Weekend Shenanigans: Girls' Night Out

Hello! I've been a bit busy this week and didn't get a chance until now to write about last weekend's adventures. Unfortunately, the reason I have time now is that my throat is too sore for me to teach today, so I've had to take the day off of work. It's a little frustrating because I don't feel sick other than my throat, and I feel bad about not going to work. But if I can't speak loud enough to be heard over the top of a class of 6th graders, I can't teach.

Anyhow, last weekend was quite busy. On Friday night Chelsea, Sasha and Julie came into town. The plan had been to go to a baseball game, but it rained so heavily all day that the game was cancelled. I got an invitation from Tatsuya to go get dinner somewhere, so I went with him and the girls got dinner together at the mall. Tatsuya and I ate at a restaurant near Kochi Castle which mostly serves chicken dishes. The chicken we got was delicious; I usually can't eat a very large serving of meat, but I ate all of mine. After dinner we walked around the castle grounds a bit, but since it was dark and still rainy we didn't go too far. Because Tatsuya had a busy weekend ahead of him, he dropped me off at home a bit early and went on his way. I was glad to have gotten a little time with him, though.

Once they had finished their dinner and shopping, the girls came back to my place to spend the night. On Saturday we all went shopping together in preparation for the evening's event: girls' night out. About nine of us were planning to go downtown together for drinks and dancing, and Sasha had suggested a theme for the evening. We were all to dress up as our alter egos. However, neither Julie nor Chelsea had anything they wanted to wear, so we spent the day finding outfits for them. After that we rushed back home to get ready, and from there to Natasha's apartment to meet the others.

There was a good deal of creativity when it came to the alter egos. Sasha had the most original one, I thought; she was a jewel thief named Scarlet. Her personality was that she thought only of herself and didn't take shit from anyone, so there was a good deal of swearing involved. I didn't quite know what to do with myself, but since I'd worn a classier-looking outfit than usual, I decided that I was a Seattle socialite. I didn't get so much into the role-playing aspect of it, though. The others stayed in character for the better part of the evening.

From Natasha's we went to a karaoke place where we could eat dinner AND sing. With nine girls in one room it got pretty loud, and by the end of our two hours I was pretty happy to leave. Then we went to One Love. Natasha had gotten tickets for us ahead of time because it was an event night. When we arrived, it was pretty much just us and two middle aged Japanese men, and the music at that point was reggae. It didn't look too promising. A few people left to get cheaper drinks at the convenience store, but they ended up not coming back. However, not long after they left, the DJ started playing American oldies and hits from the 80's. We all got to dancing, and the Japanese guys joined us. From then on the music was pretty decent. They later switched to R&B, but just about all of it was good for dancing.

As the evening went on, more and more people showed up, mostly guys at first. At one point Laura and I took a break from the dancing, and we could see a ring forming around our friends on the dance floor. The guys who showed up were just standing and watching them dance. Some of them didn't even have a drink in their hand or anything, they were just standing around and staring. It was hilarious. Eventually other people started dancing as well, which doesn't always happen. One random Japanese girl sort of joined our group for the evening. She liked to dance, so she fit in quite well.

We stayed at the club until maybe 2:30 in the morning, and spent the better part of that time dancing. When it was time to head home, we split into two groups, with Julie, Sasha and Chelsea coming back to my place again. As we were walking down Obiyamachi to get back to somewhere we could hail a cab from, a (presumably very drunk) young Japanese man started yelling "Fuck you!" at us. Sasha wanted to yell back at him because she was drunk and doesn't like to put up with that sort of thing, but Julie and I were of the opinion that it would be better to ignore him (while keeping an eye on what he was doing, of course). He started following us, so we ducked into a convenience store. You'd think that would afford a measure of safety, but after hanging around outside a bit, he followed us in as well. While we were paying for our stuff, he walked behind us saying "Fuck you" again. It was less than reassuring to note that the cashier was a small and timid woman who probably could not have done much to help us had things turned uglier. But the guy never tried to touch us, and didn't follow us after the convenience store, possibly because we walked right along the front of a koban (police box) with several officers in it.

We made it home safely, went through the somewhat arduous process of getting out of our outfits and removing all the makeup (false eyelashes all over the apartment, I swear), and went to bed. In order to sleep in a bit, we had hung blankets in my windows. My curtains let in a good deal of light, which doesn't bother me, but usually wakes the others up.

On Sunday we slept in until the afternoon. We later went to the mall to get some lunch, and hung around a while at the coffee shop. When it was getting around 5:00 or 6:00, everyone decided it was about time to head home. Julie volunteered to drop Chelsea at the train station and give me a ride home, and as we were on the way to the car, I got a call from Tatsuya. His softball team had played that day, and they'd won all of their games. I was invited to the nomikai that evening. So Julie dropped me off at the Orient Hotel instead of home. And that's where my Sunday evening adventures began.

TO BE CONTINUED...