A good Friday and excellent night in Chiba, Mikata, and Shibuya :)

Class today was a-okay. I got compliments from everyone on my outfit, even the people in my class who I thought didn't like me at all. I made some ridiculous mistakes on my quizzes today, but that was because I was REALLY tired. Then we practiced giving our surveys to our classmates. Mine is about what people do on trains, what actions by other people they think are annoying on trains, and how long they have to commute. I'm really interested in that sort of thing. :)

After class, we all went to Mikata to see the Ghibli Museum, which displays some of the art and technology used by Hayao Miyazaki, the creator and artist of the most famous Japanese anime movies like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro. There wasn't a whole lot in the museum but it was a really neat building and a fun experience to see. We got to watch a 10-minute short film by Miyazaki and see some previews of upcoming films he has worked on, like Anne of Green Gables (he did the background scenery). I liked seeing the animation process and looking at a bunch of the art drafts hanging up on the wall.

There was a huge, fuzzy catbus for the kids to play on. :) It was covered in adorable Japanese babies, haha. There were a ton of Americans or otherwise English-speaking anime fans at the museum. I enjoy watching anime but some of those people were straight-up nerdy to the max! The gift shop was cool but everything was ridiculously expensive.

I wished that I had seen more of Miyazaki's movies before going to the museum. I have seen parts of Totoro and Spirited Away, but I would like to see them in full. The only one I've seen in full is Howl's Moving Castle, twice.

The people in our class who really love anime were expected to stay in the museum until we absolutely had to go, but actually they peaced out early and were not seen again. So Aratake-sensei walked the rest of us to the Mikata station. Aratake-sensei and Wong-san went home but the rest of us went to Shibuya to party. We had dinner (see below). I ended up eating the same thing for dinner as I did for lunch, but it was so delicious that I didn't mind at all. :D It was pork with rice and seaweed. The dinner version came with fish, miso soup, and veggies, mmm.

After dinner, people couldn't decide where to go. Laura and I weren't too concerned about drinking but a number of other people wanted to go to a nomihodai (all-you-can-drink bar) before doing anything else. But no one could decide where to go and Laura and I didn't want to pay $20 or $30 to go somewhere and not drink anything/much. So Yutaro, our friend from Kanda University, gave us a map to a club that was having a special: 1000 yen entry for dancing. So Robert, Ethan, Laura, and I all headed there. Unfortunately, Laura had to leave really soon because her host family wanted her home by 11pm. :( So Robert, Ethan, and I tried to follow the map to the club!

Here is the map to the club we were heading towards, but it turned out there were almost  no people in there. Then again, it was 9:30pm. :) When we stopped by later at 11pm, it was full. But we had to catch the last trains home before midnight. That's probably the only thing I don't like about the trains here; they stop too early! I got home by midnight with plenty of time, but Ethan had to call a taxi because his monorail stopped at like 11pm or something. He got most of the way there, but the last fourth or third of the journey cost him $30 via taxi!! It's cheaper to stay in a manga cafe or karakoe bar than to take a taxi all the way home for most people. If Ethan had had to take a taxi all the way from Shibuya, it could have been $100 or maybe even more. Much better to stay overnight in a private room in a manga cafe. :)

Anyway, we wandered around the streets looking at other clubs and considering what to do. Robert got some beer from a convenience store (haha) and I got a protein jello drink that was hilarious in texture. 

We saw legit love hotels in small alleys in Shibuya near the clubs!!! Look at the front window of this one. It's advertising S&M devices and costumes, haha. That ended the debate over whether this was actually a love hotel or just a cheap hotel in a creepy alley.

The sign on the door was so funny! We saw two couples go into this hotel. :)

Here's the one next to it, Hotel Casanova! So colorful. The best part is the vertical sign that says, "Short time, 2000yen (about $20) 2 hours!" There was another sign that had different prices for 120 minutes or 140 minutes, haha.

Look at this crazy cat!! I thought it wasn't real because of the tongue thing, but he turned all the way around, still with tongue out. :) So hilarious! It was in the front of a store next to the standing bar that we ended up entering after some debate. My feet were killing me so I didn't really want to continue standing, but the people in the standing bar looked so cool. They were all around age 30 or 40 but were so friendly, calling us to come in. Robert didn't want to go in there because the only woman was like 45 or 50 years old, but I said, "Just one drink!" and Ethan backed me up. :) Turns out it was the most awesome part of the whole evening! The standing bar was very small, about the size of a large dorm room, and everyone stood around the counter in a triangle shape. Everyone chatted with each other and with the older owners of the store. It was a great time! My Japanese skills proved very effective here. :D One of the men was so excited to see us Americans that he bought us all a drink and some squid! 

I ordered whiskey with tea because I had seen that in another bar, and apparently I said the word for the wrong kind of tea because everyone said, "HEEEEYYYYYYYY????" (which is what Japanese people say when they are surprised/shocked/impressed). Everyone laughed and tried to explain what was wrong with my order but then the owners ended up making it the way I had mistakenly said. :D It was green tea with whiskey instead of whatever it is usually supposed to be plus whiskey. I liked it, though! 

Here is the friendly guy who bought us food and drinks the bar! He was really friendly and so funny. You can see a mug of orange juice on the table, haha. He bought it for Robert because Robert didn't want to drink more beer in case he had difficulty getting home. You can't really see my Japanese outfit from here because I took my jacket off, but I'll post a picture later.

This man was quite drunk and extremely nice! He even looked up the time of the last train to Toyocho for me on his iPhone, so I would surely not be stuck away from home. He also ordered a green tea because he said he was getting too drunk and needed something plain. 

Check out all the food at the standing bar! Japanese people usually eat some small foods that we would consider appetizers with their alcohol. There were pieces of dried fish, kim chi, vegetables, potatoes, squid, eggs, and edamame. The man in the blue shirt said, "Please, let me buy you one of these services!" Service is the name for food that goes with your drink, I believe. So I picked squid because it looked the most unique out of all of the foods. :D

Here is the dried squid we got. :D It was really good but so chewy. I made the mistake of pouring some soy sauce on it; the soy sauce was actually supposed to go on the white stuff, which is a shredded/mashed vegetable (possibly radish or onion). Everyone in the standing bar was like NO NO NO don't do that!! Hahaha. So I gave the soy sauce to the man in the blue shirt and he showed us how it was done. :D After we ate the squid, the men in the standing bar reminded us that we should hurry to catch the last few trains home. All of the other businessmen were leaving too. They asked us to please come back soon and I really think we will.  The next time my friends and I go to Shibuya, I believe we are going to stay in a cheap hotel or manga cafe. Ethan really wants to stay in a love hotel. ;) 

When I got home at 12, I ended up having fun chatting online until 3am, aaaahhh so late for such a busy day. But it was a really great night!