Friday came and went leading into Saturday. After spending most of the day lazing around the dormitories and enjoying the curry soup I'd made I decided that evening was going to be spent doing something around Hikone. We'd decided it best to stay in Hikone that weekend to allow us the time to get to know the city in which we were going to spend the next 3 months before venturing off to other places. So I got in touch with a few people and we hopped on our bikes and went over to watch the sunset on the beach. After talking we thought about going to Karaoke for the evening. One of the girls mentioned there being a place just down the street from where we were and I suggested we go exploring to see how much that way we could get a group together and go spend the evening stressing our underused vocal chords.
As we were walking we made it a good 3/4's of the way down the long road when we came upon a group of people. One of the men shouted out in Japanese "Hey what are you doing?" I responded without even thinking that we were searching for a karaoke place. The man laughed signaling down the street before stating that the karaoke place we were searching for wasn't of the youngest of crowds, and that we'd enjoy ourselves more at his bbq. With peaked interest I stated that we would go check out the karaoke, and if it was no good we'd get our friends and join them at the bbq. The man smiled and said he'd see us soon. We walked a little further, and with no luck of finding the place walked back to the beach and talked with our other friends to see what they would wanna do. The decision was almost unanimous. The chance to experience a real Japanese bbq with locals and test out our language skills was not to be denied.
So we made our way back and were quickly greeted with plenty of food and beer and warm welcoming smiles. One of the guys at the bbq started up some conversation asking if we were students at the "Michigan Nihon Center," the Japanese name for JCMU, in which we replied yes. They asked how long we'd been in Japan, I responded just under a week. I asked them exactly what they were eating, and they quickly made me and the others a large portion of meat and veggies with what they called "sarada" (salad) which tasted oddly enough like salsa, and that's when the night kicked off. Four hours of eating, chatting and drinking ensued in which I surprised myself at just how well I could communicate in Japanese. I also received several compliments from the people with whom we'd been invited by. Of course the first three times or so were lies, as it is customary for the Japanese to tell you that you're good at something (especially speaking Japanese) when in fact you're not, because they are a society of "making nice." But after the fourth or fifth time from each one, I couldn't help but think that perhaps I really am somewhat talented at speaking Japanese. Not to mention the compliments from classmates who were shocked to find out that I'd only been placed in level 2.
As the night progressed and everyone became either a little sleepier from a full stomach, or a little happier from the alcohol, I decided it was time to head back. Through out the night, though, I'd been given little hints into the world that these 6 locals had come from. Dragons tattooed on each one of them (tattoos in general are not a "Japanese thing" but that specific design is a stereotypical trait) their mannerisms, as well as several other factors keyed me into the fact that I, as well as six of my classmates, had just had the experience of a lifetime, and had spent several hours enjoying the company of Yakuza members. Yakuza being the Japanese mafia. Sounds dangerous I'm sure, but I can assure you we were not placed anywhere near harms way, except perhaps for my roommate trying to ride her bicycle home and falling off it four times in her drunken stupor, thus skinning her knee. We were all, in fact, completely safe. Although it does make for a story to tell and an experience like no other, not something everyone gets to do when they come to Japan that's for sure...
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