge plate of vegetables. Probabaly would be some sort of health code violation in the US. Shabu Shabu is a motion word by the way. Japanese has lots of these to describe certain actions. Like the heart beating is "Doki Doki" and shaking something is "Yusa Yusa". So I was asking the Japanese people at my table if you can "Shabu Shabu" anything else. And they thought I meant putting other things in the bowl to eat. Like I wanted to play around with it. It took us a while to finally get down to what I was actually trying to say. Crappy Japanese strikes again.
After that we went to an Izakaya. Izakaya (居酒屋) litterally means drinking place. Since most Japanese people go there to have drinking parties (飲み会). We had a room reserved for us, it was pretty nice. It had a karaoke machine and one of those tables that are low on the floor but have actual leg room underneath. You were supposed to order from a little phone in the room. Even though a majority of the people either were Japanese or spoke it fluently, they decided I should order. So I talk to this guy on the phone to order drinks and such. It sounded like a drive thru speaker. Everyone in the room was staring at me while I was ordering. Good times. Well after
an hour I think, the first order of drinks finally came. Not all of them though. Another 45 minutes later we had our complete order. Since we only had reserved the room for 2 hours, this wasn't good. Adding to that, the karaoke machine was broken. After a while of messing with the wires it got fixed though....2 hours later. Aki told them off and we ended up getting free food and staying in the room for free until 12. (normally you have to pay 500 yen a person if you were to stay beyond the 2 hour time). It was funny because what Aki said wasn't really rude in english but when you translate it directly to Japanese it's pretty forward. Just because Japanese is really polite and you never actually say what the problem is, you just say "Chotto..."(a bit). After the complaning service picked up 10 fold. Then our good friend Atilla came and the karaoke began. This machine had a score that it would give at the end of the song. At first it was just out of 100, like a percentage. But then all of a sudden instead of a score, a bunch of blocks would come on the screen. And depending on the score bricks would come off. Higher score, higher bricks. And what was below the bricks. This is Japan, what do you think? Porn. Like what other country has karaoke where you are rewarded with naked pictures. In Japan, you get used to random porn moments, but I have to say this one takes the cake.
After that we had to get the last train back, and on the Keio line (the line that I take) it gets really really busy after about 11. So the last few trains are beyond packed. Once again I've broken my record and the train has been more packed than ever before. This time when we stopped the doors woudln't even open there were so many people. And when we left the stations, the doors took forever to close. I was trying to think what would happen if the US had trains, would companies ever allow them to get that crowded? I'm thinking there would a higher murder rate if that happened. Everyone needs to experience it once though. Nothing like being pressed on all sides by new Japanese friends. Especially when you are the tallest so you can breathe on top.
posted by Scot @ 12:50
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