Dancecapades, Part III; or And Then There Were Two

When I came down from the bar the Rock Factory became an entirely different place. Now everybody was dancing – my friends, the other people in the bar, and the band! The dj put on more dance music, and everyone became friends. The dj was so impressed with me and Amber that he bought us and all of our friends a round of shots (the New Zealanders were long gone). We were all having a ridiculously good time… and then we remembered last train. All of us except for Mark and Ben had to work early Sunday morning; Mark was staying out, but Ben definitely had to catch last train for other reasons. Mark convinced Sean to stay out, Sean encouraged Christian to do the same, Christian talked me into it, and then I got Amber to stay out too. Christian, Amber and I had bought our tickets and were on the train platform when we all somewhat collectively thought – we’re having so much fun (and those shots were kicking in), we can’t go home now!

After a couple of phone calls the 5 of us reconvened outside of the station and made our way to Vibration, another bar in Roppongi. As soon as we walked in I zipped straight to the bar to make my request. The dj didn’t have any Scissor Sisters, but he was really friendly and played some music he thought I would like. He came out and danced with us a number of times. At this bar we were also meeting and dancing with random, fun Japanese people. The dj played great music, and he honored a lot of my requests (Bhangra – twice!). Around 3am we were losing a bit of steam – we had been going for about 6 or 7 hours at this point! The dj – I wish I remembered his name – noticed our lagging spirits (and the fact that I was yawning) bought us all a round of shots. We stayed for a little while longer, but the guys wanted to go to a much larger club so we thanked the dj, said good-bye to our Japanese friends of the evening, and went to Vanilla.

The Rock Factory and Vibration are bars with dance floors carved out from the spaces between counter-tops, stools, dj booths and the like. Vanilla is a huge corporate behemoth of a club – multiple floors, roped off dj booths, and packed on a Saturday night! Whatever floor my friends and I found ourselves on I made a beeline for the dj booth to request ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. It was huge – it completely lined the back wall, had something like 6 turntables, and small crowd milling about. After a few minutes of craning my neck and gesturing I managed to get someone to talk to me. After 20 minutes and 3 different people I finally took no for an answer. The 3^rd person to say no suggested that I come back on not a Saturday night, and maybe I could get my song.

Over the course of the night we lost Christian; he blacked out and wandered away and we couldn’t find him when the club closed at 5am. So the 4 of us, Amber, Sean, Mark and I, made our way to the station. We joined the crowd that had gathered to wait for the first trains to come and take everyone home. Sean was really out of it, and he walked away right as our train pulled up. So the 3 of us made our way back to Shinjuku together to catch our connecting trains. Mark lives on a different line so together Amber and I sleepily clambered onto the train for the last 40 minutes of our 10-hour night; and less than 3 hours later I woke up to get ready for work.

Dancecapades, part II; or I Don't Feel Like Dancin'

*'Dancecapades, part I' was posted on the date of the original draft; you can find it between Goldalization and Nippon Karaoke. Stay tuned for ‘Dancecapades, part III’.

For Saturday night (10/21) I had organized a group trip to Roppongi for a concert at the Rock Factory, by an Eigo-speaking band called Invago. There was no cover but the drinks were exorbitant. Luckily, early on I left our seats and came back to find my roommate Amber surrounded by 3 tall, burly New Zealand men. They seemed to really enjoy our company, and bought us beers all night. Amber and I actually came to the bar with 4 guys (Sean, Mark, Ben and Christian) who more or less left us alone after the New Zealanders appeared, so it was like a girls' night out and a guys' night out.

The band was so-so; nice to listen to, but not so good that I wasn't calculating how I could hear the Scissor Sisters' 'I Don't Feel Like Dancin'. During one of the band's breaks I tried to find the dj to make my request, but I had to settle for leaving a note with the waitress. My roommate Amber speaks Spanish, and over the course of the night she discovered that the dj did as well. After Invago finished their final set my roommate convinced the dj (in Spanish) to play the Scissor Sisters! He downloaded it on the spot for me. As soon as he put it on I grabbed Amber and was like - it's time for a dance break! I was going all out, and we were actually the only two people in the bar dancing. It was absolutely magnificent, so much fun.

