歓迎宴 (Welcome Parties)

Well...I know some of you have heard about the Tokyo parties and there is all this rah rah rah about it, so I will set everyone straight with all the parties I have been to in the last month. There isn't as many as you think, its more that when we do party we go all out! Apparently it is not Japanese if you do not, but thats just one of the awesome excuses here....similar to Australia, well ok exactly the same as Australia!

Ok 2 weeks ago on the 11th of April we had the dorm party. This was my first big night out in Tokyo. It started at the at Komaba International Dorms in out big hall. There was much food, talk and drinking....which soon led to the after party on the third floor of building two. The dorms have many people from so many different countries. Some of these include Panama, New Zealand, Madagascar, China, Korea, Russia, France, Spain, Columbia, America, Australia, England, Phillipines, Hong Kong and there are probably more I missed. But the after party involved Natalie and myself trying new alcohol....like souchu, sake and Japanese beer. Oh and the alcohol we bought was like 50m down the road at the convenience store. Here in Japan all the alcohol is sold everywhere in supermarkets, convenience stores and vending machines and YES you do not need ID. Only in clubs they ask for ID. The legal drinking age in Japan is 20yrs. Its crazy....you learn to be an alco from a very early age here....haha. But the after party was a good chance for us to meet many new people, but I dont think I will be seeing many people again as we all go to different unis and our timetables are so different. I have made about 5 or so good friends in the dorms and we all invite each other out at night and weekends. But the 3rd floor after party led to Natalie taking me to the Russian party on the 6th floor...for everyone that doesnt know Natalie is Russian. I had no idea what was going at this party....singing and talking but I couldn't understand a word.....and I soon got distracted and went back downstairs.

TWO seconds later Simon catches me and tells me a group is going clubbin in Naka-Meguro...so off I go. Natalie didn't want me to go because she wanted to go out Saturday, but with my alcohol content...I was going clubbin. LOL. I ended up going in with about 10 people. The club was tiny and house music. And yes I am not a fan of house....I then get a call from Natalie telling me she is coming out. So myself and two american friends hit the train for Shibuya (the party town). We met up with Natalie and treked through the city looking for a decent club. Before we knew it we hit HARLEM. The best r'n'b club I have seen in a while. Entry was $20, but you get 2 free drinks of whatever you want. So that covers the entry. The club was massive....i think it had like 3-4 floors....sketchy memories. But the music was great...one floor of hip hop, one of r'n'b and another reggae and thats are far up as I got. The club was packed with both Japanese locals and many gaigin. And everyone talks to everyone...its crazy how many randoms we met that night and the fun we had. We were there till about 4am then Natalie and myself went food hunting. We found an italian restuarant (remember everything is 24hrs in tokyo). We headed home at 5am but got lost and a 15min walk took us over an hour...haha. Good times.

Now for the swimming parties! We had our first one on 16th of April. It was at Jiyugaoka, which is 2min from our uni campus and about 30min from home. We headed to a restaurant called Tapa Dinning & Bar. All restaurants in Japan require you to take your shoes off. Pain in the butt I say. LOL. But we sat on seats at this restaurant. The food was random...salads, hot chips, chicken wings, rice dish, pizza, and much much beer and alcoholic drinks! Its crazy, every 5sec there is a KAMPAI(cheers) and you must drink....or skull. Messy messy buisness. At least the beer is only 5%....but not as good as aussie beer! The dinner was great fun and we got to meet more people and develop better friendships....but the language barrier is still a bitch. After dinner we headed to karaoke across the road and I definitely had not had enough to drink. I do not sing for those that know me and I found this stressful. I sang with Natalie and we tried to get out of other songs.....haha. But our friends can sing well....makes for me really not wanting to sing. Our night here ended at 11pm and we headed home before the trains stopped running (12am they stop).

The BEST party of them all was on the 23rd of April. It was the 2nd swimming welcome party, which was great fun. At first Natalie and myself were not sure if you go to both parties or we were not welcome. But one of the girls convinced us to come. The party was at Ookayama which is right next to my uni. Again we had to take our shoes off and after entering I discovered this was where I had to sit on the floor and eat. So painful....I moved around way to much...I kept getting pins and needles...lol. But the food again was good....a mixture of salads, fried foods, yakatori, chicken dishes, and rice cakes. And yes we had way to much alcohol in supply this time. The custom is to pour your friends drink first, then they pour yours and this goes around the group. Then everyone Kampais and drinks....and this is repeated god knows how many times. But hell it is fun. The worst part was drinking way too much and then realising I had to go to the bathroom. Again when you hit the bathroom you have to put on the supplied slippers, which are way too small for me....damn it. Then I discovered that it was a squat toilet...ahhhh. How do you balance when you have lost all coordination? Well i'll tell you....you grab both walls and hope for the best and pray your butt off you don't fall in! (i can't stop laughing now....the memories are way to vivid) The party was good because we got to know our friends much better and the language barrier is slowly being broken down.....alcohol helps, I won't lie.

After dinner we headed for karaoke again which went way too late....there was much singing, dancing and socialising. Natalie and me missed our last train, but all hope was not lost...
Some of the others who also missed the last train invited us back to the club house so we could sleep till morning. We headed to the supermarket, stocked up on food and drink and headed for the room. There was about 8 of us. We spent the time talking to the early hours of the morning. I found out some really interesting things....like I had no idea that Natalie and me were their first gaigin friends ever. They have never known anyone who wasn't Japanese. They said they welcome us in to their club and definitely want us in their club, but I can now understand their hestitation at first. I think it was a mixture of nerves, uncomfortable siliences and the language barrier we had to break through first before we could move onto stronger friendships. Also, something I still do not understand was that "apparently" I am the first girl to ever stand up to one of the guys. He apparently is older, so had more power over everyone else, especially the girls. The boys were telling me how he has never had a girl tell him he can't do something. For example he wouldnt let one of the girls have the chips, so i took it from him and gave it to her. This shocked him, but beleive it or not didn't anger. I explained to him how in Australia guys and girls are all equal and girls DO NOT put up with shit from boys. This surprised the boys, but they are going to have to learn sometime because NO ONE tells me what to do. HAHA.

Its like the power heirarchy in Japan is very definite. There is a direct link between age, sex and how well you do at school. Like one of the boys isnt as smart so he gets bagged out but seems to take it. Another is considered noisy, so again bagged out. I told them this is mean, but they think of it as normal....its weird I tell you. We all swap cultural differences and they find ours just as interesting as we find theirs. There is a respect between us all and its great to meet new people and discover a different culture. It has opened my mind up and realise so many things I take for granted. But no now we help them speak english and they correct our Japanese which is great. Hopefully it will get better....I just need to study a lot more. At 5am we headed home....and yep only 2hrs sleep and off to uni again...

Thats the only big night outs we have had.....they have been great fun and many friendships have been made. This blog posting was just a chance for me to describe what I have been doing socially and new things I have discovered.

Oh and by the way. partying here in the areas I have been to is completely safe. As two girls, Natalie and I can walk home by ourselves without a care in the world. We have heard there are red light districts but they are nowhere near us. Its not like Sydney has become...also when we leave our shoes at the entrance ways of places, no one steals your stuff. The Japanese people are generally an honest race...i am finding its more the gaijin I need to be warey of...stealing my umbrella at the dorms, how freaking dodgy is that?

Anyways I will later post about my efforts to find a gym, uni life, medical industry, banking and how I survive here! It isn't bad at all...just different....very different.
xoxox