Adventures at Harlem
So I finally have some free time to tell you guys about these Korean boy adventures. Bonnie, a lot of this post is probably going to be exactly same as the email I sent you but I am far too lazy to write up the whole experience again. I am sure you can deal.
Anyways, both nights we went clubbing at Harlem were amusing, even if we didn't meet the Koreans until Saturday night. So here is the recap from what happened both nights. As a side note, if you are ever in Tokyo I highly recommend Harlem. Also, foreign guys are not allowed in unless they are with a Japanese girl so you don't have to worry about many obnoxious foreign guys.
Harlem Night One:
Well, the plan for Friday night was actually to go out to Ageha. We have been trying to get there because on of my friends is really into Reggae and they play Reggae every Friday night there. So, the group was me, Nandi, Jennifer, and Megan. All of us live in Baraki Nakayama Ladies except for Megan. She is actually in a homestay one stop away from us with a very strict family. She has a 10 pm curfew. She was away with Jennifer and a bunch of other people up until Friday morning so she just ended up telling her family that she was away until Sunday so that she could go out with us. She ended up just sleeping in Jennifer's room during the day on Friday and Saturday, so she was able to come.
Anyways, we were all running pretty late getting out on Friday night so we ended up missing the Musashino train to where Ageha is. And we spent a while talking to the people working at the stations to see if that was the last train or not. Apparently it was, so we decided to take a chance and just try to get to Shibuya. The only issue was that we weren't sure if we would catch the last train for the line we had to transfer to. We ended up calling a friend and she did a route finder and we found a way that we could get there. We managed to get on the last train for the Ginza line. Oh, and I just wanted to add that we ended up bringing a water bottle full of Soju with us to drink on the way. Just Soju, not mixed with anything. So we were sketchily taking shots the whole way there.
When we got to Shibuya we decided to go to Harlem even though we were also planning to go there on Saturday night as well. We figured that if we really didn't like it, we could go somewhere else Saturday night. It was also one of the cheaper options in Shibuya (2000 yen including 2 drinks). So we ended up getting there around 1 am or so. Megan, Jennifer, and I started the night off with tequila shots (which were huge by the way, must have been 2.5 shots in it or so). We decided to go dance for a while. The club wasn't too packed (Fridays are usually not as busy as Saturdays). While we were dancing I got my first nampa. This guy came up and asked were I was from. I told him, and then he just kind of lurked behind me for a while. Didn't say anything else and didn't try to dance with me or anything. Not that I would of said yes or anything, he just really wasn't my type. But this guy came up behind me probably about 20 or 30 times during the whole night. But he never made a move. It started to get really annoying. I kept hoping he would ask to dance or something so that I could turn him down and then he would leave me alone.
After dancing for a bit we went upstairs which had another bar and a bunch of places to sit. It was also a lot more quiet so it gave us all more of a chance to talk. Then I had my second tequila "shot" and proceeded to get very drunk. After chilling for a bit we headed back downstairs. We ran into these guys on the stairs and they kept saying hello and then asked if we understood japanese and I said tsukoshi. He got really excited about that and gave me a high five. The japanese seem to be really big on high fives. I seem to get a lot of them while at clubs.
When we were downstairs dancing another guy came up and talked to me for a while. It is so weird though, because guys just kind of talk to you for a bit and then go away. It is very confusing. Then there was another group of guys we were dancing next to for a while. One of them finally talked to me a little. I couldn't really tell since it was so dark, but he seemed like he was quite good looking. Oh, and Nandi said that while I was talking to him the creepy guy from the beginning was coming up to me. But when he saw me talking to another guy he gave a big sigh and then went away. He left me alone after that. But I kept trying to get the cute guy to talk to me more or dance with me, but he eventually left with his friends. Oh well. I still felt the night was quite successful. I got hit on by quite a few guys. I am really getting a lot more attention in Japan than I thought I would. It was really weird though, because I was the only one who had guys coming up and talking to me. I have no idea why I was the only one getting hit on. Maybe I flirt a lot while drunk without even realizing it.
