I called Mebae when I arrived at the subway stop. She ran the entire six blocks to the station and was out of breath and worried when she got to me. I apologized for being late and reassured her that I was OK- just made a mistake and took the wrong train. When I walked in Mebae's house I met her mother (Nagisa) and brother (Thubas). Nagisa remarked right away on my height (I'm not really that tall by US standards, by the way). Then she asked if I needed to do laundry (I did) and we got it started. Thubas is sixteen and very shy. He seemed like a really nice kid. Her father lives in Osaka for work. Mebae told me that he lives two years in Osaka, then one year in Tokyo. Her parents are still married. They all see each other once every month or two. It must be really difficult for them. Japanese professional life is much different than the US... or Europe, or Australia, or what I saw in South America. I will go into more detail about that later. In addition to Mebae's mother and brother, I met her two birds. Mebae loves birds and she is studying animal biology at university with hopes of one day working with them on a professional level. We had dinner, I showered, then went to bed. At dinner Mebae told me we would go to karaoke in Shibuya the next day at ten. I asked "morning or night?" and she said "morning." Apparently the karaoke was not going to be like I had been picturing. I knew it would still be fun.
The next morning after breakfast Mebae and I went to Shibuya to meet her friends. Only one of her friends could come. Her name was Chie and she was really nice. She didn't speak much English, but she spoke better than most of the Japanese people I had met. When I saw it would only be Mebae, Chie, and myself going to karaoke and no alcohol would be involved I sent Tim a message and pretty much disinvited him from the event. "Sorry," I said, "But we're going to karaoke now and it is not what I expected. I don't know how much fun it will be." (It was a lot of fun, by the way, but I think a big part of that was because we were just being silly and I don't know how silly the girls would have been with an Australian boy they didn't know.)
After I sent the message to Tim we didn't go to karaoke right away. First we found a new backpack for me. The zipper on the day bag I had been using broke and one of the straps was literally being held on by a thread. It was threatening to snap any day. I found a cheap backpack that I knew would fall apart within a month, but would do the job for the time being. Isn't this blog post riveting so far? While walking around I asked Mebae and Chie if they had ever been to a cat cafe and they said no. I said I was surprised because they were both studying animals. Chie searched on her iPhone (nearly everyone has an iPhone in Japan) and found a cat cafe in the area.
Before we went to the cat cafe we went to a photo booth. In the US one or two of these photo booths are usually in shopping malls or sometimes just on the street on their own. Where we went was essentially a photo booth arcade. And it was all girls. Japan is weird in that sometimes people act much older than their American counterparts (i.e. twenty-one year old guys with briefcases and black suits going to work at 8:00AM), and sometimes act much younger (i.e. twenty-three year old girls frequenting photo booth arcades to pose like teenagers). I just went with it because, Hey, Japan! The booth we went to took our photo then airbrushed our skin to make it appear whiter, and made our eyes bigger and lips fuller and pinker. Looking like a white Westerner is really glamourized in Japan. Some Japanese girls have apparently gone as far as to have surgery to make their eyes open wider. I've already got big eyes, so I think the special effects made me look more like a cartoon character than anything else. It was fun, though. It was so Japan.
Now about cat cafes... There are so many people living in Japan and so many apartment buildings that most of them are not allowed to have pets due to a simple lack of space. Cat cafes are the next best solution. They are rooms filled with cat toys, cat jungle gyms, everything to please a cat. There are also cats. The cafes serve coffee or tea and you pay by the hour to sip caffeinated beverages and hang out with kitties. It's genius, really. The head cat lady who took our money set out the rules before we could go inside. The rules were all with the cats' well being in mind:
Mebae asked what I wanted for lunch and I told her honestly: pizza. I had not heard positive things about Japanese pizza, but I still wanted to try it for myself. We went to Shakey's (an American chain). They had some Japanese versions, such as wasabi, fish, and curry. Although not all mixed together. It wasn't great. I'm not sure how much of that should be attributed to the fact that it was Japanese pizza and how much is because it was Shakey's. However, pizza is one of those few things in life that when it's good, it's really good. And when it's bad? It's still pretty good.
After lunch we went to sing karaoke! Chie is really into karaoke and goes frequently. I liked Japanese karaoke better than American style because in the US the performer sings in front of everyone- most of them strangers. In Japan, though, each group gets their own private room. I was willing to "sing" (or screech) with just Mebae and Chie as witnesses, but it would take a lot of liquid courage for me to do the same in front of a room full of people I didn't know. Chie and Mebae sang some Japanese songs and we all sang some American tunes. You know, the classics, like Wham!, ABBA, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Katy Perry to name a few. We were at the karake bar for two hours and as we were leaving we thought of more songs we forgot to sing.
