TheLeong.com

So ya, this past weekend was definitely one of the best I’ve had all year. What was it, you ask? Why, the A-TEAM TURN-A HALLOWEEN WEEKEND REUNION. That’s right, a bunch of us from the IES Tokyo program finally got together again to party. A good majority of the original A-Team was present: me, Seth, Ari, Bryan, and Trevor. So not everyone, but a good number of people got to hang out together again, this time in America. Kelly and Fatla also came from out of town, and then add them to Brian and Nick here at IU, it’s an A-Team bonanza. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any surprise Huston or Ichikawa visits, although at Pat’s party there was a fake Ben Huston look alike.

I left Bloomington on Friday morning to pick up Ari from the airport in Indy; got lost in town for a bit, but finally got back in time to get some Charreada for lunch. An IUSTV meeting later and some Halloween shopping, next thing you know it everyone is at my place in the evening. Trey flew in from California, and everyone else drove in. We went to CB for dinner (cheap tabehoudai), Big Red, and then big party at Pat’s that night. Quick rundown of costumes, even though you will see pics: I was the Devil, Seth and Bryan were army guys (Snake?!), Trey was a bear (sweet costume; huge), Ari was a lazy ghost/Tiger Mask ghost, Kelly was a Chinese lady (uhh), Fatla was…I dunno but he had a leisure suit on. What the hell were you Fatla? Nick wore his coat, Blanchard was a pirate, and Ho wore the fro wig. All in all some quality costumes, so it was off to Pat’s party, which turned out really sweet. It’s a small house and it was cold outside, but all in all, a great time. Pat was dressed as Billy Idol, and there were so many people at the party that I couldn’t name them all if I tried. Fake Huston was there, and apparently a stalker or something.

Also worth mentioning is that Ari decided to start throwing bottles from the neighbor’s recycling bin into the street, Bryan said “beer will be my jacket,” and Fatla thought someone drank some of his whiskey. Yoko, some guy, and 2 cute Japanese girls also showed up a bit later; fun times. We all ended up going to the Steak that night, which was interested, because pretty much everyone there was drunk and/or wearing costumes. Highlight of the crowd was a big guy dressed as Mary Poppins or something, and when he stood up this one guy near our table yells out “That’s a huge bitch!” Classy. I managed to get everyone to fit somewhere to sleep at my place (7 people including me), and Nick housed the three Japanese girls.

Woke up the next day somewhat early, and we all went to Mother Bear’s for pizza. I actually hadn’t been there in a long time, and it was awesome. Then took them on a tour of campus since it was a nice day, and we chilled near Memorial Hall then in the Union. Seriously, it was good times just catching up with everyone. As Seth put it the other day “we own. and seriously i think we laughed for like 48 hours straight this wknd.” The jokes just keep flowing with all of us; we’re awesome in any country. It made me realize that Japan wouldn’t have been as fun last year without this kind of people there to be assholes with me. If it would have been just me and some scabes, I probably would have ended up not going back this past summer, and everything would have been much different. So anyways, we went to Bombay House for dinner. It was good; we sat and made jokes all night. Then Fatla bombed the toilet and we had to get outta there. Also of note, the menu there lists desserts as “Happy Endings.” Uhh…

As pathetic as it sounds, we didn’t go out Saturday night. Trey did, but not with us. Haha. We pretty much sat at my house watching TV and all passed out before 2AM. Oh well; we were too tired from being awesome (plus Seth hadn’t slept in the past 2 days I think, with driving and stuff). We woke up the next day pretty early again, and I was planning on taking everyone to Tudor Room for brunch. Luckily, Nick did some calling beforehand and we found out that the place was booked. So Nick found this place called Chapman’s that was also a brunch buffet and actually pretty good. It was cheaper than TR and had more stuff (maybe), so I think we found a new brunch place. We got our own little room (maybe a “breakfast nook”?), among a restaurant semi-full of old people. It was good to sit and joke again. Seriously, we made so many jokes that weekend that they could have recorded them and made a TV show.