So we ended up leaving around 5 am or so. We were going to try and find some food, but it was raining and we were tired so we decided to just head back to the dorm. Got back around 6:30 and proceeded to collapse into bed. I ended up waking up around 2 pm feeling a little hungover. Luckily I felt better by the evening for night out number two!
Harlem Night Two:
Okay, the reason we went back to Harlem a second time is that a couple other people were going to come with us who wanted to go though. But in the end, none of them ended up coming, so it was the same group. We could have gone somewhere else, but Megan and I had both picked up fliers that allowed us to get in with only a 1000 yen cover including 1 drink. We both wanted to take advantage of the cheap cover charge.
So we left pretty early because we had to get to the club before midnight to be able to get the cheaper cover. We once again had our water bottle of soju and Megan also bought a cup of sake at the conbini. It was a little glass of sake that a plastic cover on it. In the end, Megan and I were the only ones who ended up drinking on the way to the club. Also, at one point Megan poured some coke in to the sake to see if she could make it taste any better. Because of the carbonation, the top ended up exploding off of the cup. Luckily at the time she was carrying it in a plastic bag so it didn't get on any of us.
We got to the club a little bit before midnight and it was still fairly empty. So we just went to the bar and got some drinks and we chilled for a bit. I thought that I would start off the night slowly since it was still early so I only ended up having a smirnoff ice. Megan and I both were in a great mood, but both Nandi and Jennifer did not seem to be doing all that great. We ended up going up to the area upstairs when it opened. I got two of the of tequila shots while we were up there, so at that point I was ready to go and dance. Finally, Megan and I managed to get Nandi and Jennifer to come downstairs and dance.
One thing I appreciated about the dance floor was that it is quite dark. I was wearing this new shirt-dress I had bought with these patterned tights. The shirt-dress was quite short so at least with it being so dark I didn't have to worry about making sure it was always staying down. Pretty quickly a guy came up and started talking to me. But then his friends left the dance floor so he ended up leaving pretty quickly. After a little bit, this other guy came over to talk to me. I wasn't able to hear him because the music was so loud. So he ended up taking my hand and leading me off the dance floor. Luckily my friends followed because I knew I would never have been able to find them again if they hadn't. He ended up taking me to the stairway and asked where I was from and was saying that he was from South Korea. He said that his friend wanted to know my name, so I told him my name. Then he asked how old I was. I ended up just saying I was 20 and he was shocked at how young I was. I think that he was 25. But then he proceeded to ask for my number. I was a little creeped out that he asked me that after we had literally just met, but I told him that I didn't have my number memorized and that my phone was in my locker (which was actually true). Then he proceeded to ask if he could see me again. I wasn't really sure how to answer that so he eventually he just said that he hoped that we would meet again, so went downstairs and I found my friends and he found all of his. I thought that they were going to go on their way, but instead they all stayed and just started talking to us. I ended up talking to the guy who had pulled me away and his japanese friend (I think the one who wanted to know my name). Their other two friends seemed a bit more shy. Anyways, they both kept talking in japanese in front of me and I was trying to understand what they were saying. Then they kept pointing at me saying "cho kawaii!" to which I replied by shaking my head and saying no.
After talking to them for a bit the japanese friend offered to buy me a drink. I thought, why not. I think some of the others bought drinks for some of my friends as well. I ended up kind of on my own talking to all of the guys while my friends were off standing in the corner. I think at this point Jennifer and Nandi both were not in a good mood at all. I didn't really know what to do because I wanted to hang out with them and with our new friends. The guys kept suggesting that we go upstairs which I was fine with. So they kind of escorted me off and I kept motioning that my friends that they should follow, but they weren't. So I managed to stop the guys and went over to talk to my friends. They said that they would come up and find me in a few minutes. So I just went upstairs alone with my 4 new guy friends. It was a little awkward. But my friends did end up coming up fairly quickly and we were all talking together for a while. Japanese guy (can't remember his name...I think it was Ko...?) offered to buy me another drink so I had one more and then decided that I should stop. At that point I had drunk quite a bit. Japanese guy ended up disappearing for a while and I didn't really see him again. I am pretty sure he had a girlfriend as well, so that was fine. I am not sure why he kept buying me drinks though...When we were all hanging out one guy kept saying things like "most beautiful western girls I have ever seen!" and "you look like movie stars" which we found really amusing. And one of the Korean guys (who in my opinion was the cutest, though they were all cute) was like in love with Jennifer. He didn't speak any english and she doesn't really know any japanese so she really did see any point in giving him any hope. She also wasn't in the best mood. But boy was he persistent. I thought it was adorable. Megan and I at this point were both quite drunk and really wanted to dance. So we went off with the korean guy who had pulled me off the dance floor at the beginning and one of his friends. We said that we would be back soon. We probably shouldn't have split up but I didn't want to spend the whole night standing around. You know me when I get drunk: I wanna dance!
