Welcome Party

My base school's welcome party last night. The invitation should have been my warning.

14:30-16:30 Yakiniku (BBQ) There are restaurants here where you pay one price and it's all you can eat all you can drink (yes, alcoholic beverages as well). the party was seated at a long row of picnic tables at the head of which was a barbecue pit, and next to that was a tub of raw meat. The obligatory cabbage salad was nearby. (Cabbage takes the place of lettuce here.) There was also miso soup, and, of course, rice.

All you can eat means just that. They keep bringing you raw meat until you say stop. The all you can drink is a self-serve bar--not bottles of alcohol, mind you, but a beer keg and a chu hai machine (think margarita machine, only it's filled with a different kind of fruity alcoholic drink). There's also a soda dispenser, tea, and water. Did I mention the great thing about yakiniku? (I mean besides the all you can drink aspect.) Women pay less than men--by three to five dollars depending on the restaurant. It's pretty cool. 

18:30-20:30 Bowling

Apparently bowling is bowling no matter where you  go. Well, except for the Hello Kitty lanes--ostensibly for little kids (but I really wanted to play on those lanes). 

(Here's where it got scary on the invitation.)

21:00-??? Karaoke (That's exactly what the invitation said.)

No, Karaoke is not the scary part. The scary part is that whoever made the invitation knew most of us would be plastered by then as they had put a little drunk smiley face in the bottom corner next to this third section. I didn't even know drunk smiley face clip art existed. It was true, though. Everyone was drunk. Start at 1 p.m. at an all you can drink, move on to a bowling alley with beer vending machines and from there move on to karaoke where all you have to do is pick up the phone to place your next drink order. Yeah, everyone was feeling pretty good as they passed out. (Karaoke rooms are pretty comfy.)

The Madanbashi Matchbox

Before I left Houston I made a few new friends, and one of them was a JET about ten years ago. She warned me that the apartments would be small. I had been informed of this while doing research before I applied for JET. I knew what I was getting into--or so I thought. My new apartment is small. Really small. Think of a dorm room and then shrink it by about ten percent. 

If I walk the apartment heel to toe I can take about twenty steps from the front door to the back patio door. Across it's about eleven steps. It has a teensy tiny washer. There's no dryer, but I can hang my clothes on the clothesline outside like everyone else does (except during rainy days when I can walk across the street to the coin laundry). 

In the kitchen area there is one burner (induction heat type) and one sink. I read a comment, more of a complaint, asking why the Japanese haven't gotten onto the garbage disposal bandwagon and I completely agree. There's a lot to clean in these sinks in a place where mold grows very quickly. I have a little dorm refrigerator. I'm told I'm lucky because I have what passes for a tub in my bathroom, but that's only if you go by a strict definition of a tub being a receptacle for holding water. I've used it once and it wasn't very relaxing. It is deep, though, which is nice. The toilet has an interesting how to sticker:

Really, though I think my apartment will be perfect for me--and me alone.