So here I am, before I know it, back in the Land of the Rising Sun. Thursday morning at 5am (Japan time) I left Sasebo for a 2 hr bus ride to Fukuoka. From Fukuoka I took a 2 hr flight to Narita airport near Tokyo. From Narita I went directly to JFK 12 hrs. Due to the International Dateline I arrived in NY on Thursday morning at 11am; really weird.
Thursday was one of the strangest days, emotion-wise, I have ever felt. Partly due to the fact that I arrived in New York the same day and time that I left Japan, and partly because I knew this was going to be only a 3 day trip and I would disappear back to Japan in no time really put a skew on things. Looking out the window at the beautiful, stretched beaches of Long Island as the plane approached its landing instantly made me feel welcomed home. Within minutes I had my mom and dad in my arms, embracing their loving hug I last felt since February.
The first point of destination was to get some good old American food; Subway! Just the ease of ordering a chicken breast footlong sub with double meat and the works was incredibly refreshing. Next was to the doctor's office for a quick check-up. This was perhaps not the best idea considering there is always a guaranteed frustrating 1hr wait before seeing the doctor. For the first time while being in America, I felt a thorough culture shock. Whereas I'm used to being in a somewhat quiet hegemonic society with people who are of the same background, I was in a loud waiting room surrounded by white, black, spanish people of various shapes and sizes. For some reason I kept thinking, "Why is everyone talking so much?", and started to feel out of place. Of course America is unique for its blending of various cultures and races, but just seeing it in this perspective really made it clear how different it actually appears to a foreigner.
The rest of Thursday was spent doing some errands, talking with my neighbor, and all the relatives who came to visit for the weekend. That night I went to my brother's (Chris) house to see his new apartment and we spent the night hanging out together before the wedding on Friday.
Friday was the wedding day. As Chris and dad went to the wedding hall to drop off some equipment, they dropped me off at the mall. I don't know why but I was like a magnet for the random stalls in the mall. One lady made me try on about 20 pairs of sunglasses before I actually agreed to buying one. Another girl stopped me to ask me about the Dead Sea, I told her I knew all about it (which I don't) and she started to ask me all these questions in this pretend sexy voice in a strange accent. I figured I had some time to kill before Chris came back, so why not talk with the pretend sexy voice foreign girl. She washed my hands with this salt like stuff then put shea butter cream on my hands and let me tell you, my hands felt the cleanest they ever felt.
"Now tell me, how beautiful do your hands feel?", she says.
"Uh, great, I guess.", I replied.
"Great? More like fantastic, wonderful, amazing!" ^_^
"Sure. Amazing. They feel amazing." T_T "So my next question is, how much do they cost?"
"Normally they are $100, but today is special promotion."
"Every day is a special promotion."
"Today is 60 dollars. "
"ooo sorry I only have 30 dollars on me. Actually 25, because I'm really hungry."
"Ok my friend," As she inches closer to my ear. "I will do something special for you today."
"Yea? Really? For me?", with an "excited" expression on my face.
"For you," She was practically chewing on my ear at this point. "40 dollars!"
"I literally just said and showed you I have 30 dollars. I'll give you 25."
"I cannot do such a thing, that is too low my friend."
"Thanks for the free hand wash, I'll see ya later." And me and my freshly cleansed hands parted ways with her.
After the mall, my dad, Chris and I all got shaves at the barber. That was a pretty cool experience. Boris was a little rough with the razor and shaved parts of my skin off, but afterwards my face felt almost as good as my hands did. Moving on to the wedding, we arrived at the house, got dressed up and ready to go, and the limo picked up Chris, myself, and the other guys chosen for the wedding party and drove us to the church. We got to the church met with the deacon and he kept calling Chris "Vincent" for some reason. I didn't say anything because I thought since I missed the rehearsal, maybe that was like some code name given to him for the ceremony (I blame video games for my naivety on that). The ceremony itself was incredible. Christine (the bride) looked gorgeous. Everyone in the wedding party was so tense from excitement and nerves. As the best man, I came out with Christine's sister and stood next to my brother. When Christine walked down the aisle I almost lost it. Chris appeared to be holding strong, until I later found out that he was close to passing out at that moment.
After the ceremony we went to Cedar beach to take some photos and from there went to the party at Lombardi's on the Sound in Port Jefferson with the other 120 guests. The cocktail hour consisted of 13 different stations, ranging from sushi bar, to mashed potato bar, to lamb stand, to eggplant parmesan. Of course there was a bar with an eagerly awaiting bartender ready to intoxicate all the guests. After cocktail hour, everyone moved into the main dining area for dinner. The wedding party did the self introductions and myself and Christine's sister did a choreographed spin as our names were called to enter.
Once everyone entered the hall, I was set to make my Best Man Speech. Before I could start, I was antagonized to speak Japanese, so I just said a simple, 『皆さん今晩は、今日は特別な日で、私の兄の結婚式です。結婚式に参加してくれて本当にありがとうございまいした。』"Good evening everyone, today is a special day, my older brother's wedding. Thank you very much for participating in the party." I then proceeded with my speech, which I may post a rough copy of on the blog. After the speech we indulged in a wonderful dinner and danced like maniacs for about 4 hours until the party was over. Within that dancing time, Chris played a song that he wrote for Christine with his guitar. It was really impressive that he played the song perfectly in front of a group of people that he actually knows. The party ended about 1230am and we returned to the house to relax and I gave my neighbor his birthday presents because Friday was also his birthday.
Saturday was the last day in New York, so I made appoint to take full advantage of it. I met with one of my buddies for lunch, caught up with a few people on the phone, worked out at the house with my dog, and got ready for a big party night. That night I went to the club with 6 friends to see one of our favorite record labels. The club was in the basement of the Hudson Hotel. So you walk in to the building, go to the left, show your ID, buy a ticket, and proceed down several flights of stairs into the basement. As you walk through the hallway, the wallpaper on the walls gradually disappears and become concrete graffiti filled. Then you walk through a door to the bar area. In this room you can hear the music, but not really sure where it's coming from. If you proceed to walk straight there is an opening and in the room next to the bar area is a HUGE open area which used to be a basketball court. It's filled with couches, lights, big screens, and a nice sized platform for the DJ and his entourage. The beats were wild, the dancing was crazy, the people were out of their minds. We left the part at about 530, returned home at roughly 630, and I packed up my stuff and got on a plane out of the country.
What a weekend to say the LEAST. Now I must return to the real world for now, and teach my students with a new motivation. I didn't lose any time seeing my Tuesday students and while they proceeded to continue their daily tasks for the week before our next meeting, I flew across the world, went to a wedding, partied my face off and came back. I'm not sure if I will be able to face them the same way from here on out, but only time will tell.
See you on the next post !
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