Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night all saw Matt and I hit the town. Four nights in a row really starts to punish you after a while. So much infact that it’s taken me all of Monday and most of Tuesday to recover enough to write this update so that’s why it’s late stop emailing me asking me if I died.

Thursday Night

Part of the Gap Year project in Tokyo is working with in a Kindergarten in Higashi-Jujo, one train stop away from Oji. This means coming into school on Thursday morning, teaching a 10 minute English lesson, walking back home, getting changed, walking to the nursery, helping out for a few hours, walking back home, getting changed and walking back to school. Whilst it sounds like a huge hassle that isn’t worth it, the attention that we get from the kids makes it all worthwhile. Simply put, they love us. We’re big, strange looking people who pay lots of attention to them and let them bully us and really that’s the coolest thing ever for a Japanese three year old.

Most of the staff are ~23 years old, and have an inexhaustible amount of patience. There are a few children that are scared of us because we’re big scary caucasian juggernaughts and they’ll point blank refuse to come near us. At the same time, there’s kids who just want to see what it’s like swallowing bleach, not forgetting the kids who just want to know if an adult’s back can be broken with a well aimed punch to the spine or, in my case, the knee. Through all of this, the staff will organise the children into groups for singing or origami or whatever activity we have lined up today, as well as fight off intrepid four year old martial artists and put out fires and whatever else the kids have done.

So it’s hardly suprising that when Matt and I invited them out for a meal and a drink they leapt at the chance. Because they are continually in the prescence of children who’s English consists of “Hello! Hello! Hello!”, they get little chance to practice. So we had one of our most challenging nights, but through the miricle of “~nan desu ka?” (What’s is it?) we had a great time.

Friday Night

Work on friday consisted of angry 13 year Japanese boys refusing to speak English, lots of nasty bright halogen lights and a mild hangover. In the interests of our health, then, we decided to head to local Irish bar The Warrior Celt, situated in lovely Ueno. They usually have a live band playing, hundreds of people packed into a room, and a thick blanket of smoke looming overhead at all times. Surely they will speed the healing process?

Sadly, they didn’t. However, I’m glad we went as we made more friends. More friends means more photos! Hurrah!

I don’t photograph well on sleep deprivation…

The Japanese guy (bottom left, second photo) is my buddy Yoshiaki. We meet up and he teaches me Japanese and I teach him English and then we drink too much and forget everything and the beautiful cycle restarts, like the seasons.

The entire room was packed for the African Drumming Tribal Band (Great…that’ll cure the headache…) and there was no room to sit down unless you had been there for hours previously. Lucky then that we were dining with Austrailians so they had got there to save us the table much earlier. They then realised they had two extra seats so they invited a pair of Japanese girls to sit with them and then we arrived and now we are all best friends. That’s how Japan works.

Anyway, I will write the second two nights out tomorrow, as the son of the headache I slayed may be coming back to avenge his father.

Possibly Related Content:

1. The Four Day Migraine Part 2
2. Back To Work & Blog Stuff
3. Volunteering at a Japanese Primary School
4. Night Out With The Lads (and Ladies)
5. Swapping Cards and Spotting Ferns