My Karaoke Walk of Shame

The first half of this week kind of went by in a whirlwind...I'm still kind of reeling O_o Sunday I got to skype with my godson (and he said Hi!) and we had a mixer party for all the international exchange students here at the Kaikan (the abbriviated version of the name of the building I live in) Yasu, Ma and Aaron amongst others came and it was pretty fun. :) The magic club came and did some tricks for us and then we played bingo (I won a cute mini trash can and Yasu won some odd duster thing that looked like a lion) and afterwards a bunch of us headed up to my room for gyoza and just hang out. :)

Tuesday I got invited to dinner with my Japanese adviser's seminar group, which was a lot of fun. The food was really yummy, and the host, Aya gave me her yummy recipe for some kind of Potato Gratin. They're a funny group and I actually know like...3/4 of them from various classes, so that was nice. We watched some kind of Kimono competition from last summer, and then proceeded to watch High School Musical in Japanese which was a hoot. They're fun, so I said next time they have to come over to my place for dinner :)

Wednesday basically left me feeling like a drowned rat for most of the day. I got so wet that it took my jeans almost two days of hanging in my room in front of the heater to dry. I tried going home for lunch but couldn't get any farther than GUSTO before giving up since I was going back to school anyway to meet up with my friend Yasu, since he's been proofreading my article American Football in fluent Japanese that I have to write. I helped the exec. members of E.S.S. promote the club in a first year class, where I was told all I had to do was "Stand there and smile", but the teacher made me introduce myself and it turned out that she had been to Penn State and she then told the whole class about the creamery :) Om nom nom nom.

Yuuki later gave me a ride home, since she was coming over anyway to sleep over after the E.S.S. Nomikai and to help me with our newly named "Opperation Doki-chan", and let's face it, Yuuki's car is a lot better than an umbrella in a downpour. After getting all gussied up, we headed out to E.S.S., where we played a weird version of Telephone and Tongue Twisters before out to Pachiko for the Nomikai!

A Japanese Nomikai actually translates as "drinking party", but it has a lot differently meaning than at Penn State. While it happens to those who have weaker alcohol tolerance, the goal isn't to get plastered, which is very refreshing. Pacinko is actually a restaurant that specializes in Nomikai and various other drinking parties, with two hour specials including food and the like.

As the president, Yasu gave a toast, which I honestly couldn't hear a word of even though he was all of three feet from me since the restaurant was so loud. All the new members (including myself) had to go and give self-introductions. We ate, drank, celebrated some birthdays and had a grand time hopping from table to table. It was about being social, having fun and making friends, and it was very, very fun.

After the Nomikai, we broke into two groups, one group going off to continue drinking, and the other group to go to Karaoke. Yuuki and I decided to go with the Karaoke group...which turned out to be fairly large as we needed three rooms to hold us all. Unbeknownst to me, but when you get invited out to Karaoke after a Nomikai (at least the E.S.S. Nomikai), you aren't just going for two hours and going home. What they actually mean when they're inviting to Karaoke is "Lets stay for the next 6 hours until the place closes...at 5 AM"

Seriously it was nuts. My voice hurt so bad when I finally went home, and my face hurt from laughing and singing so much. Yasu asked to me sing "A Whole New World" but because my voice hurt so badly, I couldn't sing all that well at that point. Hope he doesn't think I'm TOO bad of a singer. >< We started walking home around 4:30 when the sun was rising, and when by the time we got done walking home, the sun had risen and it looked like this! It was crazy. I don't think I've ever stayed out that late!

The next day I clearly once again exhibited my ability to sleep through earth quakes when exhausted (just like I did in Tokyo 2 years ago)... Yuuki was sleeping on my floor and when we woke up at noon, told me I had slept through a level 3 or 4 one that had occurred at sometime around 7 in the morning. I still say this is because she was sleeping on the floor....and yes Mom I remembered my manners and offered at least 7 times to let her have the bed.

We made huge pancakes for breakfast before Yuuki had to head home, and after that Tony and I bike to Akatsuka station...which took forever because Tony got us lost...>< Once we finally found it, we hopped a train to Uchihara, which has a HUGE mall, and went shopping for the latter half of the day. We were so exhausted, we didn't get to see everything, but we're thinking of going back on Saturday, since next week is fully of Holidays and we have lots of time! :D

So excited for Golden Week! I'd love to stay and chat some more, but the bell just rang and I have Japanese lit in 10 minutes! Bye Bye for now!