Another day, another dollar (or twenty-four) short. But the benefits gained have been superb.
Last night, after getting into the hotel room (which was heavenly after having been in the manga cafe for the first night), we ran around the nearby area scouting out the sites. Two different Taito Stations and one Round 1 curled their fingers around my legs and dragged me within their shiny, many-colored interiors. The first floor tended to house a wide variety of UFO catcher devices, claw grabbers where the prizes are much more than simple plushies. This time, rare statuettes, giant stuffed figures, and oh-so-much-more were up for grabs. I attempted to win Kin an awesome Miku figure using David's patented technique (if I shared it, I'd lose my pinky fingers), but alas, no luck. The second floors were the best, however, with games upon games upon games, many I had never heard or seen before, and just as many strange in concept but beautiful in execution. A Dragonball Z third-person fighting game was coveted like the Initial D games of old. Some Square Enix-produced game that utilized a 3D card system fused traditional trading card games with high-tech video games. Some sort of Magical Quiz Academy tested one's knowledge on... something, I imagine. All held in stunning condition, it was such a (glorious) change from the state of arcades in America. I was jealous.
Dinner was CoCo Curry House, at which I ordered an amazing-but-simple dish of medium-heat chicken curry with egg, as well as fluffy and hot cheese naan bread. So far, my favorite meal by far. We returned to the room to finish watching a Japanese-subbed Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows and passed out... though jet lag woke both David and I up multiple times throughout the night. Still working on that issue. Oh, and Diana showed up later on that evening so we could begin our journey early the next day.
And what an adventure it was. We checked out at 10AM after doing some more exploring, this time on a weekday morning, and made the trip from Yokohama station to Totsuka. A 9-minute ride through a beautiful fusion of wires and leaves and cement-covered rolling hills and we arrived at our meeting spot a mere 4 hours early. It was here we met our first non-core group member Armand, who quickly acclimated to the group. Fellow KUCI DJs, unite! We stuck it out at a nearby mall in a relatively discreet area so we wouldn't be in anyone's way and hunkered down till they kicked us out. But of course, they were nice about it, so we weren't feeling like we had committed a mortal sin. Lunch was a quick treat: taiyaki, fluffy pancake-bread in the shape of a fish filled with (in my case) custard. Some lucky, brave soul tried the BLT taiyaki... but it ended up being awful. Sadface. Better luck next time, David!
We discovered more obvious gaijin at the top floor of the mall. Sup white guy! Jason and Fion (Fior? We're still getting used to everyone's names) had been there for a few days, so we happily joined them, beginning the roundup of Meigaku-bound EAP students. Little by little our group grew, adding in many great personalities to our group. By the end of it, we had a nearly-complete party with only a couple poor people having not shown up. We dragged our bags a few minutes away from the meeting spot and met a bus to drive us a whopping 5 minutes away to MISH, the Meiji International Student House. AKA home till almost next year! No elevators in MISH, however, meant hauling every last bag up the four floors of rooms. A group training exercise left us all sweaty, but grateful to finally be home. We immediately joined the Kobayashi's and our Mustache-san (does anyone remember his name?) for the first of many orientations to come. Ground rules, kitchen rules, the like were all covered, as well as a quick trip to the nearby スパー (super market) to nab our own pair of slippers for use. I got pretty sweet orange and black striped ones that are really comfy, though kinda small even for me. Groceries were bought in some small amounts, mostly snacks, laundry detergent, and shampoo. Finally, we returned to MISH with a real meal on our minds.
We attempted to gather together as many of the MISH peeps as possible, but not everyone answered their doors. As a result, only 11 of the 19 or so of us went out for our first group meal. We walked about 20 minutes away, passing by 7-11 (of course), Domino's Pizza (buy 1 get 1 free!), and eventually reaching MoDI, the 7-floor shopping mall-ish building. Totsuka station is basically surrounded on three sides by massive multi-floor shopping plazas. It's definitely overdoing it, but it's nice to have everything in one area. Daiso, the cheapy-everything market, took up all of the fifth floor, while UNIQLO, the Gap/Old Navy of Japan, utilized floor 4. But with our bellies set on overdrive, we rushed to Floor 7 to storm the many restaurants available. Settling on a traditional place, we enjoyed delicacies like udon, katsu, and more. Cold tea was served, interestingly enough, but proved to be quite refreshing. Some of the group wanted to check out Daiso for supplies, so most of us ran once around and headed out while a few stragglers took their time and got important materials for the days ahead.
Mandatory group celebration time came next, as drinking in public is not illegal or even frowned upon. Everyone got some kind of canned beverage of their choice, many selecting delicious peach-flavored cocktails, and we headed down to the nearby river aqueduct to bond. It really was too bad the others didn't answer when we came knocking earlier, but that just means we'll have to bond some more tomorrow night! Pictures were had (working on having those sent to me), but most importantly, I must note the koi fish in this river. These beasts are MASSIVE, not mere guppies swimming downstream, audibly and visibly jumping over obstacles in the water to reach their destinations. It was strange, impressive, and almost scary! Strange shuffling noises on the other side of the river bed kiiiinda creeped me out, no lie, but when in such a large group, I guess I could always use others as "floatation devices" in the event of, say, a zombie apocalypse. No worries!
It was only 10:15PM, but I was reeling from how the long, humid day took it's toll on me. Great friends were gained this day, and I am certainly excited to learn more about them as the weeks fly by. Even if my wallet may soon hate me, I'll be finding many ways to spend my time when not in class, for certain. It's really interesting how different the people in our group can be. From one end of the spectrum to the other, for certain. But all are nice and pleasant in their own right, which assures this experience will be a great one.
I GUESS I finally have time to unpack, shower, and shave, now that it's 11:50PM. I wanted to do those things earlier, buuuut my awful memory didn't want to try and handle recalling things so far from their time of occurrence. Blog > hygiene, apparently. Oh, and for photos of all these adventures and more (don't worry, I'll remember my camera better come the next few months), look no further!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djmarmar/sets/72157631499693054/
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Pachinko parlors are louder than concerts I've been to, and smell far, far worse. Beware them at all costs.
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