Oh man what a night
October 05, 2003
Now nothing bad happened. An ELI survivor came to Osaka from Tokyo for the weekend and a bunch of us got together. We had one of those dinners that aren’t really dinners but more of an assortment of different foods served in small portions. The main course really is the endless supply of alcohol that just keeps coming. I may have been a strong drinker during my early university years but after going dry for so long, my tolerance was as low as my tolerance for ugly girls.
Eri came along at first but she had to leave early to meet with some of her elementary school friends or some other people she hadn’t seen in decades. I was left to fend for myself. As usual, I was the one with the weakest Japanese level (re: all the others spoke at a native or near native level… at least before the drinks).
It was my first drink since June or July, I forgot. As per my usual schedule, I started with a couple or a few beers (I forgot) followed by a couple of cocktails. I think I had a cassis orange and a screwdriver but Taka, one of the guys there, spiked everything with the bottles of vodka available. It was cool. I also had an oolong cha somewhere in between.
I must confess, I DID smoke today but it just doesn’t feel right to drink and not smoke… it’s like eating a steak without HP sauce… something just felt missing. So, I had three cigarettes today. I feel bad about it but I’m not gonna kick myself in the ass. I know I won’t smoke tomorrow or perhaps until the next time I drink.
I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen in eons and I just wanna mention everyone as a sort of hail.
First, there was Sakura and Hiro. Sak and I worked at the ELI together and left around the same time I think. Hiro was one of the Komazawa survivors from August. I haven’t seen them since my trip to Tokyo last May. Both Sak and Hiro were dead drunk. Hiro went straight to sleep and Sak began a very uncoordinated speech pattern that was definitely something new to me. Hiro brought his good friend from Kyoto – good to meet you Shimizu – you look kinda like Tetsu from Tetsu and Tomo! I hope I’ll get to meet you again. Then there was Mihoko, Miho, and Shiki – these three are the Osaka residents that I see every so often. I got to see Mihoko drunk today – very interesting as well (we’ll talk about your secret soon enough). I also saw Eiji whom I paddled along with during my dragonboat run in 2001. I also met Taka – I met him during my first summer at the ELI (2000) and then I saw him last December when another friend came. There was Yoshimi and Chizu, whom I haven’t seen in a good three years! I remember very well our Whistler trip together. It was one of my most memorable trips to Whistler. I sure damn hope that’s everyone. I wasn’t drunk at all, I think I held my own very well considering I don’t ever drink. Still, I have a slight pounding in my head as I’m typing this. I want to type this on the same night because I gave my URL out tonight so I don’t want to disappoint when people visit here. Konban wa tanoshikata desu!!
That’s it. My cough is still persistent and I’m sort of hungry in a slight drunken kinda way. Blech!
