the shochu diary

Well it’s another day… rainy here in Tsushima. I had myself a blast these past few days hanging out with my friend Joey who was visiting from Korea. Joey had lived in north Tsushima for 2 years before I arrived. He moved directly across the water to Pusan after his contract was up with JET. It was his fourth visit back to Tsushima in the past year. This last visit was his last. He’s moving to Hawaii in December.
I met up with Joey on Wednesday night in Hitakatsu (two hours north) we had ourselves -a pretty hectic night. Started off by drinking 3 8% chu-hi’s in the hotel that he was crashing at, then we walked down the street to restaurant that he loved, but they were having a private party that night so we settled for Osaka-style Okonomiyaki and nama-beers. It was great kicking back and talking shit over some good food. We ended up knowing some people at the restaurant and decided to join forces with them and heading out to karaoke. We were already pretty deep in alcohol by the time we got to karaoke so we thought that it would be a good idea to buy a bottle of shochu instead of continuing on with carbonated drinks… We sang songs and trudged through that bottle like we were still thirsty. I don’t remember what I sang, but Joey was snapping pictures left and right so I apparently sang.
After singing, we decided to check out Joey’s old stomping ground, Snack Ai. When we first walked in we got the usual “oh shit, foreigners!” look, than a few of the shocked faces turned into “I recognize you!” smiles. Joey used to frequent that spot so the bar owner and the workers recognized him. I just nodded my head and went with the flow. Being inebriated already, Joey thought it would be a good idea to try and truck through another bottle of shochu. By that time I was already probably slurring my words and walking crooked, but I must have nodded my head and perhaps I even said “sure”… I don’t remember. Either way we ended up getting another bottle, but by that point we were already well beyond good, so we didn’t finish, or even get close to finishing that bottle. We took the bottle to go and hit the road for another bar.
Luckily when we got to the, what would have been the last bar, they were also having a private party and didn’t let us in. I have a slight memory of getting upset at the mamasan and the worker for not letting us in because I thought they were discriminating against us, but I’m pretty sure I was just drunk and misreading the situation. The lights turned off for me right after this because apparently Joey decided to walk back to the hotel. When he got there, he waited for five or ten minutes, but I still hadn’t found my way back. Joey, being the great guy that he was, went back out to look for me. I guess I was just walking around. I don’t know what I did for those ten minutes, but know I cant remember.

Thursday (Autumnal Equinox Day) Holiday

Thursday was a day off for me and Joey wanted to meet up with some former students of his, so we made some calls and decided to rendezvous at a parking lot at a harbor behind a grocery store. Joey and I were both pretty hung over but we sat around in that empty parking lot for hours hanging out with high school seniors. I opened my car doors and played music. I always carry a soccer ball, basketball, and a skateboard in my car so we had entertainment with those too. We kicked the soccer ball around for about an hour, and the basketball was bounced back and forth for a bit, and the skateboards were used to glide us around the parking lot, on our bellies, knees and stand up. It was a really “natsukashii” day for myself. In Japanese natsukashii means nostalgic (sorta). It brought back memories of being in high school and just hanging out anywhere, with nothing to do. I forgot that back in those days you didn’t need anything to “do” to have a good time. You could just be anywhere, with a couple friends, with no where to go, and it would be fine because you didn’t have to study, or you weren’t hanging out with your parents, and not being bothered by anyone. We kicked it real old school that day.
On the drive back down south, there was a pretty solid north east swell pushing through Tsushima, so we stopped at a couple spots to see what was going on. Goneo was looking pretty solid with long dangerous rights breaking over uni (wana/sea urchins), and Mogi was looking like chocolate milk and the lefts and rights were closing out and soft looking. Feeling pretty bleak still, we decided to opt out of surfing for the day and just drove back down south. When we got back to Izuhara and ate at my favorite place to eat, Udonjaya. They have the best udon in the world. Well, maybe not the world, but it’s my favorite. Carter and Henry joined us for udon than Henry went home. Jesse, Mina and Carter all joined Joey and I for some more madness karaoke action. I decided to take the night off from debauchery because I had work the next day. Jesse also took it easy because he had work too. I took went home at 11 o clock and tried to crash out, but I was having trouble sleeping.

