Weekend Activities
This is from last Sunday night, when we had guests–a previous host student. He still lives in Tokyo, and his mother and sister (pretty recognizable in this photo) came to visit him, and stopped by to check out the Nakagawa household. The bottom left is Chihiro, my host sister, and next to her is Tamaki, my host mom. The stately-looking fellow on the far right is Toshihiko, my host dad. The other Japanese woman is Miho, a mutual friend of both the family and the ex-exchange student. It was a good time! They came over and we had an absolutely giant feast. Tamaki cooked so much, and it was all delicious, of course. I was forced to try my hand at a little shamisen, and then Toshihiko, who was apparently quite involved with music when he was younger, also played. (Later he stood and sang everyone a complete, spot-on rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, followed by the somber, short Japanese national anthem, Kimigayo.) It was a good night.
Tamaki is just hilarious, by the way. When she gets started on something, she gets really bubbly and excited and just goes on like it’s her job. It’s great! Very cute, and I suppose a bit stereotypically Japanese, in a good way. A very nice change from the somber urgency of the people on the trains.
One thing I was kind of sad about was that I couldn’t go out with my friends to karaoke on Sunday, since I had to be around for this event. But luckily, i randomly went the night before. It was so much cooler than I thought it would be. Honestly, I didn’t expect anything special, but it was really, really fun. And I am going to need to do it again.
Before the karaoke, a bunch of us met up in Ueno park, the same place I described earlier when I went a-hanami-ing, for a wine and cheese party. Oh man, it was gorgeous, and the weather was perfect, and everyone brought way too much food! It was great just to relax in the midst of this giant, crowded park, surrounded by Japanese people doing the same thing. Just enjoying the opportunity to hang around and eat and drink and have fun. I almost made it to the zoo in Ueno park, but it closed just before we got there. I blame the wine. But it was still a great afternoon, and paved the way for a great night out in Shibuya and Ginza. The pic below is from the wine & cheese party.
the ex-exchange girls sister is kinda cute there nathanial, you should hook weba up, or wendel. leave the decision up to you. i do like the bottle of wine in the second picture just sitting there on the street, very classy
Sounds like an awesome weekend! How did karaoke work? When I was in london, there was a japanese club down the street that booked private rooms for up to 20 people and just a public lounge. My last friend that went to Japan came back singing “Linda, Linda” EVERY time he became intoxicated. So, I’ve gotta ask: What did you sing?
Karaoke seems to be a lot of fun…but is it recommended to get drunk before getting on stage or is there a serious competition?
Presumably the first…”Prost!”
Enjoy your stay!!!
Janina
hve you been deleting my responses, why do you hate weber?
make weber sad when you hate weber
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to handle it if a previous host student came to visit my fam… I’d have to shank that ho. I’m glad you’ve got a more positive attitude to the experience. I would really hate to hear you’d been locked up in Japanese prison.
Weber, no deleting, just laziness in terms of approving comments.
Steph, don’t joke about Japanese prisons. I’ve got 3 months left here.
Janina and Topher, holy crap, karaoke is wonderful. Here it’s not on a stage. You rent a room for 5-15 people usually. Some places you can buy “all-you-can-drink” to go along with it. I always end up singing a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Matchbox Twenty.
Janina, there are a few German students in my Japanese class, and I went out with one of them last weekend! He was a lot of fun. And of course we said “prost!” It made me think of you, and the idea of “geh blau”.