There were 2 different exits to the bullet train section and I was waiting at the wrong end exit and caught sight of them from across the station, (a good 200 meters?). Spotting them was easy... there was something distinctly Canadian about their appearance that made them stand out of the crowd. I don't know how to put it, but North American clothing is distinctly different from Asian style.
After picking them up at the station, the first thing we did was take a 20 minute walk back to my place to drop off their stuff. After a bit of unpacking, our first stop was my lab's sakura party at one of the local parks. The meeting was going to end a little early today and everyone at lab came out to the park with food and drinks to hang out. One of my labmates brought out a good bottle of sake to drink, pretty strong but really smooth. Unfortunately, it was a little strong for Richard and Lily.
The one thing I realized at that point about Japan is how prevalent their drinking culture. Back when I was in Canada, I would hardly drink at all. I'd have a drink probably 4~5 times a year. Since coming to Japan, I could easily do that in 2 weeks depending on the season (Christmas and New Year's is especially bad on the liver).
Labmates at the park for our Sakura party
Next stop on the list after the party would be some Yakiniku at a restaurant on a recommendation from a friend. I thought it was Japanese yakiniku but it was more like a Japanese-Korean style yakiniku restaurant. $25 for all you can eat fried meat! Ever thought that you could do that in Japan?
Me, Lily, Mari and Benoit (France) together at yakiniku
Richard and Joe on the other side of the table having a good time!
We totally gorged ourselves on food that evening, it wasn't funny how hard we were trying to finish all the meat we ordered. Of an interesting note, Japan recently started using all sorts of parts of an animal for their fried meat dishes. In Japanese, they call it "horu-mon." In the Osaka dialect "Horu" means to "throw away" and in standard Japanese "mon" means "thing." Put the 2 words together, you get "throw away things," in other words, parts of an animal that are usually thrown away, like intestines, stomach lining and etc.
Unfortunately I made the mistake of explaining everything too far in advance because apparently Joe, isn't a big fan of eating misc. meat parts. Ooops. Whenever I took friends to Chinese restaurants in Canada that have never been before, I had a policy of "eat first, ask later," because some people are grossed out too easily before trying something out! Ah well. We had a pretty good time eating all sorts of food... and way too much of it.
To top off the evening, a Venezuelan friend of mine was performing at the local Irish pub in Sendai, which is a hang out or many international students and Japanese friends of mine. I decided that this would be a great opportunity to introduce Lily and Richard to Japanese people and people living in Japan! We walked across the downtown from the yakiniku restaurant to the Irish pub where my Venezuelan friend was in the process of bringing down the house!
Javier and friend rocking it at the Irish Pub
The concert that evening was just great. Javier sent word out to all his friends and there were at least 100 people out there that evening listening, cheering, singing and dancing. This was the biggest crowd that I've seen at the pub and it was simply great to see so many friends out that evening. Actually, Lily and Richard was kind of surprised at the number of people I knew at the pub that evening as I was greeting lots of people that evening. I do drop in from time to time and know some of the regulars, the rest are either part of the international crew or friends of the group. It's small world in the Irish Pub.
The crowd hanging out up front.
As for me and my crew, we settled near the back of the pub where there was only but a single table open that we took over. We ordered a few drinks and hung out chatting with the people around. Mari invited a few of her friends out to hang out with us, namely Mayuko and Yukie.
Joe, Richard, Lily and Mayuko hanging out at the table
Of course, since I was at the Irish pub, I had to order some Guinness beer.
A nice tall one of Guinness
While at the pub I invited a few friends to come out and meet Lily and Richard, which was pretty cool. Actually, one of things I like most about the Irish Pub here is that the community of people that come out are incredibly open. I could sit down at the bar and say hi to someone while they're getting a drink and then get invited over to their table. Sometimes there are people at different tables just drinking and they'll say "hi" and start chatting. I personally love friendly environments like these. Perhaps the pubs in Ireland are just like this? One of these days, I'll have to go and find out!
We hung out at the bar for quite some time and I was playing around with my camera and came out with a few pretty good pictures. Unfortunately, my hand wasn't so steady and there is a bit of blur in these pictures. But I thought they came out pretty good anyways. I'll have to invest in some mini tripod one of these days.
Left: Lily Portrait
Right: Yukie and Lily
We wrapped up the evening at about midnight where I took them for a night stroll around the Arcade street of Sendai (sort of like an outdoor mall) where the night musicians were playing music (but there weren't many that evening).
While walking home, we saw some girls walking home along the streets at night and mentioned to me that girls back in Canada would at least think twice before walking home alone at night. I was caught somewhat off guard because after living here for 2 years, I had become quite accustomed to seeing girls walk home alone at night. It's interesting how I've gotten so used to living in Japan that it's become hard to for me make comparisons between Japan and home. I guess that is what 2 years does to you.
The next day was the Sunday and their last day in Sendai. It seemed that Rich and Lily were in need of some souvenirs so we went shopping during the day downtown for friends back in Canada. I hadn't gone shopping in forever but it was refreshing going into town to take a look at the stores. It's been at least a month since the last time I was downtown doing any shopping.
Lily and I at the entrance of the shopping arcade
Apparently her stay in Japan and looking at Japanese clothing, Lily was hooked onto getting a trench coat which was so prevalent in Japan. To be honest, a good trench coat on a girl is quite classy so I was all for that. We went from store to store looking for a good coat (they were some that were good and cheap too! Like $40 bucks cheap!) but we couldn't find one that suited her well enough. Hopefully she had the chance to find one in Tokyo before going back to Canada.
It was nearly time for them to head off to Tokyo where they would say for their last night in Japan. Lily really wanted to take a spin on my scooter but unfortunately we didn't have time for that. But the day before, we did take a picture of her and my scooter together. I hope she buys one, scooters are a lot of fun, especially in the spring and summer. Scooters aren't very expensive either!
Lily riding on my scooter. Her jacket matches with it pretty nicely!
We got to Sendai station with barely any time to spare. Actually we had to sprint from the subway station to the bullet train section, which was quite a sprint. I even ended taking Lily's backpack half of the way. My bad on the timing. As a result, we said our short adieus and then they were off. I hope they caught their train OK... I just got an e-mail from Lily yesterday, so it seems they made it back to Canada in one piece. And so, Lily and Richard was Here and had a great time. And so can you!
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