Paaaaartaaaay!

Sorry for the long pause between posts guys, but this week I've been feeling a little less than stellar and haven't had much energy to....sit on my butt and wiggle my fingers. ;p Okay hush-up, organizing my thoughts makes my brain hurt!

So again, not much has really been going on, except that last weekend was a hoot and holler. Claire, a second year ALT from England, celebrated her birthday over the weekend! Twice! First a big group of us met at a rather swanky joint downtown, that you pretty much always need to make a reservation at in order to get a table. Though I took few pictures there, in the close space none of them are particularly great, so I'll just skip over that and assure you all it was delicious and much fun. :3

After we were done at the restaurant we wanted to find another place to sit and have a drink, so we ventured back outside and down an alley to a little whole in the wall place. Quite literally, it was a tiny one-room joint that was reggae themed, to the point where the floor was made out of sand!! In the right picture is the owner preparing our orders, and poor Meg caught in my flash.

We all piled around the one table there, ordered a drink, dealt with a random drunken Japanese dude who wandered in and struck up a conversation in English, and had a nice time! In the left picture starting from the left is James, Ben, a huge dork, Claire, Jenny, and Hitoshi's forehead.

So that was Friday I believe, and Saturday was Claire's party 'proper'. We all met up and essentially bar-hopped, buying the girl drinks and just having a good time! All of the ladies ended up splitting from the boys after they went off persuing some random Japanese women, and we ended up at a Phillipino bar. Not before we went to an arcade though, where I snapped this shot of the crane-game you could play to grab, yes that's right, PANTIES!! YES, my first pantie-machine sighting!! Apparently when the guys went to the ninja village the day before they'd spotted a vending machine that I'd missed, but finally I saw one in person!! I dunno if these were supposed to be 'pre-worn' or 'fresh' ones in the little balls, but creepy is as creepy does. *laughs*

The Phillipino bar (which is what Claire called it and I'm assuming because the management is Phillipino or something, IIII'm not sure) was another small place, as most establishments in Sasebo seem to be(upstairs or a hole in the wall are the most common in my experience). We all sang karaoke and took embaressing pictures, where it was impossible to look attractive. XD Here's an example! So chosen because I'm in it so I'm not just offering up my friends to look silly without also subjecting myself to your judging gazes. I have no idea what we were singing, but apparently it had a lot of 'ooooh's in it or something.

The last picture I have is just of the ladies who 'ran' the bar. The place was quite obviously mostly full of men, that our group quite happily ignored (or at least I did, I was there for the singin'!). I felt kind of bad for some of the girls who worked there though, as part of their 'job' was to sit with any of the guys. I don't know if they were full fledged prostitutes, or just 'company' while the guys were at the bar, but it looked like a crappy occupation.

So not long after that the night ended and we all headed home, but I think Claire felt sufficiently celebrated!

In other news....well there's not much in other news. I might be heading to Fukuoka on Saturday with my supervisor to go food shopping, but that's still up in the air. Coming up in the next few weeks are a bunch of festivals and demonstrations, including one for the ancient Japanese art of archery on horseback, and Asia's BIGGEST dance festival happening in my very own city of Sasebo, woo hoo! So while things are a little slow right now, soon I'll be back in the thick of things, taking pictures and trying my best to remember every moment.

I also need to get my haircut. ROCK ON!!

p.s.: I found this article on the Japan Times website the other day and felt the need to share. I've been continually told by people here that I have a 'small face', and for the longest time I wondered if that meant I looked strange or stupid or something. Nope, apparenty I'm IN STYLE!! :D