tanuki go saloon

6.2.2011

10.50pm

So, as far as meeting locals goes, today was pretty successful. After finding the TANUKI MALL - yes that's right - or rather, the TANUKIKOJI STREET, which is a corridor of shops and food vendors… after all that, chris and i went to the nearby go saloon, which is not easy to get to. And what i mean is that it's in a poorly labeled, mixed use, narrow as anything building, at the very end of a long hall on the seventh floor. 

It's instances like this that it's really helpful that chris' japanese is so great. In the first few days that i spent on my own in japan, i'd do a bit of planning - book learning and cramming of phrases that i might need in the upcoming situation - it worked, but that pretty much ended when i met up with chris. I need to start doing that again as it really helped a lot in both my maneuverability in situations and independence. I've got a few phrases i can mix and match already. I liked that practice so i'm going to do that more. 

Anyway, go saloons almost always consist of a lot of old guys sitting around, smoking and talking trash to each other. Pretty hilarious stuff. This was the same as that except it was non smoking, which is awesome in my book. Long story short, chris and i both played a few games with some of the club members and it was a lot of fun. I'm sure they enjoyed the novelty of the games, and we won most of them, so that was that. The last game was between myself and this other local - the amount of trash talking on the other guy was pretty hilarious. I'll have to recount that when i can imitate the proper emphasis. After this game though they took us out to an amazing sushi place where they knew the owner and footed the bill on a $200 feast! It was mostly typical nigiri type, but the cuts of fish and the freshness and the plating was beyond anything we can get in louisiana. It was all amaaazzzinnnggg. 

This was pretty much our day. Got back to the hotel and crashhheeedd.