Thanksgiving break

Well, I didn’t end up spending my thanksgiving dinner at a KFC. I was lucky enough to be invited to a real thanksgiving dinner. The host was funny, saying that they sell bigger turkeys in Japan, but the ovens here can’t fit them. It was really nice to have that “home” feeling way far away in Japan. The Dad was a big white guy, but he hadn’t lived in America in a really long time, and spoke fluent Japanese. They family had two daughters, around my age, who had never lived in America, yet spoke fluent English like their dad. There was also about 8 Japanese students, from the Dad’s youth group, so we played a bunch of fun games. I ate so much food I passed out on the couch. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, but it must have been pretty weird for the Japanese to see an American come in, eat about three times much as anyone else, then pass out for about half an hour on the couch. The dad laughed about it, so I’m hoping it was okay.

I went to Disney Sea in Tokyo with friends a few days later. It was like a smaller version of Disney Land, but the Indiana Jones ride was the exact same (I remembered the part with the boulder) as the one in America. We went on The Tower of Terror, which had a two hour wait—nothing is worth that, so even though it was okay, we were all pretty disappointed. We rode a carousel like a bunch of stupid loud Gaijin. Pretty fun time overall, and it wasn’t ridiculous—around 50 bucks for tickets. We spend the night at an international hostel that night. It was 6 of us, and it was two triple bunk-beds. That was a fun experience—one of the best cracked and almost came down on the person in the middle. Then they sent up this guy from Australia who smelled like he hadn’t bathed in 8 days.

The week long break wasn’t actually for thanksgiving—it was for our campus festival. I checked it out the following day. The highlight had to be the pro wrestling ring. I guess it’s a club or something at school, and there was a little scrawny Japanese guy with a painted on beard jeering the crowd. He wrestled this huge Japanese guy, and both were pretty skilled. The little guy jumped off the top rope and stuff. There was also a stage with live bands. This one band was trying to be punk rockers, and in like Nirvana before them, they started smashing their guitars and speakers at the end of their song. The drummer was banging away with one drumstick, having already kicked over all his other drums. The best part was the Japanese crowd’s reaction—they were clearly amused, but they didn’t make a sound. So my American friends and I started cheering and yelling, and that got a few of the crowd member to make some noise. I can’t understand how you can watch a band go nuts on stage and just stand their twiddling your thumbs.

Lastly, there was a Ms. Keio University pageant. I didn’t catch it, but apparently Keio University does this every year with very good results—ie, the girls are good looking. Apparently the girls win a modeling contract or a tv contract, I was a little shaking understanding the explanation, but three different people told me that the winner got a brand new BMW. That’s just nuts. Win the school beauty contest, and you get a luxury car. Japan is odd.