Guys night out with Red Shoes

Today was a guy’s night out. I didn’t know that it was going to end up that way, and I think neither did any of the other guys that were there. We decided to meet at 7pm under the Cial department store and everyone was actually early. We walked around Yokohama station for a little bit to look for an izakaya to have dinner and drinks. We intended to go to wara-wara, the place that we met last time for the Red Shoes group, but this time it was packed. So we went looking for another place. We stopped off at maybe 6 places before we found one that had enough space to take in 6 people, but we had to wait till 8pm before we could go in. It was at Amataro, near the Soveil Movie Theater.

When we were finally let in, around 8:20pm, we immediately ordered our food and drinks. We were all starving at this point and since this was my first and only meal today, I was really hungry. The past few days had been filled with eating too much and today, I didn’t get adjusted fast enough to not eating at all. I’m very extreme when it comes to matters like this. We actually ate and drank a lot since it was only the guys of the group. We just kept on eating non-stop for like 2 hours and drank quite a bit since the beer glasses were big. The food wasn’t bad at all; it was actually pretty good I thought. I’m glad that I had a chance to eat my share and it was a lot too. I’m surprised that I drank so much, but I guess I’ve gotten used to it now since I’ve been drinking a lot lately. I don’t think that’s a good thing too since now I feel like I’m craving alcohol to drink.

Something a teacher told me yesterday was if you pass a certain point, you’ll start to like alcohol, so don’t get carried away. She’s a hard-core drinker and has a high limit and she warned me about it, but I think I’ve already passed that point. I’ve even gotten used to beer, which I absolutely couldn’t stand before, so I’m not sure what’s next anymore.

Something that I wanted to point out was that I was annoyed with two of the people there and the worst part of it was that I was sandwiched between them during dinner. I’ve been very irritated recently by the littlest things, but they were pushing their luck, and all this was before the alcohol was coming. I think actually when they were drinking; they were better and less annoying. It all started when we were walking to find a place eat dinner. They were just bugging me because they assumed that since other people are Americans we were friends or something. Japanese who eat at T.G.I. Fridays are automatically my friends because they are Americans. I know they were just joking, but I didn’t like it. They were speaking out of their asses and being very dumb about it. They kept on making stupid assumptions about Americans and it goes to show how narrow-minded they are and how they have no greater grasp of the world. But I really can’t blame them since they live in a society where less than 1% of the population is foreign-born. And I’m assuming that among those that live in Japan that are foreign-born, a majority of them are here in Japan teaching them English. Anyways, it was just annoying, not that they aren’t annoying just because, but today it was worse.

After dinner, we went walking around Yokohama station again. We decided to get a drink at the convenient store and go hang out by the train tracks. It was something that you could see in a movie like Stand by Me. It was pretty interesting, but there were a lot of Sea Slaters there. It was a bit gross since we just had dinner, but they don’t bother me as much as they bothered other members of the group. We stayed there till around 12:20am and then we all had to leave to catch the last trains home.

I hitched a ride with YFto, who lives in Konandai. Not that I really needed a ride or anything, but he offered and insisted that we go together. I think he wanted to try to speak English and he’s getting better. He is in fact an English teacher for Elementary school students, so I think that’s what he was up to. In the car, we were talking about gas and navigation systems. People in the U.S. complain about gas being $2.50, but elsewhere around the world, the price is much higher. For example, gas in Japan is around $4 per gallon. Well it’s about 115.36 yen per liter, and well, you’re smart enough to convert it aren’t you? I’m not, but that’s my guess. The navigation systems in Japan are very important since streets don’t have names and you could easily find yourself lost without one. I could only find my way around because I have a good map in my head of landmarks, but not of street names. In the U.S. they’ve got to start equipping cars with this kind of technology. It’s just so useful, and I’m not just talking about the navigation, like TV and radio, and MD’s and CD’s and a whole range of other things.

I didn’t get to sleep till around 3am for some reason, but I was just tired and hit the sack soon after.