I woke up around 10 this morning and got ready, then Sohee stopped by to say goodbye and drop of the television she wanted to give me since she can't take it back to Korea. (It's absolutely the most adorable television ever. It has Pooh on it and just looks really cartoony and great. =D) I'm sad she had to leave, but I'll probably be seeing her again when I go to Korea next month.
After that, I went to Takadanobaba to meet with Nobuko (and finally give her her one month late birthday present). We went to the ice rink to skate. I'm a really bad ice skater, but I definitely did better than last time. I love ice skating, and the little kids there are so pro. They're doing spins, going backwards, and jumping. I guess it's a little on the expensive side, but you can stay for as long as you want. Plus, we saw this guy do the most amazingly hilarious wipe out. He was jumping and waving his arms and we couldn't stop laughing.
Afterwards, we walked to Shin Okubo and Shinjuku to look for a Korean restaurant to eat at. Along the way, we found Korean mochi and each bought a box. We ended up at one in Shinjuku. We ate BBQ (you know, the lettuce wrap things) and a soup with (I think it was pork) spine in it. Yummy. And a bottle of Chamiseul, because Korean food and soju are the best. Then we went to an internet cafe for an hour so I could teach Nobuko how to use facebook. Internet cafes/Manga cafes give me a really gross, weird feeling, so I don't think I'll ever be going back.
We ended the night with a couple of hours of karaoke at Karaokekan and got to the station just in time to catch our last trains. That, my friends, is a pretty good night out in Tokyo. (It'll run you about 5500 yen, but it's worth it.)
Japanese People and Trains
One thing I noticed is how crazy Japanese people are when it comes to catching their trains and how much tolerance they have for others while they're riding. I waited for a second train when I got to the station because so many people were lined up for the one that was already there. They squeeze themselves in there like there's no tomorrow. The station men even help push people in and once the doors close, the poor fool next to the door looks like one of those cartoon birds that ran into a window pane.
For a culture that is very 'hands-off', riding the train is uncomfortably crammed. I've been physically closer to complete strangers on the train than to some of my very best friends, and sometimes it HURTS. Japanese people also generally do not believe in holding onto the handles hanging from the train to help them balance, they'd rather just lean around on others or shuffle to catch their balance, which makes me crazy when I'm trying so hard not to get on others' nerves by leaning on them.
There also ends to be a very, very low tolerance for noise, like talking on cell phones, wearing loud headphones, or having conversations with the people around you, but a very high tolerance for reading material. Any reading material. I've seen older salarymen with some of the most inappropriate, restricted magazines sitting next to young women, other salarymen, or teenagers without showing the slightest bit of embarassment. I don't understand it. It's crazy. On one hand, they're ultra-conservative and on the other hand they're freaks. It seems like such a country of extremes, and its weird to see how that works itself out.
