Metamorphosis

I've been extremely busy the last two or so weeks, getting home at around 10 PM on average. Keeping true to my mantra of only using the dorm to sleep and eat. I finally joined a gym. It's on the pricey side, compared with gyms in Canada, (and I've got to stop comparing things with Canada because it just doesn't make sense sometimes) but like all things Japanese, the service is excellent and you're treated like royalty. I hang out a lot with the other two co-ops, Alex and Andrew. We've also made lots of friends. The ones with children tend to want us to teach their children English. I found a group of guys that play basketball twice a week; I'm trying to find a way to fit in karate classes twice a week; there's the Japanese lessons, both on-the-job and outside; various excursions like climbing Mt. Fuji, seeing fireworks, and most recently, a welcome party for Andrew and I. This 歓迎会 (kangeikai) was one of the more interesting experiences in Japan so far. First, was 居酒屋 (izakaya) to drink and eat. Aside from the fact that I'm starting to get used to beer, this went as expected - including my screwing up my welcome speech. After this, our closer group of friends decided to take us to this club called Club Japan. You may have heard of these "clubs" in Japan, called キャバレー (cabaret). This is basically a red-light district disguised as a club. You can pay ridiculously high hourly rates to be given the opportunity to have drinks and flirt with exceptionally gorgeous women and have them pretend-flirt back, but it doesn't stop there - you can ask for their 名刺 (business card) so you can contact them for some real action later. I'm keeping the cards as mementos. Only.

Two days ago was pay day, so I went pretty nuts with shopping. Andrew and I ordered one Canon Wordtank V80 electronic dictionary each off the Japanese Amazon site, with, get this, cash on delivery! (They're about $300 Canadian each) Yet more proof of how trusting the Japanese are: only in Japan would such a concept exist. Needless to say, the Japanese Amazon is just as quick and reliable as the Canadian and American versions. The dictionary is currently Canon's top-of-the-line model. It's the only dictionary with a stylus and touch sensitive screen. Allows you to input kanji by directly drawing on the screen those characters you don't know or forgot the readings of. An unbelievable stress-saver. I didn't spend as extravagantly on my keitai (cell phone) though. I choose a certain free phone only because it has an integrated FM tuner.