Weekend...

So I'll kind of pick up where I left off in the last post. On Saturday, after sleeping a little over 5 hours, I had to wake up again to help prepare for a Waseda International Club event called Yataimura. It was basically the club and foreign students split into 4 groups from different areas of the world such as the Caribbean and Mediterranean, but the food was pretty Japanese on the same note. I woke up, got ready, and took off with my fellow dormy and group member towards the cooking area where my group was going to do all the cooking at. I probably should not have pulled an all nighter before this day because I was utterly exhausted during the entire day.

So my friends and I were put into the cake group. Apparently in Japan, you must wear a bandanna and an apron if you're going to cook because of some weird rule I guess. Because a few of us didn't have aprons or bandannas, we had to borrow some from other people. We ended up helping them make the cake, but it was a very very long day. I had so much difficulty being nice and smiling to people by the end of the day. We did finish our preparations. My group made a chai cake, though during the creation process I must say it looked like bread dough. We also prepared chicken and some curry for the following day to be sold. After the work, I was invited to go to a bar to have a few drinks, but I modestly declined because I was too tired. I had some dinner with my friend and went home and slept, though it wasn't for too long as the following day we had to meet at 9:30 at school for the actual event.

The actual day of the event was Sunday, so I didn't get to sleep in like I wanted to. We get to school and get dressed up (you can see on facebook, but I deleted most of the tags for where I'm costumed), so that we can help the group sell the food and cakes. The event lasted for 4 hours or so. We sold a lot of cakes, curry, and chicken. It was pretty funny watching the upper class men do as they pleased to try to get people to come buy their food. It was very hard trying to sell to all these old Japanese people. The old members of the club also came by and made their under class men drink which was very very funny. Some of the members were drunk in the middle of the day. After the event, we all went to Toyama park to announce the winners and the placing for each group.

Toyama park was another experience in itself. The WIC members amazed me with their camaraderie and fun traditions. The winners were announced at the park. My group ended up finishing 3rd of 4 in the whole event. The winners were the Caribbean group. Looking back, if I had showed up to the events more prepared, I would have had much more fun. After the announcements were made, all the organizers and leaders were forced to walk up to the front of the groups. Before this happened, WIC members passed around cans of beer to everyone and told us to shake them up and get ready to douse people. Once the signal was sounded, we all doused the organizers with beer. The CSU kids mostly targeted our friend Yusuke, and he ended up being covered in beer. After the beer douse, a crazy ritual ensued.

So as we always do, to end the event we formed a circle, but on this particular day, some very special events occurred. As the organizer of Yaitamura attempted to close the event, someone interrupts them and presents her with a gift of a giant bottle of sake. Apparently, this happens every year, and she and the other organizers line up and drink the bottle of sake one by one until it's gone. The circle of people around sing and clap to make the atmosphere very enjoyable. The organizers attempted to close the event a couple more times, but both times a newer bigger bottle of sake showed up. 2 more bottles of sake were presented, but the organizers didn't drink those, as the first 3 seemed to be more than enough. After the rituals at the park, we ended up going to another nomikai!

So for this drinking party, we had to sit with our groups. I wasn't feeling too good from the beer, but I still had quite a bit of beer that night. Only a few CSU people went to this drinking party, but this was probably one of my favorite drinking parties so far. I enjoyed watching the younger class men get forced to drink, and I myself was strongly urged to down my cups. Overall very fun night. Some highlights of that night were meetings lots of people, Shunsuke sleeping in the rotary while we ended the night, and drinking with my friends. As it was Sunday, the 2nd drinking party wasn't as popular as it usually is. I went and had a bit of food and drink, but not much more. Took my friend home after that, and that was pretty much it.

Next entry I'll try to write about what happened this week. Here are some of what I'll probably write about because it's all I can remember ><.

-My friend Kumi's birthday
-Nikko trip
-Oct. birthdays
-Lunch, computer rape, and some happy hour!
-Shopping and clubbing
-Nachos making!

O yea, I don't really write about what happens in class because it's really boring. Most of my classes suck and are boring as watching paint dry. I literally talk and sleep through half of my classes. I only stay up in Japanese class because it requires participation. The one class I have that I enjoy is too complex for my simple mind to explain. Let's just say it rocks.