So the four of us headed down to the main dance floor. I actually almost lost megan, but my korean guy managed to find her. The four of us all just danced in a group for a little bit until my korean guy finally started dancing with me. I ended up dancing with him for a really really long time. Probably almost 2 hours. And the other guy eventually asked Megan to dance with him. Korean guy was also a really good dancer. Finally, the other korean guys and Nandi and Jennifer found us and joined us. There was this one really drunk guy who kept trying to dance with Nandi who she was just not interested in. I also kept trying to get Jennifer to dance with the guy who liked her, and I think she did end up dancing with him for a little bit. I am sure that really made his night.
We all stopped dancing probably around 4:30 or so and me and my friends went to the bathroom so that we could conference for a bit without the guys. They wanted to take us out to get food or something. We were planning to go get Denny's but we kind of just wanted to go alone. So we were trying to figure out ways to get rid of them. We figured if we gave them our numbers when we left that they might go away. It wasn't that we all disliked them, it was just we wanted to be able to have some time to hang out alone and not have to try to talk to them with the language barrier. My korean guy was actually the only one who knew english. They all knew japanese though. So we all left and as soon as we got out of the club they proceeded to get numbers. Jennifer obviously did not want to give her guy her number (she just didn't really see the point when they couldn't talk at all). She told him that she didn't have her phone and didn't have her number memorized. She did give in and give him an email address though. Megan gave her number to the guy she was dancing with and then I gave mine to my korean guy. We walked with them back to the station and then I told them that we were going to go off on our own. Korean guy finally left after I also gave him my email address as well. So then we parted ways and we headed off the Dennys. Got leered at by a couple groups of guys on the way there. After we ate we hopped on the train and went home. I was so exhausted by the time I made it back and was out cold until about 6 pm.
Surprisingly, both Megan and I heard from our Koreans about a day later. The emails/texts were hilarious. They were definitely not good at english. And Megan's korean really didn't know any english at all. She did get a couple texts from him in english but they sounded like they were translated on babelfish. Anyways, we were hearing from them for about a week and agreed to meet them on Sunday in Odaiba. We figured that it would be awkward, but also hilarious. We had spent the whole week comparing texts and laughing at what they wrote.
So the sunday "date" at Odaiba was exactly what we expected: awkward but hilarious. One of the difficult things was that Megan's korean did not know any english. He occasionally talked to me in Japanese but most of the time he just talked to my korean in korean. So in a way it ended up feeling like the two boys were on a date together and Megan and I were on a date together. Which really was fine. We still had a great time. Plus we didn't have to pay for anything. Neither of them had ever been to Odaiba before, even though they have been in Japan for quite a while, so they spent a lot of time being lost. Whenever Megan and I offered to help, they would say "we're not lost! we have a plan!". So we ended up wandering around the island mall, decks, and palette town. We always went on the huge ferris wheel. Lots of fun. Oh, and when we were at the Megaweb there were a bunch of crane games. There was one that had a package of cookies that was kind of teetering on the edge. So they decided they wanted to win it for us. They ended up spending 600 yen getting those cookies. It was pretty funny watching how intense they were about it. When we parted ways at the end of the day we had the most awkward goodbye. After Megan and I were out of sight we started cracking and being like "what just happened?". Overall though, it was a very amusing day. I am pretty sure it is the end of that though. Neither of us were actually interested in them, we just found the whole situation really amusing. It was definitely fun. Next time we go back to Harlem, Megan and I are going to find us some "b style" boys who both speak english well. That is our goal.
