The night life.

Imagine. You've just unpacked most of your stuff and have just met the people you're about to stay with for the remaining four months of your time here in Japan. What better excuse for a night of drinking. Apparently that's what I did. It was really fun. Until I had the urgency to take a really long "nature call" and misplace the people who had initially waited for me outside. So, I used my Suica card (that special touch-turnstile-go card) and did my business, went out --- though blocked by the turnstile --- and went back in, only to find them there.

I'll finely tell you that I had a pretty good time drinking and being merry for the time spent in Shibuya.

Here, I'll digress about Shibuya. Shibuya. A place where you'll find nothing but the hottest trends and latest fashions, a place where the young ladies and gentlemen will "strut their stuff" with no care except for their personal upbringing and superficial concepts of clothing (and in essence, fashion). A place where teenagers and young adults --- and perhaps, "hip," responsible adults --- get together to enjoy the lights, the people, the food, and perhaps, the sights of the people themselves. It's all a huge smoking mirror to me. This facade of seeing what's at face value and determining what kind of person he or she is through the trends he or she follows, or lack thereof. It's something that I, an obvious trend observer, cannot fathom. I sort of understand where everything is going, but the "why" certainly doesn't place itself at hand. I'm at a complete conundrum here.

I walked in Shibuya 109 with a good friend of mine the semester before (she came to visit) and helped her pick out an outfit. And the employees there were so experienced in picking the right style for her (what goes where, what matches, et cetera), that I just stood amazed in how beautiful my friend looked in their choices of clothing. Mind you, she did look beautiful and she did purchase the outfit, but hey, come on, there's gotta be some kind of notion that just tells you, "You're beautiful even though you wear baggy jogging pants" or something like that. It's all smoke and mirrors (I think I got the phrase correctly now) to me.

And they get all this from Americans. I frown at you Americans sometimes. Especially when we have bigger problems to face.

But the gist of it all is that I had a good time with my new friends, dormitory buddies, or whatever. And that was the highlight of my day.

Oh, and running into my hockey teammates when I told them I was recovering from the flu, which was kinda embarrassing, to say the least.