The Japanese Salary Man Counteraction
Close after the Japanese Salary Man experience, my Swedish half (and well, Micke had a part in that too) told me that I needed to compensate for that by doing the most western-ish thing you can do in Tokyo, head for Roppongi a Saturday night. After having completely failed to use an ATM, In Japan a lot of ATM's closes at night, I was pretty much dependent on what was left in Micke's wallet. Well, an all night out at Micke's expense. Couldn't be better. =) One memorable incident from that night was being molested by this 45 years old fairly wasted Japanese lady. Luckily (For me, not her) I was only one of many during that night. After telling me how beautiful my blonde (??) hair was she continued on to Micke, and after having fallen like a valiant gladiator on the dancefloor twice she succumbed to the overwhelming power of the last shot (that probably longed to meet with the 15 or so other shot down there) she must have shoved down her neck and withdrew herself to the lady's room. That's a pretty impressive record you've got there Micke! Molested twice in a weekend (the other one was a raven or a crow attacking him early Friday morning). =)
Before heading for Roppongi, we had a gathering (Or to be honest, Micke and some of his friends, and friends friends had a gathering that I just happened to get invited to =) ) at an Izakaya in Shinjuku. A Danish guy, Magnus (Yes, we spoke in English and Japanese since we couldn't understand each other in Danish and Swedish) and his Japanese girlfriend Rika, Aoi, Aya (Micke's friends), Maja (Swedish), Miwa and Madoka (Miwa and Aoi have the same birthday this week which also was one of the reasons to this happening). Surprisingly all of them studied at Sophia University, which if you stand outside my office in Kiyoicho and kick a middle sized rock (Somewhere between a tennis ball and a table tennis ball but a little heavier. Maybe you would call that a pebble?) and miss it, the rock (pebble) would land in the Sophia University canteen or maybe at a very surprised Yoshiaki Ishizawa's desk. That is how close the university is to my office. Miwa lives only half a block down behind my hotel. I think I've said it before but, ain't the world too small? Well, Thursday lunch is now booked for the Sophia University canteen.
Friday evening Micke, Per, Elias, Haruka, Keiko, Shouko and I decided to go to an Izakaya (again in Shinjuku). Per and Elias here only a couple of weeks for their Masters thesis, have a very rough schedule and working so hard that the fall asleep, they didn't manage to come to the Izakaya. Keiko arrived first at my place somewhere around 19-20pm. shortly followed by Micke. Micke halfway to the manager position of a German bank, came directly from the "baito" via another party. Going to Shinjuku, we met Haruka and Ayako (A colleauge of Haruka's) at around 21pm. (People work late in Japan). Since we'd got a mail from Shouko that she had to work overtime, we went directly to the izakaya, which was a good decision, cause I received an email from poor Shouko at a little past midnight (!!) that she'd just arrived at home. Poor Arata couldn't come either since he's up somewhere in the mountains (Akita prefecture) for a visit to their factory.
I have now tried to walk home from Roppongi to Yotuya, which took less than 50 minutes. Starting at around 03.10 from Roppongi I arrived at home just before 04.00. That's not too bad and it saves you a fortune in taxi expenses. My daily rythm is of course completely screwed, which is bad. I think that I'm almost back in the Swedish time zone. That's why I'm up writing this at 3.30am. I guess it won't get any better when the World Cup starts in less than a month.
Well, besides sleeping until 3pm both Saturday and Sunday, I've been to the gym twice. Japanese really like it when it's warm. The pool has around 28 degrees in the water. After 50 meters you sweat like a pig on the yakiniku net. Same indoors, the gym must be like 30 degrees. Even in my office it's around 25 degrees. Today I went to a small sentou (like an onsen but not natural) and looking forward to a nice dip in the hot water, my expectation was abruptly ruined. It felt like being flayed by the wutchu butchu cannibals in Bali or where ever the Wutchu's live. God damnit! I am pretty sure that the water started to boil right after I got out. I changed to one with a thermometer saying 46 degrees and after that suicidal kettle of demon water, I've never felt anything smoother to my skin (except of a skin lotion from a hotel outside Qingdao (Shazhou Hotel)). As a reference, the 45 degree rotenburo in Kobe onsen made my life hard at that time. I'll never go back to this sentou again, that's for sure.
The following week will be a busy one. =) Tomorrow I need to go to Shinjuku and get a new wordtank for the one they stole in Shanghai. Doesn't sound very hard maybe, but going to Shinjuku is rather tiresome. There are always a lot of people there. Tuesday is floorball training again. Wednesday I am going to watch a JLeauge soccer game (a cup game between FC Tokyo and good ol' Urawa from Saitama). Friday I am going to the driving license center to take the bike test and get my license. On Saturday we might head out for some golfing. Not sure though.
