Golden Week Activities

Welcome to my first blog page original post! Previously before this post, I had just been copy pasting from my Instagram but adding in extra photos and videos, but this post was completely drafted inside of my IDE Javascript editor! Anyways, Golden Week started on April 29th and goes until May 5th. Its a period of Japanese holidays where many Japanese people are excused from work, therefore most travel. Many touristy locations and big cities are quite packed during this time. The four holidays within Golden Week are Showa Day, Constitution Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day. Although I didn't celebrate any of these holidays, I quite enjoyed my break from school. I had plenty of time to relax and do some fun activities around Kyoto. Many of my friends travelled to different places in Japan, or even out of the country to China, Taiwan, and Korea, but I had no interest in leaving Japan whatsoever. I figured the best way to enjoy my break would be to do things as they came up, and no big travelling also gives my bank account a break haha. I just realized how much more I'm going to write now that I can do it on my laptop, and that I'm not limited by Instagram's stupid character count. This will be awesome.

Monday night, we went out for my buddy Ethan's birthday. Ethan is from Minnesota, and probably the most chill guy I've ever met (until he gets drunk, I found out). Myself, Ethan, Yan, Alex, and our friend Anthony (who lives in a different dorm but has Japanese classes with Yan and Alex) biked down the Kamo River at night to Shijo. We parked our bikes in an underground bike parking garage, which I didn't grab a photo of but was pretty cool. We hit up a Family Mart conbini and each grabbed a Strong Zero, which is the Japanese equivalent of a White Claw, but is much bigger and 9% ABV, only costing 220 Yen (about $1.50 USD). They don't taste great, but they do work on a budget.

From there, we had some ramen and karaage, this restaurant being my new favorite place to go for karaage in Japan. After that, we grabbed another drink and went to a little bar named Concrete while we waiting for the clubs to open. This place is featured in the center photo above, and was a super cozy little spot to chill out for a while. The staff were amazing and had a fire playlist going. We went to Hello World club after they opened, and I had a blast dancing despite the music not being very good. We left around 3:00 AM, and unfortunately had to make it back home in the rain since the trains weren't running at that time.

I spent Tuesday recovering after waking up around 10 AM. After forcing myself out of bed and making myself some breakfast (and drinking a lot of water) I was feeling much better. I worked on this website for a while before joining my friends in some rounds of Helldivers 2, a fantastic video game that recently came out this year. If you are a gamer and have some unhinged friends to play with, I would highly recommend checking it out. I also spent some time this week watching some anime for the first time since getting to Japan, since I didn't have much to do late at night unless I wanted to go out again (guess what, I didn't). Konosuba, one of my favorite isekai/comedy animes is finally back with a third season this spring. Definitely in my top 15 anime of all time.

Wednesday, I again biked to Shijo, but during the day this time which was much, but not as cool. I met up with a different Alex, this one from my Japanese class, and we did some rock climbing at a gym! The price wasn't bad, only about $12 for a day pass, and that includes shoe rental and a chalk bag. I had fun even though it was maybe my eighth time climbing, and I hadn't done it in a while, but Alex and I had a great time talking about all sorts of things while waiting for our arms to recover. Afterwards, we grabbed some food at a curry shop. The food was good, but I was a little disappointed by the portion size. The next morning, I caught this sunrise since I accidentally woke up at 5:00.

Thursday I rented a studio room at Kyoto246, which comes fully equipped with speakers, amps, stereos, a keyboard and drum kit. Per person, it only costs 600 yen per hour which is pretty crazy. I was supposed to have a friend come to join me on guitar or drums, but they weren't able to make it, but I still had a blast with my bluetooth speaker and cranked the volume out of the bass speaker. I hadn't played my new bass on such a big setup before, so it was pretty awesome. Here are some clips of random songs I'm currently working on.

Thursday evening, I went on my first official date in Japan! I went with the girl who had invited me to the sake bar Sunday evening. We met up outside an okonomiyaki restaurant my friend had recommended. Previously when I had had this in Kyoto I had hated it, but I was willing to give it another shot. Luckily I did, because it was really good this time. We chatted there for quite a while before going to Rockin' Bar, where we listened to American rock'n'roll music while we played Jenga, and I'm pretty sure the two of us made a record high tower there.

Once Concrete bar opened at 9:00 PM the two of us headed over there, and talked for at least three hours over drinks. I was impressed to have found a Japanese girl with such a deep level of both mental and emotional maturity, especially for her age and meeting on a dating app. Our conversation went places I never would have imagined it going for a first date, which was pretty cool. She luckily spoke great English, because although I can easily converse about simple things in Japanese, I simply lack the vocabulary for more involved discussions at the moment. After talking about our dating goals, she told me she wasn't interested in starting anything due to the fact I was leaving so soon, as she had previously gone through a similar situation and didn't want go through that sort of relationship ending again, which I found more than fair. We discussed that we were both happy to be friends and hang out in the future as friends, and I still greatly enjoyed the evening and learned a lot about Japanese dating culture.

In Japan, a girls are driven to a crazy high beauty standard due to media and consumerism. More or less, capitalism fuels this issue to a large degree. Girls are pressured to constantly be buying the newest clothes that are trendy, accessories, and even keeping their hairstyles up to date. Girls will follow whatever idols and K-POP groups deem to be "in-fashion" which is absolutely crazy. If you don't do this you are seen as weird and usually outcast by other girls. Its strange how Japan seems so modern, innovative, and technologically advanced, sometimes even more so than the States, but their culture surrounding women and progressive policies is seeming to be stuck back in the 1900s. Some girls will date boys just to "be dating", as a status thing more than actually enjoying their partner romantically. But they would rather be in a shitty and unrewarding relationship than not have a boyfriend for the social reasons. Considering my own position here in Japan and my personal dating goals, I had to reframe myself. I had originally been excited about being more desirable in Japan due to my foreigner status; tall, blonde, American, etc...But I've learned that a lot of these girls would never dream of marrying a foreigner, just dating them temporarily for fun. Some girls even pick up the foreign boyfriend for the status symbol among their friends without even thinking much of the meaningful side of being in a relationship. Luckily, the girl I went out with is nowhere near the Japanese norm for women, and I am extremely glad to have met her. She matches my energy well and seems like the two of us will be great friends.

After saying goodbye at the station, I spent my walk home considering everything I had learned and pondering what exactly I was looking for in a relationship at the moment, or if I should even be looking for something at the moment. If I've learned anything, sometimes looking too hard blinds us to the obvious connections that we can make right in front of us. Fun tip before ending this post, you can buy the maple syrup pancake at 7-11 and put a piece of fried chicken in between them for a cheap but tasty little sandwich (not healthy whatsoever).