November 16, 2009

Hello again! Posting to you from the local internet cafe - since there's no way I can type stuff at home, I have to do it now before all this weekend's fun fades from my memory forever.

Friday was fun - went out to Gifu with Jacob with a mission. Met at Bier Hall, a local expat bar, which was kind of dead, lot of older people. Some 47 year old came over to me and started talking about how music has no longevity nowadays - even the best contemporary bands, like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, won't be around long. Needless to say, I decided this wasn't a conversation worth pursuing (seriously, are CYHSY even still around now?)

Next convo was with a guy named Scotty. Where are you from? I asked.
Chicago, he replied.
Oh Chicago! I went to school there?
Where at?
University of Chicago.
Oh, good school! I love their econ department!
Eh...

Once again, convo went downhill fast. I looked for an exit strategy as he discussed how much he liked Ayn Rand, and how he really appreciated her Virtue of Selfishness, because he thought guys needed to be more selfish and stop going out of their way for women.

...What? I replied. Then I told him I won second place in a nationwide Ayn Rand essay contest (true story), but that I had since seen the error of my ways.

Can you recommend me some reading? he asks in response. I like to hear opinions from both sides...for example, I was watching Michael Moore, but I just couldn't get into it at all...Then he said something about Ann Coulter and I walked away.

Soon after, we left that bar (Scotty too, though nobody knows whose friend he was) and went to a place called Bottoms Up, which had karaoke. I belted some Teenage Fanclub (which is known as "geek pop" over here--same as the Smiths and anything from Europe in the late 80s/early 90s, most of which we in America would probably refer to as "twee"), some Byrds and a Shirelles song that Jacob had actually picked out (a pleasant surprise!). After that, it was off to a ramen shop, where I ordered some ramen curry, but Scotty had taken my dish by mistake so I had to wait for another one. Then Scotty bolted while we were still eating, and displayed his Virtue of Selfishness by not chipping in to cover the bill.

We left round maybe 3:30, 4am? Somebody had left a camera behind, that got pushed onto Jacob, who gladly took it, and we headed for the Treehouse where we crashed on some couches for the night. It was cold and uncomfortable, and Scotty showed up at some point and woke us up, looking for a couch of his own to sleep on--SOL, he left though. Hopefully that'd be the last we see of him...

Left Gifu around nine in the morning--went home and slept til 4. Spent the night hanging with Jen and playing music at my apt, then met up with Jacob and his friend Masaru when they got back from Gifu round midnight. Masaru was cool--had been all over America and Canada, but had what sounded to me like an Australian accent, apparently that's common with well-travelled Japanese though. We drank some beers and listened to music, and Kyle came to hang out too. Then Masaru told us about the dead guy on the escalator.

What?? we asked. He and Jacob were in hysterics; they pulled out the camera Jacob found yesterday and revealed a picture they'd taken with it earlier tonight, at the Ogaki train station. There was a man lying face down at the top of an escalator. Now, Japanese escalators are motion sensor, so for it to not be moving like that, he would have had to have been there a long time. How did he get like that? His face was literally planted in the top step, his body lying out, as if he'd tried going down the up escalator and fell down and just stopped moving.

"Dude, he was fucking dead!" Masaru explained between gasps for air. Of course he wasn't really dead, but that's why it was so funny! And seriously, how the hell did he get like that??? You'd have to see it to believe it.

Eventually Jen and Masa fell asleep on Jacob's floor, and Kyle left; me and Jacob stayed up til 4am though (we had both slept the afternoon away) listening to music and having fun. Next morning Masa left, and Jen Jacob and I had band practice. But first: lunch at Chorky's.

Chorky's is a '50s-American-style diner here in Ogaki. I'd heard they had excellent hamburgers, and I will tell you, it's definitely true. I had a chili cheeseburger with fries (and a daikon salad that comes with it, for a slightly less-authentic touch), as well as a banana milkshake. The walls were all covered in old school advertisements for Coors and other lesser-known American goods, some Saturday Evening Post-like drawings, CA and WA license plates (and also for some reason, lots of empty bags of taco-flavored Doritos). Very diner-y, and very good.

As we were leaving, Jacob let me in on a little secret: that camera he had been given? It was Scotty's! He took it out and showed me a bunch of pictures of his stupid grin in all sorts of stupid situations. But that wasn't all. Oh wait, what's this? It's a video of him at a love hotel! That's right, we watched him pick up chains and other fun devices and laughing and saying how cool it is, then he followed some girl with a tramp stamp and a thong into the bathroom and the movie ended. Hilarious!

Then we had band practice all day, had some pasta and brie for dinner, made myself my first martini in Japan and watched Vertigo with Jacob, which prompted a discussion on the eternal recurrence and synchronicity which was rather interesting, but the details of which I will spare my blog readers for fear of losing their interest. We can discuss it later on if you want - in the meantime, it's 4pm and I must go. Until the next time, over and out!

PS: I almost forgot - had my first racial profiling experience today! Now I can say I'm a true gaijin! Or something like that!