Before we left, we took a group picture. In my old Japan trick, I asked the waitress to help us, not with taking the picture, but actually getting in it with us. We are awesome. So that was that; we went back to my place, Seth, Kelly, an Fatla left first. Trey went out to visit his new Indiana friend while me, Bryan, Brian, Nick, and Ari stayed at my place to play Dragonball Z Budokai 3 (which is surprisingly good). Trey came back, they left, and that was it. Seriously, a great weekend in all. A-Team is awesome. We’re going to have to have more get-togethers like this later on, which I hope can happen. It wasn’t just us being in Japan that made us awesome, we’re global, bitch (Seth also uses that excuse to not tip anywhere).

Jet.

It’s Saturday evening, and I’ve been spending most of the day just relaxing and recovering from the last few days events. Let me try and start this out. Thursday was Brian’s last day here in Swinging Nippon, so we went out to Bikkuri Ramen for the second time in the week. On the way there with Yuji, he took too long in the bathroom so I got on the train without him. Also, there happened to be a IES girl on the train so I just let Yuji catch up on the next train. 結構オレらしいな話なんだ…

So for Bikkuri, it was me, Brian, Yuji, Ari, and his brother Josh, who is here for a few days before they head to China. And since pretty much every Japanese person I talked to asks this, YES, Ari’s brother is also very tall. Although it was a very fun and good time, it wasn’t quite up to the gyoza-eating level as last semester’s was. We all started with a Ramen-Gyoza set, and then Ari and I were the only ones who started going with only gyoza. Yuji dropped out pretty quick, Brian ate a lot, and Josh ate a lot of sets. Ari ended up eating 30 gyoza (5 plates) total, and I got 31 since Brian gave me 1 extra. It was a cheap victory, but it didn’t matter because we were all still so disgustingly full of cheap Chinese food. I love Bikkuri Ramen.

After that, on the way walking back, Brian got Yuji with the most solid kancho performance I have ever seen. It was a good job, although let’s not forget how horrible and terrible the kancho really is. I won’t go into detail here. Me and Brian went to go chill in the sweet internet cafe we found, Air’s Cafe, and just like the last time, ended up spending about twice as much time as we meant to in there. The place is so sweet. It’s only like 105 yen per 15 minutes, or 3 hours for 1050 yen. You get your own nice little cubicle with a nice computer/internet, a huge LCD monitor, a leather chair and ottoman that reclines almost fully back, magazines and about 1700 comics you can read, and also unlimited coffee, tea, soda, etc. It’s a marvelous place. If it had video games and showers, I would probably live there forever.

After killing so much time, I got home and realized that I needed to edit the IES Train Instruction video together before Brian left. Brian also had to pack up his stuff, as he was planning on heading for the airport pretty early in the morning. I ended up working on and off, falling asleep here and there. The previous night I didn’t sleep much because I had to go to film the summer Japanese classes at 9AM. Actually, it turned into a disaster because I didn’t get clearance ahead of time, I had to talk to the program coordinator, got confused as Japanese the entire time, and it was just a stressful experience just all together. Anyway, I got the train video done, I think it’s actually pretty decent. It’s only about 8 minutes long, but it covers most of the basics and doesn’t have any retarded jokes like the previous students’ video did. Additionally, I tried encoding Seth and Ari’s IES Sayonara Party video for CD-Roms to give out to everyone. Couldn’t get it to work though, and I didn’t really have much time to do so.

When all was done, I was in pain from having so little sleep, Brian headed to the airport a little before 7AM, and I headed out to school again to tape the summer kids final skit performances, which started at 11. I fell asleep for about an hour, involuntarily, and packed my book bag, which was about a million pounds heavy. I had all my camera equipment because I was hoping to tape some more student interviews, and also my laptop since I was planning on trying again to help encode that damn Sayonara Party video. I checked the trains with my keitai, and I made it in time, but they must have cancelled a train or something on the Musashino Line, because I would have been late to school. So, I decided to just go on Sobu Line and maybe take a cab. I ended up walking from Makuhari station since I couldn’t see a taxi, and was late to the start of the performances. Oh well.