Anyways, that is the story with the Koreans. Every time I think about it I just cracking up. They were just so funny. Anyways, you wanted stories and you got stories. Hopefully the detailed descriptions did not bore you to death.
Anyways, both nights we went clubbing at Harlem were amusing, even if we didn't meet the Koreans until Saturday night. So here is the recap from what happened both nights. As a side note, if you are ever in Tokyo I highly recommend Harlem. Also, foreign guys are not allowed in unless they are with a Japanese girl so you don't have to worry about many obnoxious foreign guys.
Harlem Night One:
Well, the plan for Friday night was actually to go out to Ageha. We have been trying to get there because on of my friends is really into Reggae and they play Reggae every Friday night there. So, the group was me, Nandi, Jennifer, and Megan. All of us live in Baraki Nakayama Ladies except for Megan. She is actually in a homestay one stop away from us with a very strict family. She has a 10 pm curfew. She was away with Jennifer and a bunch of other people up until Friday morning so she just ended up telling her family that she was away until Sunday so that she could go out with us. She ended up just sleeping in Jennifer's room during the day on Friday and Saturday, so she was able to come.
Anyways, we were all running pretty late getting out on Friday night so we ended up missing the Musashino train to where Ageha is. And we spent a while talking to the people working at the stations to see if that was the last train or not. Apparently it was, so we decided to take a chance and just try to get to Shibuya. The only issue was that we weren't sure if we would catch the last train for the line we had to transfer to. We ended up calling a friend and she did a route finder and we found a way that we could get there. We managed to get on the last train for the Ginza line. Oh, and I just wanted to add that we ended up bringing a water bottle full of Soju with us to drink on the way. Just Soju, not mixed with anything. So we were sketchily taking shots the whole way there.
When we got to Shibuya we decided to go to Harlem even though we were also planning to go there on Saturday night as well. We figured that if we really didn't like it, we could go somewhere else Saturday night. It was also one of the cheaper options in Shibuya (2000 yen including 2 drinks). So we ended up getting there around 1 am or so. Megan, Jennifer, and I started the night off with tequila shots (which were huge by the way, must have been 2.5 shots in it or so). We decided to go dance for a while. The club wasn't too packed (Fridays are usually not as busy as Saturdays). While we were dancing I got my first nampa. This guy came up and asked were I was from. I told him, and then he just kind of lurked behind me for a while. Didn't say anything else and didn't try to dance with me or anything. Not that I would of said yes or anything, he just really wasn't my type. But this guy came up behind me probably about 20 or 30 times during the whole night. But he never made a move. It started to get really annoying. I kept hoping he would ask to dance or something so that I could turn him down and then he would leave me alone.
After dancing for a bit we went upstairs which had another bar and a bunch of places to sit. It was also a lot more quiet so it gave us all more of a chance to talk. Then I had my second tequila "shot" and proceeded to get very drunk. After chilling for a bit we headed back downstairs. We ran into these guys on the stairs and they kept saying hello and then asked if we understood japanese and I said tsukoshi. He got really excited about that and gave me a high five. The japanese seem to be really big on high fives. I seem to get a lot of them while at clubs.
When we were downstairs dancing another guy came up and talked to me for a while. It is so weird though, because guys just kind of talk to you for a bit and then go away. It is very confusing. Then there was another group of guys we were dancing next to for a while. One of them finally talked to me a little. I couldn't really tell since it was so dark, but he seemed like he was quite good looking. Oh, and Nandi said that while I was talking to him the creepy guy from the beginning was coming up to me. But when he saw me talking to another guy he gave a big sigh and then went away. He left me alone after that. But I kept trying to get the cute guy to talk to me more or dance with me, but he eventually left with his friends. Oh well. I still felt the night was quite successful. I got hit on by quite a few guys. I am really getting a lot more attention in Japan than I thought I would. It was really weird though, because I was the only one who had guys coming up and talking to me. I have no idea why I was the only one getting hit on. Maybe I flirt a lot while drunk without even realizing it.
So we ended up leaving around 5 am or so. We were going to try and find some food, but it was raining and we were tired so we decided to just head back to the dorm. Got back around 6:30 and proceeded to collapse into bed. I ended up waking up around 2 pm feeling a little hungover. Luckily I felt better by the evening for night out number two!