We perused a few stores in the Shibuya area for a while then said goodbye to Chie and made our way towards Mebae's house. I'm glad she was with me because there was an accident in one of the metros and the train we needed to take had been rerouted. It would have taken me ages to figure out what to do without her. It was still a cluster, but a more manageable one.
Back at Mebae's house I played with her birds while she and her mother prepared dinner. I offered to help, but was told it was unnecessary. Mebae asked me if I knew much about anime. I told her I had heard of Ghibli, the Walt Disney of anime, but had not seen any of his films. Mebae played Spirited Away in Japanese with English subtitles. We all watched it through dinner. I really enjoyed it. For dessert Nagisa had bought four different kinds of ice cream. She wanted me to pick first, but I didn't feel comfortable having special privileges. Mebae suggested we play some Japanese game to decide. It was Rock-Paper-Scissors. Nagisa won, I took second, Mebae gave Thubas third, and she took the remaining ice cream. I chose an ice cream sandwich with a waffle shell instead of cookie. It was delicious. After I showered we started to watch Princess Mononoke, another Ghibli film, but it was only in Japanese and I kept falling asleep. I will find it later in English.
In the morning Nagisa was leaving for Osaka. She was going to visit her mother who is very ill, but she was planning on seeing her husband as well. I thanked her for her hospitality and said goodbye. Then I packed my bag with my freshly laundered clothes and Mebae and I set out towards my new hostel.
On the way to the hostel Mebae asked if I had tried McDonald's yet in Japan. Generally when I travel I try not to eat at restaurants that we have back home, so I told her no, I had not tried McDonald's. She asked if I wanted to have it for lunch and I agreed because I could tell that she really wanted to go there. It was still too early to check-in when we arrived at the hostel, so I dropped my luggage off at the hostel and Mebae and I went to McDonald's. After lunch I said goodbye to Mebae and promised to keep in touch. Then I hung out at the hostel bar and used the wifi until it was time to check-in.
I did not do much my last day in Tokyo. GGG was gone. Josh and Troy were gone. Tim was on his way home. Mebae had university. I definitely felt more content with my second stay in Tokyo than my first. There wasn't anything else I wanted to see or do in the city. I spent my last day in Tokyo doing practical stuff. I updated my blog, wrote an email to Couch Surfing to get the situation with Tomo settled, found lodging in Osaka, and bought my plane ticket out of China to the Philippines. I took care of all this business in the hostel bar and I met quite a few people while doing it. I met an American named JC, with whom I ate dinner and walked around the Asakusa area a bit (I wasn't totally boring). I also met a couple guys from England, an Australian, and two Canadians. One of the Canadians was a graphic arts professor at a university and had brought eight of his students to Japan. What an opportunity for those students!
I took a night bus to Osaka on May 27.
The next morning after breakfast Mebae and I went to Shibuya to meet her friends. Only one of her friends could come. Her name was Chie and she was really nice. She didn't speak much English, but she spoke better than most of the Japanese people I had met. When I saw it would only be Mebae, Chie, and myself going to karaoke and no alcohol would be involved I sent Tim a message and pretty much disinvited him from the event. "Sorry," I said, "But we're going to karaoke now and it is not what I expected. I don't know how much fun it will be." (It was a lot of fun, by the way, but I think a big part of that was because we were just being silly and I don't know how silly the girls would have been with an Australian boy they didn't know.)
After I sent the message to Tim we didn't go to karaoke right away. First we found a new backpack for me. The zipper on the day bag I had been using broke and one of the straps was literally being held on by a thread. It was threatening to snap any day. I found a cheap backpack that I knew would fall apart within a month, but would do the job for the time being. Isn't this blog post riveting so far? While walking around I asked Mebae and Chie if they had ever been to a cat cafe and they said no. I said I was surprised because they were both studying animals. Chie searched on her iPhone (nearly everyone has an iPhone in Japan) and found a cat cafe in the area.
