Geez-oh-Petes! You can please some people some of the time but you can't please all the people blah blah blah. "I LOVE CLIFF HANGERS!" "I HATE CLIFF HANGERS" "WAIT! WHAT HAPPENED TO AMBER?!" Well, at least I know you're readin' 'em.
OK, so we get to the Lexington Queens dance club and there is an old guy standing out front. He tells us that not many people are inside but the place will get packed within the next hour. He tells us that it costs 3,000 yen (around $30 bucks) to get in. Ahhhh, no. Then he says that it is all you can drink once you pay to get in. Ahhhhh, again...no. I said that we may not even stay for an hour if we are going to try to catch the last train home, PLUS, I would never drink my money's worth. SO then the guy knocks the price down to 2,000 yen. We agree to that (because if you recall, we have already spent almost that much for two drinks at the other two bars.) Again, the joint is underground, so we walk down the dark stairs and it opens up onto a big black and white checker-tiled dance floor. He wasn't lying, the place was dead but that meant we got a good table right next to the dance floor. Within 30 minutes the place was packed and we were dancing and having a good time. By then we decided that we would just catch a cab home instead of leaving by midnight for the last train. Around 2:00am I think we were ready to leave. I was getting annoyed because I had to keep shoving that Kevin guy's face away from me (literally). So when Meredith and I went to the bathroom, we decided to sneak out and leave afterward. We started walking to the street corner to catch a cab and an Irish or Scottish guy came up to me and told me I had beautiful hair (must be the Japanese conditioner) and asked where we were from and so we had a nice little chat with him and his friend. They looked like they were in their 40's and they said their band was touring Japan. I can't remember all the details of our conversation but they invited us to go have a drink. As I was politely declining, I saw a familiar face coming up behind the Irish-Scottish guy. In my best drunken voice I blurted out, "Hey! Are you a famous baseball player?!" The guy did one of those up-and-down looks and said something really deep and moving like, "Yes" and walked past with his entourage of 12 Japanese businessmen in suits. OK, so he is not famous in the U.S. but he is the most famous baseball player in Japan. His name is Jose Cabarrera and he is the only Venezuelan baseball player in Japan (maybe you have heard of him?). He is the "Home Run King" this season (he hit 55 home runs). Normally, I don't watch baseball, but since I have come to Japan, I watch a lot of it because it is the only thing I understand on TV. Plus, this guy is on the news EVERY NIGHT. So I felt like I just had a brush with fame...and he said "YES" to me!
Ok, so we catch a cab and Meredith starts coming down from her party-girl mode. I figured she would just pass out until we got home. Well, she passed out for a brief period, then I hear a spitting noise. She is bent over, spitting on the cab floor...oh Lord, here we go. Then next thing I know, her window is down and a splatter of McDonald's Number 9 is clouding the outside of the rear window. The cab driver was very sweet and instead of yelling, "GET OUT OF MY CAB!", he hands her a plastic bag and tells her to use that next time. By then, I had to roll down my window because the smell of hot vomit is starting to make ME want to puke. So for the next half hour, I hung my head out the window like a dog and tried to think happy thoughts. happy thoughts. happy thoughts.
When we finally arrived, Meredith stumbled out of the cab with her bag of vomit. She started apologizing profusely while gesticulating with that bag of vomit in her hands. She was slinging it around like it was a bag of Halloween candy. I told her to throw that thing away before it ended up all over one of us.
When we reached our apartment, I called Michael and as I was about to get off the phone, I hear BOOM BANG THUD! I raced to the bathroom and found Meredith curled up on the shower floor. She had decided to take a shower at 3:00am and couldn't manage to stand up. I don't know how she even fell. That shower is so small, you can barely sit down in it. The saddest part of this whole drunken night is that Meredith has her first day of work the next day. So she had a very long day. I had a long first 2 classes (I had to keep thinking happy thoughts), then the pukiness subsided. That was a good thing because Kazuko wanted to take me out for dinner after I got off work. She had told me a while back that she loves John Denver so I had Amber pick me up a CD in the U.S. and bring it for Kazuko. I gave it to her last night at dinner and she was SO SWEET. She held the CD and looked at me and said "This is my treasure." She is so darn sweet. They took me to another tempura dinner. This time we went to the top of some building in Chofu (12th floor) and it was really cool. There were windows all around the restaurant so we had a nice view of the city at night. She told me about 3 times that she will miss me. We sat and ate and visited for 2 hours, then we said our good-byes.
OK, I don't know how to end this e-mail so I will end it the way my students end their introductions..........."Finish!"