Harlem Night Two:
Okay, the reason we went back to Harlem a second time is that a couple other people were going to come with us who wanted to go though. But in the end, none of them ended up coming, so it was the same group. We could have gone somewhere else, but Megan and I had both picked up fliers that allowed us to get in with only a 1000 yen cover including 1 drink. We both wanted to take advantage of the cheap cover charge.
So we left pretty early because we had to get to the club before midnight to be able to get the cheaper cover. We once again had our water bottle of soju and Megan also bought a cup of sake at the conbini. It was a little glass of sake that a plastic cover on it. In the end, Megan and I were the only ones who ended up drinking on the way to the club. Also, at one point Megan poured some coke in to the sake to see if she could make it taste any better. Because of the carbonation, the top ended up exploding off of the cup. Luckily at the time she was carrying it in a plastic bag so it didn't get on any of us.
We got to the club a little bit before midnight and it was still fairly empty. So we just went to the bar and got some drinks and we chilled for a bit. I thought that I would start off the night slowly since it was still early so I only ended up having a smirnoff ice. Megan and I both were in a great mood, but both Nandi and Jennifer did not seem to be doing all that great. We ended up going up to the area upstairs when it opened. I got two of the of tequila shots while we were up there, so at that point I was ready to go and dance. Finally, Megan and I managed to get Nandi and Jennifer to come downstairs and dance.
One thing I appreciated about the dance floor was that it is quite dark. I was wearing this new shirt-dress I had bought with these patterned tights. The shirt-dress was quite short so at least with it being so dark I didn't have to worry about making sure it was always staying down. Pretty quickly a guy came up and started talking to me. But then his friends left the dance floor so he ended up leaving pretty quickly. After a little bit, this other guy came over to talk to me. I wasn't able to hear him because the music was so loud. So he ended up taking my hand and leading me off the dance floor. Luckily my friends followed because I knew I would never have been able to find them again if they hadn't. He ended up taking me to the stairway and asked where I was from and was saying that he was from South Korea. He said that his friend wanted to know my name, so I told him my name. Then he asked how old I was. I ended up just saying I was 20 and he was shocked at how young I was. I think that he was 25. But then he proceeded to ask for my number. I was a little creeped out that he asked me that after we had literally just met, but I told him that I didn't have my number memorized and that my phone was in my locker (which was actually true). Then he proceeded to ask if he could see me again. I wasn't really sure how to answer that so he eventually he just said that he hoped that we would meet again, so went downstairs and I found my friends and he found all of his. I thought that they were going to go on their way, but instead they all stayed and just started talking to us. I ended up talking to the guy who had pulled me away and his japanese friend (I think the one who wanted to know my name). Their other two friends seemed a bit more shy. Anyways, they both kept talking in japanese in front of me and I was trying to understand what they were saying. Then they kept pointing at me saying "cho kawaii!" to which I replied by shaking my head and saying no.
After talking to them for a bit the japanese friend offered to buy me a drink. I thought, why not. I think some of the others bought drinks for some of my friends as well. I ended up kind of on my own talking to all of the guys while my friends were off standing in the corner. I think at this point Jennifer and Nandi both were not in a good mood at all. I didn't really know what to do because I wanted to hang out with them and with our new friends. The guys kept suggesting that we go upstairs which I was fine with. So they kind of escorted me off and I kept motioning that my friends that they should follow, but they weren't. So I managed to stop the guys and went over to talk to my friends. They said that they would come up and find me in a few minutes. So I just went upstairs alone with my 4 new guy friends. It was a little awkward. But my friends did end up coming up fairly quickly and we were all talking together for a while. Japanese guy (can't remember his name...I think it was Ko...?) offered to buy me another drink so I had one more and then decided that I should stop. At that point I had drunk quite a bit. Japanese guy ended up disappearing for a while and I didn't really see him again. I am pretty sure he had a girlfriend as well, so that was fine. I am not sure why he kept buying me drinks though...When we were all hanging out one guy kept saying things like "most beautiful western girls I have ever seen!" and "you look like movie stars" which we found really amusing. And one of the Korean guys (who in my opinion was the cutest, though they were all cute) was like in love with Jennifer. He didn't speak any english and she doesn't really know any japanese so she really did see any point in giving him any hope. She also wasn't in the best mood. But boy was he persistent. I thought it was adorable. Megan and I at this point were both quite drunk and really wanted to dance. So we went off with the korean guy who had pulled me off the dance floor at the beginning and one of his friends. We said that we would be back soon. We probably shouldn't have split up but I didn't want to spend the whole night standing around. You know me when I get drunk: I wanna dance!
