Originally, I intended to write about my circle experience but after I read back my previous blog, I realized that there's a story that was left hanging and that is the welcoming party story. The event happened about a month ago. I was the only foreigner who attended the party because it was a circle party for Japanese student generally. I really wanted to join the circle because the circle seems interesting for me and I think I can learn a lot by joining the circle. BTW, the circle mainly about programming, creating apps and using software so that are the reasons why I wanted to join the circle even if I am the only foreigner and the dumbest in the circle(T_T).
The party started at around 7pm and it was held at Izakaya(Japanese style restaurant) near my house. Literally near my house because it only took like 4 minutes by walking and maybe less than a minute by bicycle minus the traffic light. Honestly it was an awkward party and yet interesting experience for me since that was the first time I ate at Izakaya. I had to sit on the floor and the place was quite small packed with about 40 guys++ from my circle and other different group of people as well(more than 10 people). I sat like literally in front of Beer corner. I don't know why I ended up sitting there considering that I don't drink beer but maybe because the place was empty and it was sort of near to the exit and there was people that I knew sitting there so I ended up sitting there despite the place was near Beer corner.
So here's the very umm.. I would say fangirling part. T sat on the same table as I am!!😍T literally sat in front of me on the left side. Basically not really in front of me but T sat in a position where it was accessible within my eye range😂In that party, I saw T drank beer for the first time. In the previous party, T did not consume alcoholic drink because T drove to get to the party place but this time T came by bus. Honestly, my heart broke a little as I saw T gulped down the beer because since I don't drink alcoholic drink, I was hoping the person that I like would adopt the same lifestyle as I am but nevertheless it was still a sight that couldn't be missed. Despite my heart broke a little, I was slightly intrigued by the way T gulped down the beer. Cool or in Japanese they would say kakkoii.
The party went on and the peak was the eating session and also exchanging friends session. My favourite was of course eating session because I love eating so much that just by eating I can be as happy as a little child who always get their ways. I couldn't eat the meat that was served there and the food that I could eat was mostly seafood-based or plant-based food. T asked me like is there any time where I can drink alcohol or I couldn't drink at all and me with my broken Japanese falsely told T sometimes I drink alcohol and T was literally shocked and I was shocked too and I realized that it wasn't the right answer so I told T no I don't drink at all. I wanted to tell something else but I ended up delivering wrong message due to my Japanese vocab limitation. Silly me. Actually I wanted to tell T that generally people don't drink but there are still people who drink but instead of saying that I ended up telling T that I sometimes drink. LOL😂😂
T also asked me why I didn't eat the chicken and before I could answered it, T uttered the answer. I didn't know if T was disappointed as to why I have so many restrictions but I replied
"It's okay. Since I cannot eat the chicken, you can eat more chicken, right?" <- in Japanese
and T laughed shyly. I didn't know whether T laughed shyly or simply laughed without any hidden emotion but my mind told me T was laughing because of shyness. I was only stating the truth though. They should bring me out to eat often because they can eat the portion that I don't eat like meats which they love so much.
The party was great until the exchange friends session which I didn't like so much but I still had fun at the very end of the session(probably 5 minutes before the party was over). Earlier I sat with T and friends that I know but this time I sat in a group where I literally didn't know any of them and had never seen their face before. It was awkward and the senior who was sitting beside me(God knows who he is but I don't), probably he didn't like me as much or he was just simply drunk. I couldn't tell. The saddest part about Japanese culture is they have the high tendency to use alcohol as a medium to communicate with people easily but from my observation, alcohol could make or break you. It depends on people I think. He was friendly enough to speak with me at first but then as he consumed more alcohol, he became more passive and started telling me or us that he was sleepy. He ended up scrolling his phone and ignored me. In a table, there were about 6 people sitting and talking together. The senior sat in the middle and I sat on his right side. On his left side, there's a guy who was genuinely interested to speak with me about my country because he had been there before but because the senior had never been to other countries before, the topic was out of the question. The guy who sat in front of the senior also had been to my country before even it was a really really short visit and he was eager to share his experience too but since the senior who SAT BESIDE ME has never been to other countries before, we couldn't talk about it. The other reasons why I probably don't like the senior so much was because he was annoyed at me for keep speaking casually. I didn't realized it at first but since he was giving me gestures like speaking under his breath about his friend being a senior and me keep speaking casually, I realized he didn't like it that I was speaking casually with them. Probably he demanded me to speak formally all the time since him and his friends are seniors. It was my fault though for being careless but the interesting part was his friend was born the same year as I am but because he was born in January, he could join the school with the people who were born in previous year.
The reason why I knew those two person wanted to talk me at least during that time was after the senior got up and went somewhere else, they asked me about my country and told me their experience when they were visiting my country. It was a happy moment because I could listen to many stories that were related to me and we could share many similarities. Unfortunately, that moment only lasted for about 5 minutes as T got up from his seat and told everyone the party was over and the bus had already arrived.
So that's the story about me joining a circle welcoming party at Izakaya. It wasn't really an interesting experience to tell but it was an unforgettable experience for me because ever since the senior expressed his unsatisfaction as I keep speaking casually, I'm more careful with the way I speak ever since that day. BTW, in Japan if you're speaking with someone who has higher status than you like your teacher or your boss or someone who's older than you, you should speak formally with them. Of course, there are some Japanese who doesn't really mind about the formalities or the Japanese that would excuse you for speaking casually because you are a foreigner but there are also some Japanese who would demand you to speak perfectly like them or like how their juniors talk to them.
That's all from me.
Bye~
JINN
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