Japan Trip - Day 7 (May 24, 2003):

Woke up this morning to the sound of Shawn saying "Shit, we are going to be late to meet up with Taeko". So I lifted my head, and struggled to open my eyes, and tried to figure out why the hell was I so tired if we slept so long. Well, it turned out that Shawn had looked at his watch upside down, and it was only 7:12am instead of 1:30pm (he doesn't have a digital watch). So I was able to pass out for another 3 hours or so before I really had to get up. Got up and jumped in the shower and got ready.

Now, let me go off on a tangent here for a second. I have to say, Joleen and Eugene have one of the coolest showers I have ever used. First of all, it had a large space, and since I am a big guy, I appreciated all that space. Second, it had one of those removable nozzles which are so popular in Asia, which is very helpful to me because I didn't have to break my back in order to wash my hair. Third, instead of a having different knobs for hot and cold water, it had one dial to regulate the temperature of the water that had actual temperatures on it.

Ok, anyway, back to the story. We left the apartment at about 12:15pm and grabbed some rice balls for breakfast from Lawson's on the way to Shibuya station. It's about a 15 minute walk from Joleen's place to the station. Once at the station, we hopped on the Yamanote and took it to Shinjuku to meet up with Taeko and her sister Honami and then caught a train to Nishi-Ogikubo to meet up with some of Taeko's friends.

Taeko had planned for us to hang out with her friends, eat some good food, and drink lots of beer this afternoon. So, after stopping by the local market to pick up some ingredients for homemade gyoza, beer, and other snacks, we made our way over to Satomi's house. There we met Satomi, Naoko, Shino, and Kiyomi (image courtesy of Tony):


(Back Row left first: Chris, Shino, Naoko, Honami, Taeko, Kiyomi, Satomi, Me)

So, our plan was to make homemade gyoza, drink lots of beer, and just hang out for the whole afternoon. So, we cracked open the beer while the ladies made the preperations for making the gyoza and other snacks. Then, it was time for us to gather around the kitchen table, and make our gyoza. Although it seems like there really isn't much to it, it ended up being more difficult than i thought it would be. All you do is get some gyoza skins, fill them with the filling, and then close them up. However, there is a trick to closing them, that took a little while to get. But, we eventually got the hang of it, and after all the gyoza skins were filled, the ladies fried them up (image courtesy of Tony):



I think they turned out pretty well, and they sure tasted good. After more eating and drinking, Chris drew a couple of Taeko's friends and the rest of us hung out and just chatted the afternoon away. Taeko's friends were all really cool, and it was fun to meet so many of her friends.

Finally, after a nice chill afternoon and evening, it was time to say goodbye to Satomi, and head back home. We jumped on the train at Nishi-Ogikubo and took it to Shinjuku where we said goodbye to Taeko and the rest of her friends before catching the Yamanote back to Shibuya. When we got back to Shibuya, the four of us felt like hanging out and grabbing a couple of drinks. We roamed around Shibuya trying to find a cool bar that Shawn had heard about, but the place was dead and we settled on this cool looking place. Turns out that there was a seating charge, and therefore I had the most expensive beer I have ever had, about $8 US. But, we had a fun time just chilling, and then decided to call it a night and head home. While walking back to Joleen and Eugene's place, Shawn got propositioned which made me laugh.

We grabbed some rice balls on the way home for dinner, and ended up hanging out and talking to Joleen and Eugene for a while before turning in. They are really cool, and again I gotta say that everyone I met on this trip has been very good to us. We have been very lucky in this regard. One other note, Chris seemed more at ease that night, and hopefully he has worked through whatever has been troubling him.

Finally it was time to crash, and crash I did. All in all, a very relaxing day and it was really fun to just hang out with Taeko and her friends as well as meet and hang out with our new "host family" Joleen and Eugene. All I gotta say is you all rock. Till the next time...
Posted 10:37 AM by MZ

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