Friday craziness continues

I went to school on Friday and taught 1 class. It was fine, than I got home and Joey was nowhere to be found. He had borrowed my car and went to hang out at the beach. I took a nap and caught up on some well-deserved rest. I had earlier in the day sent out an email to all the ALT’s that usually hang out asking them if they wanted to go down to Izuhara to hang out with Joey and I to get crazy. I succeeded in getting everyone to come along, even the Toyotama ALT, Amber. She drove 45 minutes to hang out with us hooligans.
As expected, the night was packed with craziness. We all started off at Jesse’s house and drank a good handful of wonderful world beers from far and wide. Three Aussie beers, two Belgium beers, one Mexican beer, a Vietnamese beer, two German beers and of course Korean lemon-beer-style-something-or-other. I’m pretty sure I’m leaving out something but it’s a rare and wonderful thing to have international beers here in Japan, especially in Tsushima. After Jesses we all took a stroll to a local restaurant called Ohashinokuni. They have perhaps the hottest dish Japan has ever served there. I used to call it “useless chicken” last year with Mike, but now its just the bowl of peppers. If you’re having trouble with your stomach, and don’t mind an ass-burning, this dish will have you running to the toilet the next day. It’s just funny to look at. When it first comes out, all you can see is a pile of red peppers. With a poke of the chopsticks, under an inch or so of more peppers, you finally find a broth, and a couple pieces of chicken. It’s absolutely ridiculous. There are probably 100 peppers in this little dish with a couple chicken wings. Us Tsushima boys are always up for a challenge, so we fought our way through the peppers, and we finished it, but not after 45 minutes of bitching and moaning and water drinking.
Feeling the economic crunch of eating and drinking too much at Ohashinokuni we toddled to Coco Store and got some more tasty beverages for the road to our next destination, Bamboo. Bamboo is a cozy cave of a bar nestled quietly between a snack bar and a parking lot. When you first walk in you are greeted by the smell of overflowing sewer from the squatter-style toilet that’s located just to the right of the front door, but just a few steps past that is a wonderful all-wood bar and wooden benches. This bar only sells shochu and umeshu. The guy working behind the bar’s name is Teru. He’s a really nice guy that has a heavy pour, and treats us all with respect, even when we’re all being obnoxious foreigners. Teru always has the jams playing on the radio. Tucked away in the far corner of the bar are turntables and a CD player. Most of the times that I’ve been into Bamboo, I’ve heard Jazz being played, but a few times I’ve heard some hip hop, and one time rock. It’s probably my favorite bar in Izuhara, but it’s not the cheapest place to sit around. We ran into my soccer friend Shogo and his senpai there, but they were chit chatting, so we didn’t talk much with them. I had previously forgotten to mention that on this night Teru’s friend that I met once before, a nurse names Chinatsu, decided to come out with us this evening. Chinatsu is from north Tsushima, but she now lives at the hospital housing in Izuhara. I had run into Teru earlier in the evening and told him that we all were probably going to come out to Bamboo and pay him a visit. He must have called his friend Chinatsu and gave her my mail information, so she messaged me and asked if she could join our gang.
Joey’s OTHER friend who lives in Fukuoka now had a cousin that wanted to meet up with Joey, so she showed up with her other friend and they hopped along with us for about an hour, but by the time they met up with us, we were all pretty deep in the shochu game, so they were put off and left shortly after. Now that I think about it, we had a huge crew that evening.
After bamboo, I ran into 2 guys that I do karate with and they were with 2 of their friends that I had previously seen on many occasions. They joined forces with us soon after Chinatsu, Henry, Carter, Jesse, Amber, and the two sober girls left. It was a good time, those boys are not of drinking age, so we went back to Coco Store and got some drinks to go. We sat outside of Coco Store after it closed until the police came and told us we had to be on our way. We all met back up down the road and for some reason thought that drinking some more would be a good idea. We posted up at a baseball field and talked shit and drank for about an hour longer. We didn’t get to sleep until about 5am. I couldn’t believe how late it was, and how drunk I wasn’t by the end of the night. I guess I kinda got over the hump of being drunk, back full circle to feeling better. Hahaha.
I pulled a huge favor card on Carter and Jesse by asking them to allow my 2 karate friends and their 2 friends to sleep on their floors. I feel bad in retrospect for asking them to let strangers into their house. I won’t do that again.

