Date Night

Probably after about 3 or 4 weeks, my girlfriend and I were finally able to go out for an afternoon/evening together. Before the move, she was busy finishing up her thesis, while I was busy finishing up with school and doing the packing/preparing to move. 

Before we headed out, we went to the station to enquire about purchasing a commuter pass (定期券). I used one when I was in Kyoto for my studies back in 2014, and I remember that it was a bit more involved to get the pass in that I needed to not only fill out a paper form, but had to provide proof of where I lived and why I needed to go to my destination. Even then, I could only use that pass for the one subway line. 

Since I need to take two different train lines to get to my work and one of which is not a JR line, I was a little bit concerned that I would have to pay for two separate passes. Nope, turns out, I could purchase a pass that could be used for both lines. On top of that, I didn't need to fill out any form this time; it was all done at the station's terminals where you normally purchase tickets/recharge your pass. All I had to do it was input the station I will leaving from, to the final destination station, and also inputting the station I was going to be changing lines. Finished it off with my name and phone number, and I was good to go. My new commuter pass isn't as cheap as the one I got in Kyoto, but it's still cheaper in the long run. I'll roughly be saving about 3000-4000 yen (roughly $30-$40) a month as a result. Of course if I bought a 3 or 6 monthly commuter pass, I would be saving more. However, as this is my first month, and I haven't got my final pay from my previous employer yet (not until the 25th), I just went for the 1 month commuter pass. 

Anyway, after sorting out my commuter pass, we went to my city's main station (I live near a smaller station that's 2 stops away from the main one) and decided to walk along the main strip to see what's around. My girlfriend looked at a bunch of stores, and I had a look at one store that, among other things, sold some international snacks, including some honeycomb chocolate made in South Australia. I didn't realise it had been at least 3 years since I had some honeycomb chocolate, so I purchased a bag of it. Yeah, it's not Violet Crumble, but it's just about the same thing. 

We had some time to kill before dinner, so we decided to go to karaoke for an hour. What we found surprising was that there was at least 3 karaoke places along the strip. In addition, they seemed to be really cheap, even with drink bar included, at least compared to my previous city. Though most likely because of the system we chose at karaoke in the past, the karaoke place we went to had a greater selection of songs.

After karaoke, we headed to a nearby yakitori place. From experience, yakitori restaurants' dishes are usually cheap individually, but it does build up the more you order. Regardless, it's was pretty good. 

We headed back around 8 p.m. after a quick train trip. We both had fun, especially since it had been a while since we had a "date night." We hope another opportunity to go out there again during the upcoming Golden Week. We're looking to get a vacuum cleaner for the apartment, and I'm looking to get to get some new shoes that will be good for the rain too. 

歌を歌うよ

While there are many things that I like about Japan compared to my home country, probably one that has stood out for me is karaoke. Affordability and atmosphere are probably the two things that really stand out compared to back home.

Where I live in Australia, while there are a few places to go for Karaoke, there's always something wrong - it's either pricing or a very limited song list to songs that are nearly a decade old. For the worse of the two types, the price is ok, but I just do not enjoy it. The other place that my friends and I go for Karaoke is usually really pricey, not to mention that when you request for the Japanese system when booking, they don't bother to tell you until the day you turn up that the Japanese system has been broken for a few days - and this has happened when my friend made a booking for her birthday a few months back. 

However in Kyoto, it's just so much more fun - pricing is pretty decent. For about the equivalent of $15 for myself and friends, we get all we can drink for about a good 5-6 hours (aka 飲み放題/nomihoudai - literally 'bottomless cup'). The only catch was that at this particular place they don't serve alcohol, so it's BYO - but given that alcohol is ridiculously cheap and can easily be bough from convenience stores (there was one right next door to karaoke), that's really not a problem at all. Furthermore, the song selection is so much better than what you can get back home. While it was possible to play Japanese songs, it was never extensive as here (but then again, I am in Japan, so, duh). What was even more interesting, I could get more Weird Al songs than back in Australia, even if it's only just "Fat" and "Eat it" and I enjoy those songs. 

Some of you are probably asking - Can I sing? The answer is no, no I can't.

I'm good at songs that require screaming. Lots and lots of screaming. That's why I love some of JAM Project's and Hironobu Kageyama's songs (especially Gate of the Hell and Super Survivor respectively). Even more interesting is that they have some vocaloid songs available for selection. I found a couple of Luka Megurine songs when I went to karaoke for the first time, but alas - I cannot sing any of them that well, especially "ggrks" given that you need a guy (aka Gakupo) and a girl (aka Luka) to sing it - and I cannot switch between the two very well >.>.

That's my highlight of the week. Until next time, じゃね。