So the four of us headed down to the main dance floor. I actually almost lost megan, but my korean guy managed to find her. The four of us all just danced in a group for a little bit until my korean guy finally started dancing with me. I ended up dancing with him for a really really long time. Probably almost 2 hours. And the other guy eventually asked Megan to dance with him. Korean guy was also a really good dancer. Finally, the other korean guys and Nandi and Jennifer found us and joined us. There was this one really drunk guy who kept trying to dance with Nandi who she was just not interested in. I also kept trying to get Jennifer to dance with the guy who liked her, and I think she did end up dancing with him for a little bit. I am sure that really made his night.
We all stopped dancing probably around 4:30 or so and me and my friends went to the bathroom so that we could conference for a bit without the guys. They wanted to take us out to get food or something. We were planning to go get Denny's but we kind of just wanted to go alone. So we were trying to figure out ways to get rid of them. We figured if we gave them our numbers when we left that they might go away. It wasn't that we all disliked them, it was just we wanted to be able to have some time to hang out alone and not have to try to talk to them with the language barrier. My korean guy was actually the only one who knew english. They all knew japanese though. So we all left and as soon as we got out of the club they proceeded to get numbers. Jennifer obviously did not want to give her guy her number (she just didn't really see the point when they couldn't talk at all). She told him that she didn't have her phone and didn't have her number memorized. She did give in and give him an email address though. Megan gave her number to the guy she was dancing with and then I gave mine to my korean guy. We walked with them back to the station and then I told them that we were going to go off on our own. Korean guy finally left after I also gave him my email address as well. So then we parted ways and we headed off the Dennys. Got leered at by a couple groups of guys on the way there. After we ate we hopped on the train and went home. I was so exhausted by the time I made it back and was out cold until about 6 pm.
Surprisingly, both Megan and I heard from our Koreans about a day later. The emails/texts were hilarious. They were definitely not good at english. And Megan's korean really didn't know any english at all. She did get a couple texts from him in english but they sounded like they were translated on babelfish. Anyways, we were hearing from them for about a week and agreed to meet them on Sunday in Odaiba. We figured that it would be awkward, but also hilarious. We had spent the whole week comparing texts and laughing at what they wrote.
So the sunday "date" at Odaiba was exactly what we expected: awkward but hilarious. One of the difficult things was that Megan's korean did not know any english. He occasionally talked to me in Japanese but most of the time he just talked to my korean in korean. So in a way it ended up feeling like the two boys were on a date together and Megan and I were on a date together. Which really was fine. We still had a great time. Plus we didn't have to pay for anything. Neither of them had ever been to Odaiba before, even though they have been in Japan for quite a while, so they spent a lot of time being lost. Whenever Megan and I offered to help, they would say "we're not lost! we have a plan!". So we ended up wandering around the island mall, decks, and palette town. We always went on the huge ferris wheel. Lots of fun. Oh, and when we were at the Megaweb there were a bunch of crane games. There was one that had a package of cookies that was kind of teetering on the edge. So they decided they wanted to win it for us. They ended up spending 600 yen getting those cookies. It was pretty funny watching how intense they were about it. When we parted ways at the end of the day we had the most awkward goodbye. After Megan and I were out of sight we started cracking and being like "what just happened?". Overall though, it was a very amusing day. I am pretty sure it is the end of that though. Neither of us were actually interested in them, we just found the whole situation really amusing. It was definitely fun. Next time we go back to Harlem, Megan and I are going to find us some "b style" boys who both speak english well. That is our goal.
Anyways, that is the story with the Koreans. Every time I think about it I just cracking up. They were just so funny. Anyways, you wanted stories and you got stories. Hopefully the detailed descriptions did not bore you to death.