Night Clubs

Before coming to Japan, I had never been to an actual night club, or any kind of dance club. I really was just not interested. After meeting so many great people here, I was talked into at least giving it a try. This is a great experience, to be living in a whole other country, so I want to be open to new things. I have now been to a few different places and I have found, that it is more fun than I had expected. I recently was invited to a place called Ageha and had a really good time. The energy and atmosphere at these places are always so positive and everyone is having so much fun, just dancing. I still only go out to a club every once in awhile, it is a bit much for me sometimes because I don't like dancing a whole lot but I have fun just being there and watching everyone else dancing.

Fun Fun!

It seems like almost every child has a dream, to one day visit Disneyland. Unfortunately for my wife, she never got to go as a child but, this weekend we went to Disney Sea, for a friends birthday gift. The day at the park was supposed to be a gift for our friend but, I think that my wife had the most fun out of everyone, because her childhood had finally come true. We all had a really great time. I had only been to the Disneyland in California, when I was really young and was really surprised to see how advanced some of the rides at the Tokyo Disney were. It is funny to me that out of all of the great things that were there, the most talked about thing that I have heard is, that they serve alcohol at the restaurants, so Disney Sea is much better. I especially liked the drink tokens, with the Disney logo, haha. Although, my favorite part was going on the Indiana Jones ride. We have a friend from America, who will visit next month and we plan to go to the Disneyland next time, to see the Christmas shows. So, we will be looking forward to that.

Enjoying new cultures

On Sunday I was invited, along with some of my guest house members, to attend a live Indian music performance in Tokyo. The building that the performance was held in, was actually just someone’s home which, often hosts this kind of event. The house was about 60 years old and was traditional Japanese style. The performance was upstairs and there were 35 guests who came to watch the show. The musicians all wore traditional Indian outfits and played in traditional style. There were three members in the group. One was from India and the other two were Japanese. They played for about an hour, without stopping, and then had a second part to the show where the man from India did dancing. It was interesting because he was dressed like a woman for this part and even had make up on his face. He was dancing in the form of the Indian goddess Shiva and used his feet like drums, to the music. After the show was over, there was a big dinner party and we all had huge amounts of curry and naan. It was so delicious! At dinner everybody had a chance to talk and get to know each other and it was really nice because there were so many people from many different cultures all having a good time together.

New rules

Recently I was asked to go to an onsen with some friends but, I had to explain to them that I am not able to go and why which, reminded me of an interesting story. About three months ago my friends invited me to go to a super sento in Funabashi. People always talk about how nice and relaxing it is to enjoy the hot public baths that are so popular in Japan. I had never been to something like this before and I was really excited to experience something new. We all walked to the sento together and it was cold outside so, I was looking forward to getting into the hot water even more. After the guys and girls separated and went into their changing rooms, my excitement suddenly changed to sadness. Not because the guys and girls had different baths but, because on the entrance door there was a huge sign that said “No tattoos!” I knew that Japanese people as a culture, are pretty against the idea of people having tattoos because it is a sign of the Yakuza but, I didn’t think that as a foreigner having tattoos, that there would be any problems. I was wrong. I went into the baths anyway thinking, because I was a foreigner it would be OK but, after about 30 minutes a staff member came up to me and told me that someone complained about my tattoos and that I must leave.

I understood that it was a cultural thing and I did get my money back so, it was not a big problem. The whole experience was a big reminder that I was really in a different country and culture from my own. I thought it was actually nice for me to go through because it was the only real discrimination I have had to deal with and now I feel, I have one more level that I can relate to people with which, is only good for me in the long term.