shiza shistasu, pod-life and rabid labradors

Yay! Mania mania mania!

By the time last Friday came I was worried I would be too exhausted to enjoy the Scissor Sisters concert, having had only 3 hours sleep for 3 nights in a row, 5 the night before that, 3 the night before that, etc... (you get the picture). And then I found out I had to get the bus to Osaka at 7:18am- AM! I nearly cried! So after another crap night of sleep and a 3 hour bus journey I arrived in the city. A few hours mooching around shops and cafes later, we'd all met up and were on our way. Part of the deal with this trip was that it was Saddam's birthday, and she was probably the most excited by far although we weren't sure what to expect. Well, being Japan things were done differently. The concert was in a small club (size- 800 people) and the doors opened at 6pm. Early, we thought. And when we got there we were told that you had to queue in order of your ticket number, so we made a vague attempt to find our place in the queue and then some nice people just let us push in. So we got in, got a drink, started dancing to the really cool music the DJ was playing (all electroclash stuff), bumped into people we knew from the Tokyo orientation (there was a heavy western quotient at the concert) and at 7pm, the Scissor Sisters came on.

Now I'd not heard the Scissor Sisters album before the concert. I had heard their singles way before they were popular and liked them, but somehow missed out on buying the album. And I didn't hesitate in buying it after the show. They were amazing. I thought I'd have a good time, but the two leads, Jake Shears and Ms Ana Matronik were charismatic, cool, and obviously having a real good time. And the small club made it feel like it was one big party. The Japanese crowd was excellent too. A lot of us wondered how they would react, given our stereotyped images of Japanese people, but they were crazy and really got into it.

And then it was 8:45 and it was over. In my head it felt like 11:30, but it was only 8:45. So we went to a cafe place that sold western food (sandwiches, fry-ups, and the like) and it was good. But too small for our group, so many had to stand. From there we went to a nasty bar full of hungry looking western men and western girls dressed like hookers who made an effort to look especially cheap and trashy. No, I didn't like it. And I wasn't the only one. Yay! Then it was onto a club where, it seemed, lots of people from the bar had gone. Fortunately the company was great throughout, otherwise it would have been horrible. A few of us left around 1:45 and headed back to the capsule hotel. This was hilarious. A 6 foot long pod (maybe 3 feet high?) with radio and TV (complete with "adult" channels- and I don't mean CNN when I say that) and a nice roller-blind door. You put your stuff in a locker which contains towels and nightwear (a Japanese robe) and shuffle around in indoor slippers. They have an onsen-bath, showers and a sauna, you can check in at 3 and you leave at 10 am. All for the bargain price of 12pounds and 50pee. Cheaper than a youth hostel. I'll be back.

After a day with Kathleen on Sunday and a sleep filled bus journey, and then 8 hours of sleep in my own bed (hurray! Hurrah!) it was Monday night and time for dance. AbSlance picked me up on the way to Johanna's via Marui supermarket to buy food. Leaving Marui we drove past a restaurant car park where a woman was slumped on the ground and a dog was standing around her, as if protecting her. And people were looking from their cars and doing nothing, so we pulled up and ran, thinking she needed help. She wasn't unconscious, and somehow I managed to ask in Japanese, "do you need an ambulance" while AbSlance started dialing. She didn't. The dog had moved away, but was now barking, and then she said something and it made sense. She was scared of the dog who must have pushed her to the ground and she stayed there to play dead hoping he'd leave her alone. So, realising the dog was far enough away, she stumbled to the restaurant to alert someone. Meanwhile the dog (it was a lovely black labrador) came back wagging it's tail with a big raised strip of hair on it's back. Ooh, it's angry. AbSlance realised before I did that the dog wasn't best pleased- I was too busy smiling at it and making stupid noises. But I think that may have helped because it barked and came right up to me but didn't actually do anything to me and then lost interest when I was walking away slowly. As we got back in the car some men from the restaurant cam out and tied it back up- it had broken free from where it was chained.

After that bit of excitement dance class was a good way to relax. And yay! I slept again! Except I overslept, despite my alarm going off at 6:50am, I pressed snooze so many times it decided it had had enough, and then I woke up at 7:50. Oops! 10 minutes late and feeling exhausted. What a way to start the day!