goodbye roommate, hello karaoke

friday, two weeks after my arrival, was natasha's last day of work with nova. that evening another teacher from my school (and a friend of natasha's) named bec came over and we drank wine and chatted until the wee hours of the morning. by the end of the night i had planned the next year and a half of my life: after a year of teaching i would take off and do some traveling around japan. after i'd seen what i wanted to see i would head over to the asian continent and make my way through thailand, cambodia, vietnam, maybe malaysia and some islands. *then* i would go to india and meet bec and natasha at an ashram. after a month of yoga and meditation i'd finally go home.


bye natasha!
good plan. fueled by the chatter of two australian girls who had already visited much of asia and, along with me, drank quite a bit of wine. bec left and natasha and i finally went to bed around 4 in the morning, only to wake up a few hours later for work. (the worst part of a nova teaching schedule: weekends are early shifts, weekdays are late shifts)

saturday evening was natasha's last night out in marugame. the plan was to meet a bunch of other teachers and friends at an izakaya and then go to karaoke. despite having gone to an izakaya the previous week with natasha and mariko, i wasn't prepared for the amount of food we had. there were some heavenly cabbage and cheese rolls, sashimi, fried cheese balls (which i burnt my lip very badly on, had a scar the next day), fries, grilled garlic with miso, edamame.... so much food and so good.


grant, dave, and gavin
after we'd eaten our fill it was off to a karaoke bar, which was on the 5th floor of a building just down the road. (while most floors above street level would be residences in america, they are often businesses in japan) it was a small place, not at all like karaoke bars in america - there is no stage, nor much light. along one wall there was a long bar with stools, on the opposite wall was a long couch, in front of which were tables and small benches. we sat down and were given warm cloths for our hands and a basket of chip-type things. straight away people started looking through the telephone directory sized song book. once i got up the nerve to sing my first song ("it's not unusual" by tom jones) there was no stopping me.

also on this momentous first night of karaoke i met two of my future favorites: dave and paul. i went over and talked to paul after he sang a U2 song (my *favorite* band). i was introduced to dave, as he was new and soon to be teaching at my school. while chatting with dave i was glad to hear that he was interested in going out for some beers sometime. natasha had told me that most people didn't really like to go out that much. i now had hopes that we could change that.


me
it was 6 in the morning by the time we left the karaoke bar. i had to work the next day and natasha had a bus to catch in the morning. she asked me to make sure she was up, i was instructed to hit her if i needed to. that time came too soon and while i had quite a time waking her up. but when she finally did wake up, she popped out of bed still dressed from the night before. i walked with her to the station and we said our goodbyes, still talking about meeting up in india. then i walked home alone.