Tried more on the Sayonara Vid, with no luck. I wish I could have gotten it to work, but all in all it doesn’t matter that much. They at least had the copy to show to everyone at the Sayonara Party. By around mid-day, the lack of sleep was kicking in, and I was being reminded all too well of last semester’s Sayonara Party, this past spring at IU’s finals week, and pretty much any “end of” time I have, where I leave work until the last second and end up not sleeping and feeling like death.

The Sayonara Party was really good. There were a lot of people, so having it at the school’s cafeteria Lapas (more like a restaurant, not like a ghetto school cafeteria) instead of Y’s was a very wise decision. This year’s party really did feel more like the “end of an era” than last semester’s, even though back then I didn’t know I would be coming back. It’s weird; I don’t know how to describe it really. After the party, a big group of us went to the Room Deco arcade for purikura and such. We ended up staying there for a long time, probably like 2 hours. Then we stopped by the conbini and went to a park for the rest of the night. By the time we got to the park, I only had about an hour left before last train, so I decided that I would just pull an all-nighter. The park was a lot of fun, had to say goodbye to people as they went home for the night and were leaving this weekend back for the states. Definitely is weird (I’m not going to say sad) to say goodbye to all those people. Either I’ve known them since last August or just since this June, but still, I won’t be seeing many of them ever again. IES/Japan really is a great time, and I’ll miss hanging out and seeing everyone. Things won’t be the same, but all the key people will still keep in touch, so that’s always cool. A-Team banzai.

Around midnight-ish, me, Seth, Mii, Yuji, Tomomi, Minami, and like 3 other Japanese kids walked all the way to Bamiyan since it’s open 24 hours. It was a lot of fun, but eventually everyone either left (if they lived in the area) or passed out. After everything, we woke up around 4AM to catch trains home. So much for the all-nighter, but it was still fun hanging out and sleeping on the Bamiyan table. So that was the end of another one of the longest and greatest finales in the life of Anthony Leong.

Well, I guess I will go ahead and write a post tonight. Woke up around 8 or 9 and started to clean up and pack my entire room. Well I really didn’t get that far. But I did call the ABC moving company, who will be kind enough to move my 2 big suitcases from the dorm to the airport. Since I’m riding the trains from here to there on Friday, there’s no way I could carry that with me. Luckily, I was able to set up a pickup date on Thursday evening, so I have another whole day to procrastinate and pack up. Man it’s gonna cost 4200 yen, but shouganai.

Around noonish, I went to Asakusa to get some lunch with a friend, and also to do some souvenir/gift shopping. It’s totally a tourist trap, but that means they have some good stuff to buy people (really Nihon-poi). The biggest surprise was that while I was walking around the market, I ran into the KFarr and Elida. Yep, of all the millions of people in this country, I randomly ran into them. Wow, sugoi, etc. I guess it’s a touristy kind of place, but still, すごい偶然だな (what a coincidence!).

After that I went to Kaihim Makuhari for possibly the last time. Had coffee with Super Sayokon and Mayo, then went to school to return the hard drive I rented from SALC, and said goodbye to some more people. Stopped by IES, said “later bro” to Shin-san, and I guess that’s that for IES also. Strange strange. Then went to Kappa-Zushi with the Baileys (er, I mean Seth, Mii, and Yuuji) for some awesome and cheap kaiten sushi. I finally know the name of the orange and white one that I like, and it’s toro (fatty) salmon.

After that, went to hang out with Hiroko and Nana like we decided last week at the Sayonara Party. Went to Tsudanuma (for real, not just the code the A-Team used to use to deter the scabies), all the restaurants and izakaya were booked up. I guess it’s the beginning of winter break everywhere here. Anyway, we were able to find a nice Shirokiya chain izakaya, and it was fun. Did purikura (those little sticker pictures). Japanese girls love those things; they’re cool i guess but what am I gonna do with all these? Anyways, we were heading to the station and decided to take some regular pictures before we left. Hiroko and Nana were talking about how it’s tough to find someone to take your picture, since apparently there are a lot of hookers around Tsudanuma station. There was a girl in a hat sitting down on a bench, and Hiroko said something to the effect of “she looks the most not-like-a-hooker/nice.” So, we were going to get ready to ask her to take our picture for us. I was like “hey, she looks like of familiar. She looks like Sayoko.” Haha, funny. But IT WAS! Whoa bikkuri. So yeah, there’s super strange guuzen #2 for the day.

