Two Tokushima Weekends

The following two weekends May 17-18 and May 24-25 were spent in Tokushima City.

On the 17th after a photo shoot I had with Andrew (for head shots to audition for Universal Studios Japan) I met up with Louise and the other AJET group (who had just gotten out of a meeting). They were already quite drunk by the time I had gotten to Mike's bar. This was because they were drinking since the afternoon. We did some karaoke at a couple of bars then grabbed some ramen. Chris, feeling very drunk and lonely called us thinking we had abandoned him by leaving Ingrid's bar when really we decided it would be a good idea just to leave and not pay our tabs. Oops. He met us at the ramen shop and ended up emptying a bottle of mayonnaise onto his fried chicken.

After leaving there, we walk past a homeless Australian woman (or was she from New Zealand?) who was playing guitar in the streets for money. We were impressed that we met the only foreigner in Tokushima Japan who wasn't a teacher. But I mean, she was homeless... We sang a lovely few songs with her and then headed off. She probably cursing us for not giving her any cash. We laughing that we had met such an odd lady.


The next week started off with Open Mic night on Friday. I drove to Claire's house, where I had parked and took the train back into the city. Louise met us and we headed for Coco Curry. There we met Matt and Maya and all together we headed out to Bell's Bar for open mic night. Along the way we met some foreigners from Okayama who had come to Tokushima for a visit, and they tagged along with us. Louise had never been to Bell's bar before and had sketched what she imagined it to look like on a napkin at the curry shop. She was shockingly accurate.

We enjoyed the vocal and instrumental stylings of various JETs while knocking back drinks. It was an enjoyable time, but nothing out of the ordinary or exciting happened. Everyone did the twist then we all worked our way out. We were starving. But for what? This hunger was bigger than Ramen could fill. Takoyaki (fried octopus balls) from a street vendor wouldn't cut it. Nay not even a handful of nikuman (Chinese steamed buns) would suffice. A real hunger. Many of us found ourselves saying "I want something chicken!" "Ok the first chicken place we see, lets go!" Lo and behold, we exit to the main street, and there before our very eyes is Aburiya Chicken Concept Dining. PERFECT! The restaurant turns out to be rather posh, but we still binge on chicken this and potato that until we're all sufficiently stuffed. Then we all pile into Matt's car (he hadn't been drinking that night) and get dropped off at Claire's house for a good night's rest.

The next morning we head to McDonald's for breakfast (at lunchtime). Louise believes she ordered one meal but ends up with two. Two of everything. We phone up Matt and tell him to meet us there. He could surely help us eat all this food. He shows up having ordered 3 cheeseburgers himself. The amount of food at our table was outstanding. After McDonald's its off to the video game shop. Today we are going to play video games all day long. We spend quite a long time in the video game shop and in various other shops. Our favorite was bulldog where we found lots of cool signs and a Nazi flag. @.@

Back to Claire's house to play... and shes missing a part to the game console. So back to the video game shop! Now its raining, but we're doing the Macarena in the car, to the horror of the passing traffic. On the way back we all pose with the cardboard cutout prostitutes on the side of the street. FINALLY its video game time. We play until we cannot play anymore. Mario Cart, Mario Party, Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, some fighting game, Wario World.... Then go get food. Tonight is a dance party at Ingrid's bar. After a boring chat about Ultimate Frisbee, we get all dressed up and hit the train.

Ingrid's is hopping. We're having a great time taking photos and dancing. At some point Louise gets ill because all the men are taking their shirts off. She makes that apparent with very loud puking gestures. As we are leaving we are approached by a high school kid on exchange in Japan. (That must be crazy, going to high school in Japan.. taught in Japanese) He lives by Claire and wants to know if he can share a taxi home with us. We have 4 already, so 5 is a bit much, but some people are certain we could do it. We dance some more and finally leave. Few taxis would take 5 people. Finally one guy tells us to get in. We travel all the way back to Claire's town, as the high school boy makes his age apparent using childish gestures and generally "acting a fool." We drop him off in the center of town and then take the taxi the rest of the way to Claire's house.

The following morning we play some video games, lay about, and finally all head home.

PICTURES!!

posted by Living and Teaching in Tokushima @ 10:03 PM Comments: 0