So I’m 21 now! I'm older, wiser, and cooler...but actually I'm exactly the same person I was before. On my birthday…I went to school! Okay, so
when school ended, I killed some time, and then went with my friends over to the
Kamo (River) to have my first (American) legal drink. Nick, Sandy, and I shared
a large canister of umeshu, along with some chips and stuff. I really wanted to
sit on the turtle rocks, but since we didn’t want to be in the way, we sat on
some birds instead.
So Sandy met up with her language partner, and Nick and I
proceeded to walk down to Sanjo. For those of you who haven’t been to Kyoto,
that’s 1.5 miles. I had wanted to go to Book Off and buy myself a Playstation
Vita, a birthday present from me to me. Now, when we got there, I was
disappointed to find that they didn’t have any for sale. Same goes for the
other Book Off one street up. Rather than give up, me and Nick took the train
to Kyoto Station, and went to Yodobashi Camera, a big electronics store.
Getting the Vita, required memory card, one game, a case, screen protector,
plus a PSN card I owed my friend came to a bit over 40,000 yen. So I had them
hold everything while I ran to a 7-11, took out 50,000 yen (that’s more than
$500), come back, and drop that at the counter. I got maybe 2,000 yen back.
We wanted to grab a beef bowl for dinner, but by then it was
pretty late. The only thing open was McDonalds. And so my birthday dinner wound
up as a quarter pounder with large sized fries. And since McDonalds closed at
9pm (unacceptable for the mighty McDonalds to close so early!), we had to eat
in underground shopping center Porta. Still, it was pretty nice; Mickey D’s here
is pretty tasty, and it was kind of cool in an ironic way.
When I got home, there was a MASSIVE cake waiting for me. Like,
it couldn’t fit in the fridge, because if came from Costco and was therefore
enormous. So, with no alternative or hope of eating the cake at home, I packed
it up, and on Thursday morning, brought that beast into school. It wasn’t easy
getting it to Doshisha, let me tell you. The train was packed, and the cake was
big. But I made it work out anyway!
We asked Wada-san, one of the KCJS personnel, to call
together all the students and divvy up the cake. And eat cake they did. We were
able to finish about ¾ of the thing, but that still left a lot to be accounted
for. I ended up dishing it out at language circle.
So, then there was Friday, my birthday party. I was the
first one at the restaurant, but I was worried when nobody had shown up by
4:45. Finally, everyone started to trickle in, until at last we had the good
majority of my crew ready to go at a little after 5:00. We filled up the
restaurant, and after a little seat shuffling, placed our orders. By the end of
the night, I had three mega-beers, and a massive amount of chicken. This time, I
only had ONE piece of horumon.
Although some people drifted away before karaoke, my friend
Hidehiro joined up with us. Of course, this was JUST before we decided NOT to
go to karaoke: it was way too expensive, so we just cancelled. I think they
might have put a bounty on my head or something. We made our way to the
Kamogawa, and hung out. By hung out, I mean drank more and hung out. I had a
full bottle of whiskey when we started, and it was half empty when we decided
to leave. I’m certain I had help with that, I promise. Anywho, I feel like I was
able to make at least one good friend, so I feel like it was a great success.
Now, the great fail was that I missed the last train home.
So Hidehiro took my drunk ass to grab a beef bowl for after-dinner. In my drunken
state, I dropped the egg on the bar. Sorry, dude who had to clean that up.
Afterwards, since a taxi home would have been too expensive, we paid 2000 yen for
all-night karaoke. For the first hour, I couldn’t read the screen unless I
closed one eye. And then I realized the room we were in didn’t have any songs I
liked, so poor Hide had to call the front and ask for a room change. Around 2
am, we decided to take a nap. I put on my headphones and was out like a light.
When I woke up, I was much more sober, and it was a lot colder out. It was also
4:45 am.
We Googled the closest McDonalds, and bought some breakfast.
Crispy chicken for me! I don’t think I’ve had McDonalds twice in one week since
I was 7 years old. We finished that, checked the train schedule, and walked
through the deserted streets of Kyoto to the train station. I took the train
home, waited 30 minutes for the bus, and arrived at home just after 7 am.
First challenge: the gate was locked. I was about to climb
over it (as sketch as that would be), but I realized the lock didn’t require a
key (?).
Second challenge: upon opening the door, I realize my host
family LOCKED THE CHAIN. Not cool. Not cool at all. Just moments from being an
awful person and calling out for someone to let me in, my host mother comes
downstairs, and opens the chain. I stride in, pretty much not listening to what
my host mother was saying (something about rakugo). I brushed my teeth, and
proceeded to sleep until 1 in the afternoon.
And so I took another step towards living the Japanese life:
stay out late, miss the last train, come home at an absurd hour. While this
weekend saw something important take a turn for the worse, overall, I had one
of the best birthdays ever. Actually, I’m ready to say the best birthday ever.
Because I think I have the best group of friends anyone could ask for, both
here and back home.
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