Not surprisingly, the dj saw me (as did everyone else in the bar). Afterwards we started talking, and in my head I was struggling to think of what I could say to convince him to play the song again. And THEN he said, 'if I play the song again will you dance on the bar?' I was like 'are you kidding me? Of course I will!!' How could I say no to an offer like that?! So, he put it on again, and I hopped up on a stool and swung myself up to the bar. I didn’t know I could enjoy the song any more, but dancing up on a bar top made it absolutely incredible. This time the people in the bar were getting really into it too – doing little dances, clapping and cheering. It felt so awesome to be on top of the bar. It was kind of narrow and half the time I was holding on to the ceiling so I couldn't really go all out, but it was totally euphoric; a completely awesome experience.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thursday morning and I'm really excited, because it's Thanksgiving and I love Thanksgiving. I'm also having a party later tonight – this is my first time truly hosting anything for the holidays! I’m having a drinks + dessert party, so I suppose I should cook something. I’ve been searching import stores for the past few days – I wanted to find brownie mix/cookie dough to supplement a pie or two, but I haven’t been able to find much so now I’m just going to go with any dessert that I can find the ingredients for.

Most of the people I’ve invited aren’t American – they’re English, Japanese, Canadian, etc – and many of them have told me that they’re looking forward to seeing how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. I feel I should give them a disclaimer because this is certainly not a typical or traditional way to do Thanksgiving. We have 2 of the 4 F’s – friends and football (on DVD), but not really family or food. And of course, I will be asking people what they’re thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving! What are YOU Thankful for?

On being Gaijin

I wonder sometimes, what it is like for some of the Japanese people I encounter in my daily life. In America people often tell stories to their friends or family about encounters they have with strange people. Do people do that in Japan too? If so, I wonder what some people I've had run-ins with might say...

Two weeks ago my friend Jen and I had lunch at an okonomiyake restaurant. Okonomiyake is a dish where you mix together meat and vegetables in a thick liquid, pour it onto a hot griddle and cook it like a pancake. Each table has a mini-griddle, and you mix the ingredients yourself. So, on with the story - from the perspective of, let's say, Yuki.

So two Gaijin came into the restaurant today. When they entered they bowed and said konnichi wa, so I thought maybe they spoke some Japanese. I was so wrong. I gave them the menus, and they looked really confused. They were talking - it seemed like they were discussing what to get. I didn't understand most of it but I was able to make out okonomiyaki - albeit in a very un-Japanese accent. Finally they pointed to a picture of a monjomiyake set for one. I thought to myself, ok Gaijin, whatever. There were two of them, but I didn't say anything.

When I brought them the food I offered to show them how to mix and cook but they just wanted to do it themselves. I walked by a couple of times and they seemed to be doing fine pushing the monjomiyake around on the griddle and cooking away the liquid, but then after a little while they waved me over. They started frowning, pointing to the monjomiyake, gesturing wildly and jabbering in Eigo – and I totally didn’t understand them! Finally one of them looked at me inquisitively and said ‘egg?’ Then I realized – they wanted okonomiyake! Those Western fools.

I took out one of the menus, pointed to the monjomiyake, and then pointed to the okonomiyake, which they promptly ordered. Thankfully at that point Taro came in, and he speaks better English than I, so I passed off the clueless Gaijin to him.

Christmas in November

They say good things come in threes...


My first real paycheck was deposited midnight

My power cord arrived this morning and I'm using my laptop for the first time in weeks

The Monday Night Social Club is meeting in Shinjuku tonight for all-night karaoke



stay tuned for more... I have a gajillion blogs stored up in my head