It was Bound to Happen

So, I'm sick. Truth be told, I'm not all that surprised about it. A couple of friends of mine that have traveled abroad all ended up sick at some point, so I expected the same. What really surprises me was the brevity of the cold. I felt a good deal of it two nights ago before and I spent the rest of it restless in bed occasionally waking up to sweats. Deciding the day would be better spent in bed than in class, I roll over and sleep awhile longer. Waking up, I felt a good deal better, but too late to attend any of my classes. Well, it happens I suppose. I passed the day without incident and today I endure all classes with out a problem. Throat's still sore, but hey, I'd rather deal with that than a runny nose any day.
I spent the night out in Kyoto last Friday. A friend of mine, also named Matt (Man, what are the odds of finding another Matt in Japan? Pretty good, I guess, considering there's three in my building alone), took us to meet a friend of his who showed us to the places we would go. The first was a bar where we ended up drinking and eating. It cost 2500 yen for everybody, but this is a very fair price and here's why. On top of unlimited drink, we were served five courses. Well, more appetizers but that didn't detract from the fact that I walked out of the store full. To start off, there was edamame and fried shrimp skins that were akin to pork rinds. After that came two raw meats, ham and octopus, with pasta in a marina and a potato salad. There was a salad after those but let me put this out there, Japanese salads are different from American ones. They're made of vegetables, sure, and they have a dressing, but the make up of the vegetables and dressing differ from those back home. Ours was heavy on bean sprouts and onion as I remember and the dressing was bitter with a hint of oil. I ate it more out of duty than pleasure, truthfully. Then there were fries, pretty good in my opinion, and once those were cleared away bite-sized fried chicken was next. After that we had a good number of drinks and laughs (the pictures we came out with from the bar were nothing short of hilarious) and then head off to the clubs.
Japanese clubs are not to different from American clubs. They're loud, they're dark and they're full of drunk people dancing about as they please. Now the dancing style is pretty different. It was rare for me to spot any one dancing with anybody in a way that made it clear that they were together. Everyone seemed content to be by themselves and not try to bother others outside their group. Oh, and let's not forget the smoke. This is a detail I've managed to gloss over pretty easily, but the club really stuffed this fact down my throat. In Japan, you can smoke in doors. Bizarre, right? I can't remember the last time I walked into a public space back home and caught a whiff of cigarettes. Here, its odd not to. That's not to say that you'll be in a cloud of smoke, but don't be shocked when the gents the next table over start puffing away. Anyways, back to the club. It was filled with smog; a mixture of cigarette and smoke machine (healthy, no?) that often found its way to my eyes. Well, who needs to see when your packed in a tight space with dozens of others. It didn't take away from the fun though, and I soldier on into the night until the place closed. Then were moved to another club with similar conditions, but much smaller and more cramped.
Now let me voice something here that annoys me. Bathrooms that have the light on the wall outside. I hate that and the second club only amplified that. I walked into the restroom not knowing that at the first and having to go back out and finding the thing. Then when you go back inside, you have no way to make sure the light stays on. Anybody can bump up against the switch while your inside and busily occupied. And in a place where people are hard pressed just to find standing room, that's pretty likely as I found out. It was like going in a strobe light. So to summarize, having a light switch outside the restroom sucks.
Two hours later, we stumbled out, exhausted and wishing just to get home but we couldn't. It was another two hours before the trains started up again so we had to find a place to hang around before we could get back. That ended up being a McDonalds which didn't seem to mind you using a table as a headrest so long as you bought something before hand. We stayed there until the first train and climbed aboard for a long forty minute ride back to the station. From there, it was another forty minutes on foot to the dorms. And once we were back, I ended up collapsing into the bed, glad that staying awake was no longer an issue. And so, this post, like that night, comes to an end.