Before we went to the cat cafe we went to a photo booth. In the US one or two of these photo booths are usually in shopping malls or sometimes just on the street on their own. Where we went was essentially a photo booth arcade. And it was all girls. Japan is weird in that sometimes people act much older than their American counterparts (i.e. twenty-one year old guys with briefcases and black suits going to work at 8:00AM), and sometimes act much younger (i.e. twenty-three year old girls frequenting photo booth arcades to pose like teenagers). I just went with it because, Hey, Japan! The booth we went to took our photo then airbrushed our skin to make it appear whiter, and made our eyes bigger and lips fuller and pinker. Looking like a white Westerner is really glamourized in Japan. Some Japanese girls have apparently gone as far as to have surgery to make their eyes open wider. I've already got big eyes, so I think the special effects made me look more like a cartoon character than anything else. It was fun, though. It was so Japan.
Now about cat cafes... There are so many people living in Japan and so many apartment buildings that most of them are not allowed to have pets due to a simple lack of space. Cat cafes are the next best solution. They are rooms filled with cat toys, cat jungle gyms, everything to please a cat. There are also cats. The cafes serve coffee or tea and you pay by the hour to sip caffeinated beverages and hang out with kitties. It's genius, really. The head cat lady who took our money set out the rules before we could go inside. The rules were all with the cats' well being in mind:
- Wash your hands before touching the cats
- Do not lift a cat from a high place
- Do not feed the cats human food
- Hold the cats with both hands
- Do not touch the cats with white or green collars.
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| Chie, Mebae, and I pose with a cat at a cat cafe |
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| Cat enjoying the view from its perch in the cat cafe |
After lunch we went to sing karaoke! Chie is really into karaoke and goes frequently. I liked Japanese karaoke better than American style because in the US the performer sings in front of everyone- most of them strangers. In Japan, though, each group gets their own private room. I was willing to "sing" (or screech) with just Mebae and Chie as witnesses, but it would take a lot of liquid courage for me to do the same in front of a room full of people I didn't know. Chie and Mebae sang some Japanese songs and we all sang some American tunes. You know, the classics, like Wham!, ABBA, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Katy Perry to name a few. We were at the karake bar for two hours and as we were leaving we thought of more songs we forgot to sing.
We perused a few stores in the Shibuya area for a while then said goodbye to Chie and made our way towards Mebae's house. I'm glad she was with me because there was an accident in one of the metros and the train we needed to take had been rerouted. It would have taken me ages to figure out what to do without her. It was still a cluster, but a more manageable one.
Back at Mebae's house I played with her birds while she and her mother prepared dinner. I offered to help, but was told it was unnecessary. Mebae asked me if I knew much about anime. I told her I had heard of Ghibli, the Walt Disney of anime, but had not seen any of his films. Mebae played Spirited Away in Japanese with English subtitles. We all watched it through dinner. I really enjoyed it. For dessert Nagisa had bought four different kinds of ice cream. She wanted me to pick first, but I didn't feel comfortable having special privileges. Mebae suggested we play some Japanese game to decide. It was Rock-Paper-Scissors. Nagisa won, I took second, Mebae gave Thubas third, and she took the remaining ice cream. I chose an ice cream sandwich with a waffle shell instead of cookie. It was delicious. After I showered we started to watch Princess Mononoke, another Ghibli film, but it was only in Japanese and I kept falling asleep. I will find it later in English.
 |
| One of Mebae's birds took a liking to me |
On the way to the hostel Mebae asked if I had tried McDonald's yet in Japan. Generally when I travel I try not to eat at restaurants that we have back home, so I told her no, I had not tried McDonald's. She asked if I wanted to have it for lunch and I agreed because I could tell that she really wanted to go there. It was still too early to check-in when we arrived at the hostel, so I dropped my luggage off at the hostel and Mebae and I went to McDonald's. After lunch I said goodbye to Mebae and promised to keep in touch. Then I hung out at the hostel bar and used the wifi until it was time to check-in.
I did not do much my last day in Tokyo. GGG was gone. Josh and Troy were gone. Tim was on his way home. Mebae had university. I definitely felt more content with my second stay in Tokyo than my first. There wasn't anything else I wanted to see or do in the city. I spent my last day in Tokyo doing practical stuff. I updated my blog, wrote an email to Couch Surfing to get the situation with Tomo settled, found lodging in Osaka, and bought my plane ticket out of China to the Philippines. I took care of all this business in the hostel bar and I met quite a few people while doing it. I met an American named JC, with whom I ate dinner and walked around the Asakusa area a bit (I wasn't totally boring). I also met a couple guys from England, an Australian, and two Canadians. One of the Canadians was a graphic arts professor at a university and had brought eight of his students to Japan. What an opportunity for those students!
I took a night bus to Osaka on May 27.
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