Little World and going clubbing!!

Thursday, May 15

Today I was going to Little World!! Yay! I was super excited! First, I went on campus to get on the computer to answer emails. Then I walked to 100 Lawson's and got melon pan and an onigiri to eat on the way to Nagoya.

I ended up getting to Nagoya 50 minutes before I'd told Emma to meet me. So I talked to my mom on the phone. Emma showed up 10 minutes early anyway, so she and I hung out for a bit before we walked over to the Meitetsu bus center.

Father showed up early too! When he got there, he bought the bus tickets and we all sat in the really nice waiting room while we waited.

When the bus came, Emma and I sat next to each other in the very front, so we could see out the front windshield as well, and Father sat behind us.

About an hour later, we arrived at Little World!!

It rained a bit today, but it was only ever sprinkles, so it didn't dampen the mood!

In Little World, there was a little area for each country!

First was Japan, with Okinawan and Hokkaido style houses.

(Potatoes growing!)

Then a Taiwanese village!

You could try the masks on!

(Super creepy...)

And America!

(Teepees of course)

(And log cabins)

And Peru!

 

Of course, Peru is famous for alpacas, so I took photos for my sister...

(Me with a huge alpaca)

(You can't ride it...)

(You couldn't take a picture of it... whoops!)

(Alpaca wool slippers)

(Sign in the bathroom)

Then Indonesia!

(Two inch worms passing each other ^^)

And then we came across the biggest money that has ever existed in the world! So we took pictures by it! :)

Then Germany! This was a pretty cool church.

 

(Yus, German!)

(Drunk Santa)

(Willkommen)

(Those holes are for snails... *shudders*)

Next to Germany was France and then Italy. Emma and I had decided from the beginning that we wanted to eat at Italy, so now when we finally got to it, we were pretty hungry!

I wanted a panini, but they were all pretty cheesy, so we just ended up getting two pizzas to share. And they didn't have much cheese at all. It was nice!

For a drink, I got this awesome peach soda. It was super delicious!!

(We got vegetable and ham pizza. The sauce was so sweet and yummy!)

When we were finished eating, Father asked if we wanted gelato, and Emma and I totally did! So we all got gelato.

Emma got Hokkaido milk and I got ramune, because that's a flavor you can only get in Japan! It was yummy and had little fizzy ball things in it.

(I liked that it came in a triangular cone)

Then we continued through the park.

(Llamas!)

(Pretty vending machines)

Covered room full of different types of teepees!

One place we went to had all this little adobe-like huts that you could go inside. This one was one of the ones for the women. It was underground and the entrance was so tiny!

(Inside the hut)

(See how tiny it was?)

(Haha, I feel like something was lost in translation)

(Maypole-like structure)

We found this Hindu shrine where Emma burned some incense.

(All the Buddhas on this wall had girls in their laps...)

(All of these words and it's only translated as "cup")

(This area was pretty. It hadn't been here when Father was here last, so it was new and he was interested in it)

And at the end we were back in Japan territory. This was a typical Japanese farmer's house. It looks like Kuya's parents' house, I think.

(Exit)

Back at the entrance/exit, we had about ten minutes to wait for the bus, so we looked around a little exhibit while we waited.

There was a room with various games and instruments you could play. Emma and I played mancala and I killed her (lots of practice from playing all the time with my mom)!

Then the next room had artwork we looked at.

(Cool golden dragon)

Father ended up taking another bus back that went straight to Ichinomiya. So Emma and I rode the other bus back to Sakae.

(Lanterns hanging by the fountain in Sakae!)

Then we took the subway back to my dorm so I could change into my dress for Club ID. No one had really gotten back to me, so I assumed it was just going to be Emma and me going, but we were both fine with that. On the way back to Sakae, we stopped at 100 Lawson's to get onigiri and pan for dinner.

(Outside 100 Lawson's)

We ate as we walked around Sakae trying to find Club ID. It didn't take us too long to find. We got there shortly after 7 (it opened at 7). I wanted to get there early so we could have a significant amount of time before we had to leave, since the subways shut down at midnight.

When we got there, there were these scary looking bouncers at the door. They waved us in and then there were more guys at a desk. I pulled out my ID, but they told me they didn't want to see that, they wanted money, lol!

Oookay, totally different from American clubs. 

It ended up being only 1000 yen and 2 drinks instead of 1500 yen and 3 drinks. We put our stuff in a locker and then headed into the club. Which was completely empty! 

I was super pissed that only 2 of the 6 floors were open tonight. Saturday is the only day when all 6 are open, but 5 are open on Fridays.

Emma and I headed to the first floor and got our first drink and then sat and drank them.

