Its the weekend, and getting my life set up is on hold until I can talk to the bank, so last night I went with Issei and his friend Austin (who it was a pleasure to meet) from Vancouver, to an ‘International Exchange Party’ that was hosted by ELAN. It seemed like a good place to meet some people and get out there, plus it was ￥1500 for entry + all you can drink/eat. Awesome!

It started at 6, and we got there around 6:20.  The room hadn’t filled up yet, there was no food or drinks ready, and the dozen or so people that were there were just standing around quietly, talking to the friends they came in with. The awkwardness in the air was real, we needed some drinks to get some conversations flowing, however, until then I decided to take everyone else’s lead and found an area to sit and talk with Issei and Austin.

After 10 or 15 minutes, drinks were served! They had a variety of what I can only assume the cheapest juice, wine, beer, and the most watered down mixed drinks available in Japan. There was a whole line of drinks in pitchers on the bar, labeled with tape and a sharpie, which is just plain hilarious. I can’t complain too much, since the drinks were unlimited, so I started off the evening with some “Beer.”

The crowd had started to fill out a bit and soon people were actually talking! The room was made up of about 60% Japanese students (mostly girls), and the rest were foreigners (almost entirely guys). The Japanese people need to present a student card to get in, and have to pay ￥500 more, and since the Japanese students were mainly girls, and the foreigners were basically all guys, it was like some kind of reverse ladies night.  Another thing worth noting is that the drinking age in Japan is 20, but the age of most of the students was around 16(!!!!) to 22. You pour your own drinks, and it’s the honor system. It surprisingly seemed like it was working, but I can just imagine how bad this would turn out in Canada.

We went around the room and had fun chatting with a lot of interesting people. A lot of them were surprisingly good at English, and some barely spoke it at all, so it was useful being able to switch to Japanese. The party is ostensibly there for international exchange, and I think a lot of people go to practice speaking English. Actually, a couple of highschool girls were asking me about Canada and Canadian people… for homework. While I was drinking a beer. That felt a little weird somehow, but we had a good conversation. I also met some other people who were travelling to Japan and we had fun comparing our experiences in Japan so far.

Food finally arrived at around 7:30 and the crowd descended on it like a pack of ravenous wolves. As soon as I noticed people walking around with plates, it was already gone. There was more food brought out later, but it seemed like it was about the same quality as the drinks, so I only had a couple bites.

Overall, I’d say it was a really fun experience.  I learned that I should probably get my phone set up real soon, because everyone here uses Line to message each other, which requires a cell number. I did get a few people to friend me on Facebook though, so hopefully we can stay in touch.

We got kicked out at 10 after taking a group photo, and by that time I was pretty much done, what with the jet lag and all, but Austin, Issei, and Hanae, who we met at the party, decided to go check out a club for a bit. The trains stop at midnight so we were only going to be about an hour, so I thought ‘why the hell not?’. We ended up at some club in Dotonburi, and it was quite the let down. If you know me, you know I’m not a club person, but I can appreciate a decent clubbing experience.  This place was dead.

We stuck to our group of 4 for about an hour, as I did my patented drunken swaying dance, sipping on a gin and tonic. There was maybe 12 other people there and I think all of them were just leaning against a wall. Laaaaame. I was glad when we finally got out of there. I was also basically ready to pass out, so thankfully Issei was there drag me back to his place.

Overall, it was a pretty interesting night. I’m not digging the club scene (as usual), but I hope to go to other parties like the one earlier in the night. Hopefully next time I’ll be over this jet lag and not ready to pass out by 10!

Bonus: Gallery