First Weekend Out

As I was saying in my last post, me and Dimitris went out to a bar called A-Bar last Thursday - and then I ended up going there Friday and Saturday, too. It's a pretty cool place, has an interesting atmosphere, and is famous for attracting lots of foreigners as well as Japanese people who want to meet foreigners.

The first night, it was just me, Dimitris and Matt. After a few drinks we decided to find this club called Metro that our friend Jerry told me about. He said it was located underground, in the Subway station. That just sounded weird, but I was like, ok, sure. So we're wandering around the subway station at like midnight, when all the trains have stopped running, and no one is around. We're about to give up, since the idea of a nightclub in the middle of a subway station is completely ludicrious. But, we go down one hallway and it finally leads up some stairs with a big black door, and we can hear some faint thumping of bass inside. Wow, this place really exists.



The three of us do a tequila shot, with lemons since it seems this country is completely devoid of limes.



This club was strange because everyone danced facing the DJ, and mostly danced by themselves. It was kind of like being at a concert instead of a club.



Taken from the front. Isn't it weird how people all face the same direction?

The next day, we hosted a party at the Stanford Center and invited lots of Japanese students from different universities. The DESA club helped us plan it, and we decided to buy some food, and also cook some food on our own.



Here's me and Jerry hard at work in the kitchen.



And here's who did the real cooking, haha.



Plenty of people showed up.



And there was plenty of food.






Nathan's getting some language practice here.



And Sandy too.



Dimitris and Yuki.



Mike and Naomi.



Well at least this way Brian didn't get red-eye.



My buddy Shima and I are having a good time.



Kanpai! (Cheers!)

I'd say that overall, the party was a pretty big success. And yet the night was far from over. Some of us decided to go out to a bar. Martin's host Dad works as a bartender part-time, so we wanted to go to his bar. But it was a little too expensive for our college sized pocketbooks, so we went back to A-bar.















That was pretty much the whole table.



Another big Kanpai! (also on video)



Matt seemed to have attracted some attention from across the room, so this one Japanese dude told us that his friend wanted to come sit with some of us "gaijin" (foriegners), and she gladly sat down next to Matt.

After the bar, some of us still hadn't had enough fun for the night - so we decided to go to the club Collage which is pretty much right next to A-Bar. The music was some kind of weird techno/house/80s hybrid if I remember correctly, though Mike probably knows best. It was actually a pretty empty place that night which was odd considering the week before it was relatively pack. Perhaps the oddness of the DJ had something to do with it. Nonetheless, we all had a pretty good time.



Minami, Naru, Mami, me and Mike.



And the Greeks know how to dance.



I figured I'd join in.



So does Matt.



The rather.. interesting DJ.



We're all pretty tired by the end of the night. But it was certainly fun.

Check out more pictures from the Stanford Center Party and out on the town.