Once again, this entry turned out longer than I expected. Tomorrow’s going to be one last visit to Bikkuri Ramen (most romantic date in Japan), then lots of packing. Most likely, I will have the majority of everything packed up and ready to go by tomorrow afternoon. Then hopefully the evening free to see Kieran, Blanchard, any other people I need to see. It’s still strange, to think I won’t be in Japan this weekend.

I always seem to do a lot more on my weekends here in Japan than I do back home.

Today, went to Tokyo Big Site (huge convention center that looks like a robot) for the Nintendo World “Touch DS” event. Basically, you get to go there for free, wait in lines, and play different DS games. It was a lot of fun. I got to play (lets see if I can remember): Sawaru Made in Wario, NintenDogs, Ganbare Goemon, Yoshi’s Balloon Trip, and Pac-Pix. Oh, and on Cube, I played Naruto 3. Anyways, the DS is a really awesome system: has a touch screen, a second screen, wireless capabilities, a mic, and is a lot smaller than I had imagined from the pictures. I really want to get one, but I’m sure that’s mostly hype. I wouldn’t really play it enough to justify the cost. Although, 8 player wireless Mario Kart sounds pretty sweet.

After that, went with Mikey and Ari to an event in Funabashi called “The Search for Rhythm.” Basically it was a bunch of “bands” playing songs, with concentration on drums, I guess. Our friend Yoko was playing, so that’s why we went. A few of the acts were decent, but there were no real instuments except for tamborines, drums, pianos, and a synthesizer. As Ari said about the performance of Orange Range’s “Viva Rock”: “It’s amazing how little kids and a synthesizer can ruin my favorite song.”

After that, we went with Yoko and Kanako to Shirokiya for dinner, etc. Fun times. Instead of the hole in the wall I usually expect out of izakaya, this was a really nice place. Will have to go there again. On the way back, ran into a huge herd of NOVA teachers, all really really drunk. Talked to a few on the train, they were going to karaoke in Gyotoku. They invited me, but no thanks. That was my night.

Oh, and since I stayed out later than planned, didn’t have a chance to take my DVDs back to Tsutaya. So I get to pay a little late fee tomorrow. Yay!

I haven’t really written anything about Y’s yet, mainly because it’s not usually eventful. It’s the best place to hang out on Friday with the A-team, 2500 yen (about 22 bucks) to pig yourself out. Fun times. HOWEVER, I thought I should point out one thing. With all the salarymen that go to Y’s also, there is one event of the night that ALWAYS draws a crowd. It’s when the staff makes the announcement that (roughly translated): “The fish head is done. Please eat.” I swear, every salaryman in the house gets up to scrape meat off of this giant fish head. And when I say giant, I mean it is bigger than my head. And that would be a lot of meat.

I actually tried some yesterday, it is pretty good. Tastes like fish. Some parts of it, like behind the eyes, are really good. Sometimes there’s slimy stuff on it. I’ve never been up there right at the beginning, but I’m guessing it’s a COMPLETE head. Meaning, eyes, brains, etc. Those salarymen love that. I think Dad would too.

Musashino Line trains stop running from Kaihim-Makuhari at around 11:40PM. If you miss it, you have to wait until 5:02AM to get another one. What do you do if you are lucky enough to miss the train, and are stuck in the Makuhari area for 5 hours in the middle of the night? Spend an hour or two walking, an hour at a weird Chinese restaurant with a 200 yen “Soft Drink Viking,” sleep on a bench outside of Kanda University, then wait outside the train station until they open the gates at 4:30AM. Then, get home finally around 5:30 in the morning and sleep for 12 hours. Good morning!