Kanto Trip

When people think of the Kanto region of Japan, they usually think of Tokyo.  Last February, after my Okinawa trip, I went to visit one of my Japanese friends, Yuta, who lives in the northern part of Kanto on the boarder of Tochigi and Ibaraki prefecture. Tochigi prefecture is famous for Nikko: a mountainous area full of temples, world heritage sites, and the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu. I went there once before when I traveled to Japan the first time. It’s a very calm and beautiful place. I met Yuta when he studied abroad in America. To me, it’s interesting how fast you can escape the city of Tokyo and all of a sudden be in the middle of nowhere it seems like. That’s the feeling you get in northern Kanto. I went for only the weekend, but it was fun and interesting nonetheless.

I left work a little early and took the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo. At Tokyo, I switched to a different bullet train to Oyama, Tochigi. Yuta met me at the train station, and we drove in his (nice) car to his aunt’s house. His aunt was hosting an American girl around my age at her house for a few months so I got to meet her too. We had dinner at his aunts. She had a huge kotatsu and TV! We ate pizza and other snacks. It was really comfortable. We also had a little wine (except Yuta because he had to drive). There’s a zero tolerance rule in Japan for drinking and driving (or riding a bike for that matter). You can be arrested for knowingly letting someone else drink and drive as well…there is reason to why I’m explaining this unfortunately. Notes about his aunt’s place: 1) She had a cute dog that wouldn’t stop barking unless she held him. 2) I was surprised when his aunt said she hates people from Kansai! I’ve never heard a Japanese person be so direct like that before. However, I don’t think she hated me because I’m not Japanese…even though I live in Kansai... 3) Yuta’s cousin lived at the house.  He was pretty shy and quiet, and we pestered him to come with us to go bowling or drinking (he had just turned 20 years old: the legal drinking age in Japan). He didn’t want to come with though because he had plans to meet some people. We decided to just go to the store and pick up some snacks and booze and go to Yuta’s guest house (next to his real house). That way, Yuta could drink too. It was the three of us: Yuta, me, and the American girl. We watched TV, Youtube videos, drank, ate, and talked. I had a good time! I forgot to mention that we were under a kotatsu as well. I love kotatsu (Japanese table that has a heat source underneath covered by a comforter-like blanket)! We all slept in the guest house.

Kotatsu fun.

We slept in the next morning (Saturday). When we woke up and got ready, Yuta brought in a huge western-style breakfast made by his Grandmother next door. It was sooooo delicious! I feel bad because I never got to see her or thank her. Unfortunately, despite the delicious food, the breakfast was pretty solemn. We found out that the previous night, Yuta’s cousin, the one we asked to hang out with us, ended up drinking and driving and crashing his car into a rail with his friend in the car. He was injured, but at that point, we didn’t know how badly. Eventually we found out that he was going to be ok. However, the severe punishment he and his family were going to face was pretty horrible. There's a ridiculously huge fine, loss of license, his acceptance into college would probably be revoked, and his parents would have to pay for everything. We kept thinking about how things might have been different if he had just hung out with us. We dropped off the American girl back at his aunt’s house so she could get ready. The aunt and uncle were at the hospital so no one was home, but it was pretty scary anyway because we saw his cousin’s coat, and there was blood on it. While his friend got ready, we decided to relieve some stress by going to the batting cages. It was really fun! I was pretty sore the next couple of days though haha!

Homemade breakfast! Yum!

Our plan for the afternoon/evening was to go to a college party at a college in Saitama prefecture (also in Kanto). Yuta had some friends at a college there. There were foreign students as well like German, American, Finnish, Thai, etc. His American friend also came along. We picked up some booze at the store again before going. I got a bottle of wine that I wanted to nurse throughout the night, Yuta got some beers and chu-hi I think, and his friend got the big bottle of Korean vodka-type stuff called Jinro. When we got to the party at first, it was a little awkward because I was sitting in a big circle of people I didn’t know, and we were trying to get to know each other. Once more people showed up and everyone started drinking, it got more comfortable. I actually met a lot of cool and interesting people! We played videogames (Smash Bros. and Pokemon Snap ftw!) and drinking games. I was feeling pretty good ;) That bottle I decided to nurse throughout the night became empty, and we all (like 10 of us) went to the store to resupply ourselves with food and drink. I got sick of playing the drinking games so I decided to take a break and sit out. At this point, I was starting to sober up. However, there were a select few who were not doing so great. That Jinro (pretty much straight Korean vodka I think), was being passed around the game (I didn’t get near the stuff though…eww). I came back to the main room after watching TV somewhere else for a bit to find that the game had ended, and many people were MIA, including my friend. By this time, I was sober. By the way, our plan was to stay the night at this dorm/frat place, but I quickly realized that sleeping would not be possible. I walked around until I saw that many people were huddled around the bathroom area. There was one guy (who had been drinking the Jinro straight out of the bottle) who was sitting on the toilet with his underwear around his ankles, puking into a pan. He was a hot mess. People were trying to help him, but he was so out of it. I quickly fled that situation back to the main room to find another guy who was sleeping sitting up. That’s kind of a common thing in Japan so no one was too worried. He looked pretty uncomfortable so we asked if he wanted to lay on the couch. He didn’t respond. That’s when we realized he was pretty drunk. We picked him up and put him onto the couch. Seconds later, he’s gagging on his own vomit. We grab a bucket and rolled him onto his side. He began to fall off the couch into the bucket. At that point we realize it was time to bring him to the restroom too. By the way, this whole time, I don’t know where my friend is and he isn’t responding to my texts. It was pretty scary because the first guy was looking pretty gross, and this new guy was basically unresponsive. We started googling alcohol poisoning because we weren't sure if we need to call an ambulance. That’s when one of the drunken guy’s friends dropped a bomb on us…the guy with the pants around his ankles was underage. We had no idea! In Japan, like I said, there is no tolerance with alcohol. If we called an ambulance, they would find out that he is underage, and everyone at the party will be arrested! What the hell?! I had no idea the kid was underage! At that point, I found my friend, and told him that if we called an ambulance, I’m getting the heck out of there. We watched the drunken guys for a while, gave them water, kept them warm, and slowly but surely, they improved and started vomiting more up and became responsive. We passed that hurdle. The second hurdle was this: it was about 5am, the three of us were exhausted, there was nowhere to sleep, and we didn’t know what to do. We were all pretty sober at that point. We decided to wait about an hour just to make sure Yuta was completely sober and drive back (about 1 ½ - 2 hours away) to Yuta’s house. It was a very good feeling to get into that bed at about 8 in the morning.

The cursed Jinro.

We slept until around 2 o’clock (Sunday), I think. We got up, got clean, and decided to get one last meal together before I took the bullet train back home to Osaka. We went to a ramen place. I suggested ramen because I had yet to try real Japanese ramen because I was afraid everything would have meat in it. I knew that if he was with me, he could help me read the menu better. We had a really nice meal together. I got a ramen that only had one piece of meat in it that I was able to pick out and give to him. It was tasty! He drove me to the train station, and while I waited for the next train, we had Starbucks together. I had enjoyed spending time with him, and despite the craziness, I had a really good time catching up and drinking with him! It was fun seeing his town because he lived in such a rural area. We got to walk around a bit, too. The air felt fresh there. I made it home around 9 or 10 at night, and had to work the next day. It was a really busy weekend, but one I won’t forget!

My first real ramen.

Rural fresh air!