I THINK I AM IN JAPAN?

Today I agreed to go bowling with Ayako and two of her friends, Yumi and Mao (Tse-Tung). The plan was for me to take the Karasuma subway to Kyoto Station, and then take the Kintetsu train to Toji. I spent probably 10 minutes at Kyoto trying to match up two maps. One was the train map which was in ONLY Japanese. THe other was a map way down the hall of the surrounding area, in English AND Japanese. I went to the English map and found Toji station, my destination. It took me two trips to match the Kanji (Japanese characters) for Toji Station with the Japanese characters on the train map. I finally found it and realized it was simply the next station, two minutes by train. I payed my fair and got to Toji a little early.

Ayako and Ayako's mom were going to pick me up at Toji at 2:30, I got there a bit early so I just stood around for a while. Right on time Ayako came over and motioned me to a van. The van was spacious and had a full color GPS unit on the dashboard. It gave you distinct and clear directions, and even showed your car moving, it was sooo easy to use. The car was represented by a turtle. It also was touch screen, and had two maps. One was an all purpose map which you could move around by touching, the second was a map of where you were at the moment. When the car was put into reverse the GPS turned into a video camera! There was a camera on the back of the car, when the unit detected the car going into reverse the camera switched on, so you can see behind you. The GPS also functioned as a TV, it was the coolest thing ever.

We arrived at the bowling place on time and met Yumi and Mao. We payed money and they somehow had shoes in my size. Bowling was pretty cool. The lanes displayed what pins were up, and knocked down, and had a little rabbit which was animated and corresponded to what you rolled. So if you got a split it would laugh at you. Also, after rolling, it switched to a replay and showed the view of your ball hitting the pins from a camera. It was pretty cool. Yumi and Mao warmed up to me after a few times, and their English was so so. They had trouble pronouncing the Rs and Ls, and coupled with the noise of bowling, it was sort of touch understanding them. Mao lives in Gion District, which is famous and the Gion Matsuri (festival) is held there. She told me she would give me a charm, which I didn't understand and nodded to. Later Ayako told me she would actually physically give me a cool charm she made, and I hang it on my door for good luck. I will be sure to thank her.

The bowling alley also had an arcade so we played some air hockey. The girls took some photos of us, so I'll upload them when I get them. The air hockey was really run down with scratches everywhere, and was pretty small. I still kicked their asses.

After air hockey I played "Virtua Cop 3" with Ayako, a shooting game which was really fun. After that Yumi had to leave so Ayako, Mao, and I played some ping pong. Mao then left so it was just Ayako and I. Ayako called her mom to pick us up and we sat down at a hardware store and waited. She picked us up and we decided to get dinner together. I really hit it off with her mom, it was natural conversation even if Ayako roughly translated everything she and I said to each other. There was never an awkward moment.

I said I wanted Tempura and Soba so Ayako's mom found a resturaunt. I got Ebisu (shrimp) tempura, so it was Shrimp, and various vegetables deep fried with tempura, over rice. The weird thing was they fried a leaf for me, which was kind of odd, but it tasted GOOD, I think anything fried in tempura is good though, some day I'll try a sock.

Ayako's mom got a big plate of Soba, which was basically little dishes of various things on top of Soba, which is a wheat noodle served cold. She made me take a dish so I took the shrimp. I also felt brave so I ordered Ika for everyone (Squid). Surprisingly, and I know it's worn out and cliche, but it tasted EXACTLY like chicken. This wasn't that "calamari" crap, it was a diced up squid, tentacles and all. The tentacles had a weird texture, but it all tasted good. Ayako's mom didn't finish the last dish of Soba, which had Salmon eggs on top of it, so I tried some. It tasted exactly like fish in egg form. Basically if someone put the taste of fish inside a clear spherical gel capsule, it would be a fish egg.

After that we decided to go for coffee somewhere. She drove alll the way up to Kitayama, my street, and we found a coffee shop. Someone played beautiful classical music on the piano as we talked and drank coffee. We talked for hours, we stayed until they closed, at 11:00pm. I talked to them about everything, and her mom was a great person. Also, much to my dismay she payed for EVERYTHING, as I knew she would. I made Ayako tell her that next time I take her out I'm paying for everything.

After our 3 hour long coffee they drove me home, which was only a little distance. When we arrived they both got out and bowed to me, and her mom said "See you later", which was significant because she didn't speak any English. I think I attained some major browny points with her mom, and I am beginning to like Ayako, such a cool family.

I find myself being more open and brave in Japan. I think it's the independence, when I am by myself I have no reason to be embarassed or repressed. I enjoy it. I think when I'm with my family for the most part I find being independant embarassing almost, so now that I am alone I am able to truly interact with people.

I use to be worried about my mom picking me up on time, only just 3 years ago. Now I'm taking transit in another language, and going to places I've never been to, far away, on whims. I like the new Jake, and I enjoy my independence. The only thing I truly loathe is going back to Warren and being faced with nothing to do, and no way of getting away to do something.

We have no subways or trains, going anywhere past Jamestown is an inconvenience not worth the hassle most of the time. Did I mention in Japan I can travel the distance to New York City in 25 minutes, and then be back before 10pm?

I'm going to be depressed when I go back.