B(l)ogged down

So people are asking me, where's the blag? I want the next text!

The thing is, there are two reasons for that.

The first reason is that nothing particularly noteworthy is happening. I always hated writing a journal, and this is exactly why: as soon as you settle in some kind of routine, every page starts to look the same. I got up, went to work, ate some lunch, got back, ate dinner, messed around with my computer, shut down for the night. Not fun, people. Not fun.

So, I'm slowly getting into a routine, a large part of which is going to the Uni. It usually takes me an hour to get there, and an hour to get back. While home, I tend to take long showers. It also takes time to delete all the bacn (Gmail solves spam quite well, so that's fine). I might grab fifteen minutes to (try to) read Death Note, with clarifications courtesy of One Manga. Starting from next week, my most likely daily language classes will probably be held every day. I've also grown quite attached to eating at least twice a day, and at least one of those is usually in cafeteria, which is, usually, nothing to write home about. (There will be a photo or three now and then, though.) And finally, what goes in needs to go out as well. (And I bet you knew most of that, so writing this out was not really necessary.)

This brings me to my second reason for not writing more often: I don't have the time or energy to write a blog post. Today I've already reconciled with the fact that I will be late to the lab, even though I don't think anyone's watching (or if they are, they're keeping their complaints politely to themselves, in a typically Japanese fashion), so that's how come you're reading this. I really should learn to write shorter posts.

Now on to other concerns.

My current top two worries: spending all my money too fast, and not finding time to wash my clothes.

The latter is kind of related to my scheduling problem described above (although, writing a blog post fits rather well into the 40 or so minutes the clothes are being washed and the 20 more that they spend in a spin-drier). As for the former, partly it's my own fault (okay, let's say mostly, and be done with it): there is a lot of really cool stuff here that is much cheaper than at home. This mostly concerns consumer electronics. So, having come to Japan without a single circuit on me (umm, okay, there was a clunky old MP3 player), I started outfitting myself with various cyberbits and technopieces, and BicCamera (and, in one already described instance, Yodobashi) were gracious enough to help me. Partly, it's that everything else (except soy sauce) is so much more expensive here.

I would really love to hear an explanation from the Japanese people who used to tell me Japan was cheaper than Croatia. Restaurants are, maybe, but that has less to do with Japanese restaurants being cheap than with Croatian restaurants being inordinately expensive. But other things...

Yesterday the lab held its own welcome party. And in contrast to other welcome parties I've seen here (which is, admittedly, one), this one looked like a typical Japanese post-work outing. (And notice that, this not yet being a part of my routine, gets blog space.)

For starters, we went to a restaurant. It was a rather nice Chinese restaurant somewhere past Ueno (was it Okachimachi? I can't remember). There was so many of us that we pretty much filled that floor. It is a Chinese restaurant, but it's in Japan, and is thus spaced accordingly. The fact that there was about thirty of us did not help matters. The restaurant people kept bringing us food; they would typically bring one smallish plate per about eight people, but I'll be damned if there weren't at least ten different courses, so we ate our fill. I must admit (and I'm sorry if the lab people, or the Chinese read this), I wasn't too impressed with some of them; but there was a couple I could have wolfed down all by myself, they were that Yummy. The drinks kept flowing (more or less; I'll leave the explanation for another time), some people stumbled on their self-introduction, but it was all in good fun.

Until it came time for the bill. I was really happy and grateful that they decided that only the senior members pay, because it came to about ¥5000 per person. It might not look much, but it adds up. Shopping and public transport aside, I usually don't spend more than ¥2000 a day. So that was a "gulp" moment there.

After that, about half the people decided to go for nijikai (Second Party, or as one online dictionary puts it, "first after-party party"), which is quite a common thing in Japan. We stood around in front of the restaurant for about ten minutes while the group self-organised into a decision to go for karaoke. Then it took fifteen more minutes to cross the fifty metres from the restaurant to the big karaoke bar nearby.

We booked a largish room, so that all fifteen or so of us could fit in. I've never been in a karaoke bar, either a western or a Japanese one, but I should point out a very significant difference: in Japan, every group has their own room. It's like a little hotel, with very sound-proof walls (unlike most other places in Japan - for instance, my dorm, which featured rhythmic thumping performance when I got back; your guess is as good as mine, and mine is pretty good). You get a huge (huge!) book with the menu of available songs (oh, more about "menus" later). It looks like a phone book. Hefty is a good word. We actually had two, one was for gaijin, featuring stuff from Sinatra and Carpenters to Pink and Slipkot, with a lot of "who-the-hell-is-he"s thrown in. There is a huge (huge!) remote control (hefty!) which you can use to select a song ("70919"), and it must have plenty of other uses as well, but I saw only one of them utilised: a girl raised the song by a note or two so it's easier to sing. Some people could really sing, some people really couldn't, but everyone earned a democratic and warm-hearted applause.

The downsides: drinks start from around ¥500, I don't drink, and the bill is split equally. This usually means that, if I care to repeat the experience, I'm screwed. It might be that we were in an expensive place, I don't know, but the bill came out to about ¥30000, so they even reconsidered and had us newbies pay ¥2000 each. I totally don't blame them. Anyway, good fun was had by all (except by this one guy who slept through any decibels we managed to throw his way), but I probably won't want to repeat it that soon.

After we got out, the three of us who lived basically in the same place (another guy who lives in my dorm, and my tutor, whose not-quite-next-door-dorm I've already written about) had about three minutes to catch the last train. We managed it, then things got a bit anxious again when there was a sick person on the train and we ran a couple of minutes late, but apparently the last Inokashira train actually waits for the last Yamanote train, so we managed the connection as well, and came back home safe and sound.