Saturday

Saturday started off with some confusion because when I woke up, the owner of the apt that I slept in wasn’t there. Jesse had had trouble sleeping the night before after we all invaded his sleeping space, and he decided to have a soul-searching solo moment walking around the streets of Izuhara. He didn’t get back from that mission until almost noon! That guy walked around, saw the sunrise, got some food, and got his hair cut while we were all passed out in his house. I feel really bad for that because he probably wanted to just sleep.
Amber, Joey, Mina and I went to Mos Burger for breakfast and took our time nursing our hangovers. We all went back to my place and sat around for a little bit when we went back out to eat ramen at a local ramen shop. Amber busted out from there and Joey, Mina and I went to the beach to chill out and do a little beach clean up. The air was a little bit cold, but the water was fine, so we went for a dip. Mina doesn’t own a bikini, so she stayed out of the water and just watches Joey and I as we splashed around and tossed the Frisbee. I wasn’t feeling very healthy from the night before, but Joey had no problem buying 6 more chu-hi’s to prepare for another night of liver destruction. I was pretty sure that Saturday night was going to be a mellow night where we just ate and talked, but not with Joey around.
Bowling sounded like a nice comfortable activity to do while perhaps not drinking. Mina joined us for our adventure, and later we called up Chinatsu to join us. Joey is a pretty good bowler and I don’t think I’m too shabby myself at the lanes. Mina tries her hardest, but I won’t go any further about her skill. Chinatsu showed up late and didn’t bowl. Joey beat me the first game, and I beat him the second. As always, Joey and I couldn’t help ourselves at the alley and got ourselves a bottle of shochu, while Mina had a sweet drink that I believe was called anzushu. I could be wrong.
Bowling ended, and so did the bottle of shochu, so when we were walking out of the bowling alley, who was there but none other than the guys who I ran into the night before. I told them that I was heading home and that they could join us if they liked, but 3 of them said they had to go back to Izuhara so only one joined us. Yocchan is the name of the kid that joined us. Later I found out that he joined us and not his friends because he had a crush on Mina. We got back to my place and started playing a drinking game that pretty much knocked us all out. There wasn’t enough room in my main bedroom for everyone, so I thought that I would rather sleep by myself, so I put a futon in my extra room and slept there. It was a good idea because I slept like a champion. It’s sometimes hard for me to sleep with other people sleeping close to me.

Sunday

Joey had to leave back to Korea on Sunday, and Chinatsu and Mina had to head back to Izuhara to go home. We all got breakfast at Mos Burger again and got our fill of grease for the day. I dropped them off at home and Joey and I made the long journey back up to Hitakatsu. I was exhausted and feeling pretty shitty, but it was good to hang out with Joey and just talk shit the whole time while heading back up north. I dropped him off and drove back down trying not to nod off at the wheel. I really wanted to stay awake and not take a big nap. Henry had messaged me and asked me if I wanted to go up to the foot onsen and hang out, so I took him up on his offer. We went up there, talked about the weekend that had just passed, and we both thought it would be a good idea to hang out at Jesse’s house. We got there and talked for about and hour or so, but it was getting kind of late again and Henry and I had shopping to do still for the next week. We got out groceries and I dropped him back off at home.
When I got home I realized that I hadn’t showered since Friday morning. All the fun and drunkenness and activities had put my hygiene on the backburner and I forgot to do any of that. I felt gross, so I showered and felt rejuvenated. Still exhausted I went upstairs to my room, and brought my futon back from the spare room and fell to sleep in 2.5 seconds flat. I slept about ten hours, waking up this morning made me feel like a champion.

Monday

Here I am at school, a little bored, glad that I brought my computer today because my JTE (Japanese teacher of English) is gone for medical leave. The doctors found something that they thought might be cancer, so he had surgery to have it removed a few weeks ago. He’s doing fine supposedly, but he wont be back to school for a little while longer. During his recovery period, I won’t have classes at this school. It’s a waste of time and tax-payers money to have me come to this school, but it’s just the way things work around here I guess. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Much love from Tsushima