I got a Kamikaze peach and Emma got this drink called a Happy Cow, haha. It was basically milk and like probably Bailey's of Khalua or something. It was good! But I liked my kamikaze peach. :)

We sat there drinking and talking a bit, while more people slowly filtered in.

And then we saw Pearl, Maria, and Harriet come in. I went over to say hi and we joined their table. Pearl said Shunsuke had come as well. She told me he'd sent her a message saying I was going to ID with a bunch of people and asking if she wanted to come too, so she and the other girls had gone with him.

Then Shunsuke came in and we all sat at the table and talked a while. The other girls had all pregamed before coming, so they weren't ready to drink yet. Harriet was pretty shwasted already, haha.

After a bit, though, everyone went up to look up at the drink menu, so Emma and I finished our drinks and went up to join them. We ordered round two, and while we waited, the girls went back to the table, but Shunsuke hung out there with us. I talked to him while Emma decided what drink she wanted.

He said something to me that sounded like "nioi" or however you spell it, that means "good smell," and I was super confused. I asked what he said and he said it again, so I asked in Japanese what that meant. And then he said in English "you look good" and gestured at my dress.

Ohhh omg he was saying "ni au." Awkwaaaardd. I totally killed the moment, haha. Yeah, I felt bad. 

Then I got my melon fizz drink, which turned out to be really good, and Emma got hers, so we all went back to sit down. I tried to get everyone dancing, and managed to get everyone to stand up and away or whatever. Then I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, everyone had moved up to the DJ stage area. Finally!

So we all danced together. Shunsuke danced with me and then with everyone else a bit as well.

Slowly, the club started filling up until around 9 when it was packed! So full it was hard to move. That's around when Heather, Natalia, Aki, Keegan, and Ben came. Good, Heather had come! So we all hung out with them as well.

Harriet was pretty drunk and was kind of throwing herself at Shunsuke and you could tell he wasn't really enjoying it. But he was nice and taking care of her. So Emma and I just hung out mostly with Heather, Natalia, Aki and Keegan.

These super skinny Japanese dancers in underwear came out and danced up on the stage around 8:30 and then more popped up in various places around the club at about 10. There were also these huge clusters of disco balls on the ceiling!

I was surprised that there were a number of foreigners there. There were these three guys who looked Puerto Rican maybe, and one spilled his drink on me. It seemed like an accident, but Emma and I thought maybe it was a way for him to try to talk to me, because he spoke English to me and then got paper towels to help me clean it up and stuff and his friend started trying to talk to Emma in the mean time, haha.

We also went up to the second floor for a bit. The second floor was less crowded, but hotter. This creepy old drunk salary dude started hitting on me and trying to dance with me until Aki basically told him to back off, haha.

(Da cluuub)

One thing I was suuuuper shocked about: No one in Japan grinds!!!! Whaaat? I was totally blown away. This club in America would basically be a huge mosh pit of grinding. But nope, not in Japan. All the guys were super considerate and didn't get all up in your grill like they do in America.

But it also made me wonder how guys let a girl know they're interested in her. I guess they just do the nice, old fashioned thing and start talking to her, instead of coming up behind her and grinding on her like in America.

But I only really saw two guys chatting up girls. The rest of the people were pretty separated into cliques of all guys and cliques of all girls, dancing together in a clique.

So yeah, definitely an interesting experience. Emma and I left first, at 10:45, so we could catch the subway home, since Emma lives kind of far from Sakae.

Harriet was still all up on Shunsuke, but I managed to say goodbye to him and he cleared a path through the crowd for me. Then we headed out.

(Oasis 21 was all pretty and purple tonight!)

Emma headed the opposite direction on the Meijo line. I was feeling pretty sick, maybe because I danced so soon after eating, idk. Or maybe the gelato was finally hitting. So I rode two stops and then I had to get off. 

When I came out of the bathroom, hey had blocked off all the exits, because the connecting line at that station had already closed for the night. But I needed to get back on the Higashiyama. The security guy let me slip through the blockade and I went back to the platform to get back on the train. The car that stopped in front of me was packed and who did I see, of all people? Heather and Keegan!!

Heater told me this train we were on was the last one and they had almost missed it! Wow, if I'd taken a bit longer in the bathroom, I would have been so screwed! Keegan told me trains shut down before midnight, which I hadn't realized!

We ended up catching the last Meijo train as well. Then Heather and I walked back to the dorms. It was nice having someone to walk with part of the way until she broke off to head to YKK and I continued on to NKK.

I found out the next day that Shunsuke had planned to go to karaoke with the girls at 4 am (and had invited me, but I hadn't had wifi to see his message). They decided not to go, though, and ended up catching the last train home instead. But Shunsuke had to catch another after that, so he didn't make it and had to spend the night in an Internet cafe. I felt so bad for him!!!