Clubbing, Salsa, Welcome Party, and a Devil's Sundae

I apologize for my laziness. I know it has been awhile since my last post, and I will try not to leave anything out but my memory is fairly packed with awesome happenings so I know I will forget something.

So my first major adventure since my last post was my first time clubbing. I met up with James (the British guy I met on the train a few weekends ago) to head to a party his friend was DJ-ing at. But before that, we had to fuel up because we were both pretty hungry. We went to McDonalds. Personally, I try to always avoid McDonalds but it was on the way and I've heard the ones here are much better. It is true, I was quite impressed. It was more expensive, but only because it was almost fancy... Yeah... Still blows my mind, a fancy McDonalds...

When we got to the club, James introduced me to quite a few people and I chatted with some of them but I spent most of my time talking to his friend Stephanie. Stephanie is Chinese, went to college in the states, and then moved to Japan to work and now she is studying acupuncture. She was really fun to talk to and we danced a bit towards the end, but I spent most of my time just talking to people. It fun. Then things started to die down so we all decided to head out. Stephanie caught a cab back home and the rest of us went to a second club. The second club turned out to be dead, so we just had a quick drink to rest our legs a bit then we went to a third club.

The guys had spent some time that night saying they were gonna find me a girl to meet, and they were adamant that the third club would be the place for it despite it was a gay club. I'm pretty comfortable in most situations so it didn't bother me any. Though I'm not really the type that hunt girls at clubs, I was kind of curious. It wasn't like I had experience at clubs anyways. I don't even spend much time at college parties. I am always dancing on the weekends.

Two things happened that I wasn't expecting. First, I was surprisingly good at attracting gay guys. Five different guys came up to me in the first hour. Luckily, everyone figured out pretty quickly I was straight and then it stopped. Secondly, I found a very amazing girl. She was with a group of her girl friends and she was very pretty (not a clubbing skimpy outfit sexy hot kind of pretty, the classy pretty). She definitely seemed a little uncomfortable in a club, so I figured her friends had dragged her along. I was kind of right.

Eventually, I was able to get close enough to chat and such - which was quite the accomplishment. Her friends were clearly watching out for her and they were working very hard to make sure I was not of malicious intent. And this is where things go downhill. I tried talking to her in Japanese and I wasn't doing so well. This girl would have made me fumbling for words in English, yet I had to speak in Japanese while yelling loud enough to be heard over the music. It didn't work too well but she was laughing. Laughing is a good sign, right? Shortly after that her friends decided it was time to leave and they headed out. I was able to make it to the door before she walked out, but all I could manage to say was goodbye.

And now things go really downhill. I was right that her friends had brought her, but I was focused on the wrong friend. It was actually one of the gay guys that had hit on me earlier (he was American, btw). Once she was out the door I realized I had seriously screwed up by not getting her number, so I went to talk to my only hope, the gay guy. While talking to him, I found out something interesting. She was American. She was fluent in English. Natively fluent. I spent the entire night stuttering with my Japanese trying to talk to a girl from America. No wonder she was laughing at me. Anyways, I gave the guy my phone number and asked him to pass it on to her. She hasn't called.

That was last Friday night. Given how Friday night had gone, I figured I would spend Saturday night meeting people. So I went to Waseda (the university my friend from high school goes to) and wandered around looking for clubs/pubs that college students hang out at so I could meet new people. Didn't work. But I did randomly run into Cari (the girl from IMSA going to college in Japan). After the initial freakout of our random encounter, she said I should try Roppongi for meeting people. It didn't work out, but we tentatively scheduled a hang out for before I leave. And I didn't run into the girl from the night before either.

Sunday was uneventful but Monday night was the night I had been waiting for - Ootemachi Romantico. I finished clinic early then headed back to my dorm to change; I wanted to look good while representing CCBDC. The venue was very classy (I didn't have my camera though, sorry), and the buffet was pretty decent. I was mildly disappointed by the lessons, but the crowd was mostly new dancers. I did meet a wonderful dancer by the name of Maya. Maya went to high school in Boston and then graduated from Boston University. My other dances were pretty standard, except most of my dances were with follows twice or three times my age (and some of them were probably almost 4 times my age) and I was the only non-Japanese person there. Claremont trained me well though, and I did a very good job of showing how good we are.

The DJ played some bachata too, which made me realize I need to work on that more. I forgot everything except the basics and I can't even remember the moves Mike Garcia taught me. My best dance was with Maya, but my most fun dance was with an old Japanese woman probably in her 70's. She was quite fiesty, but I prevailed and she really seemed to enjoy herself. After that, I had to go rest. The night was shorter than I expected, but it was great. Afterwards I headed back to Shinjuku with Maya and exchanged facebooks. She said she will keep me posted if she finds a good salsa event/club.

I did some wandering around during the week after clinic, mostly trying to find souvenirs. I have just over two weeks left, so I need to get on that. My quest for souvenirs ultimately led me to Asakusa, an old district of Tokyo and the home of an old Buddhist temple. The pictures are on facebook. Other than the Imperial Palace, Asakusa is my favorite place in Tokyo. It was beautiful. And plenty of souvenir shops. My first visit was for scouting, but I am going back soon to make my purchases. So last chance to send me requests if you want something specific.

On the train ride to Asakusa, I sat next to a cute Japanese girl. Given I am on a train for about two hours of every day, it tends to happen. What was weird, though, was running into her after three hours of wandering around Asakusa and such. She came up to me and asked how to find the train station, which was when I found out she spoke English. And then I found out she is from North Carolina visiting for summer break. I was pretty much done for the day, so I walked her to the station (after stopping to get a picture in front of the gate leading to the temple). During our random conversations, I mentioned I went to a residential high school. Then she said she did too, she went to the "North Carolina School of Science and Math" - North Carolina's version of IMSA (Illinois Math and Science Academy). THAT was weird. She is gonna let me know when she is free and we might hang out some more.

And that brings us to today. Today was the official welcome party for Ben and me at Hachioji. I finally met some first and second year students and I also got to meet some of the other profs. There was also more alcohol there than at Mudd's parties and quite a few of the students (and a prof or two) got smashed. And most people had quite a buzz. I had like three drinks (and I found out that Gin and Tonics come in a can). The food was decent, but it was mostly nice to meet new people.

I went to the station with some of the first years and then met up with Arisa. We had quite a fun night. Our first stop was a Denny's right next to the station. Just to warn you, Denny's in Japan have a COMPLETELY different menu. I took pics. I recognized the french toast, so I got some of that. Then Arisa and I split a "Devil's Sundae". It was a brutal battle, but we won. With our stomaches full and our arteries clogging, we left for a game center (arcade). I resisted the first time, but I finally broke down and played arcade style Mario Kart. Completely worth it. I need to play that game more often. Then we took a few pictures in a photo booth and headed out. Kind of a rushed night, but quite fun.

Facebook isn't letting me get external links for y'all, sorry. I'll edit this when I can to get the links up. Otherwise, the picture are in the same album as before so you can use links from previous posts. And it is 3am, so I apologize for rambling, grammar mistakes, and boring content.

-EDIT-
Links have been added. So Morgan Pepper and Parth can SUCK IT. =D