Of Kick-ass Boots and Great Hair

Another weekend is swiftly approaching, and another adventure awaits.  I thought that before I head out to new drinking fiasco's, I should update you on the last one.

Two weekends ago, or so, it was Ches' 30th birthday.  He is the PS for Himeji, and a bunch of us headed there to celebrate with him.  Merran (lovely girlie from OZ) was gracious enough to put us up for the night (5 of us, equals 6 sleeping in her small apartment).  I arrived early, so as to have some prep time.  How unlike me you say to: a) be early and b) get prepped!  How right you are!  Normally.  However, Merran and I had, on a previous night out, seen this cool Japanese chick with a faux-hawk.  It was sort of unofficially decided that we were going to pull of said look on our next big night out.  Well Merran was thinking that it would look silly for both of us to do it, and I was super keen, so did it I did.  Hence the prep time.  I youtubed a video on how to do such things, as I don't often take time to get ready to go out, and set about fixing myself up.  It took about an hour and a half, but it was so worth the effort.  There are pictures below, if you doubt my assertions. 

But before we get to all that...
Here are the killer boots I mentioned earlier.  They are reminiscent of a pair that I own and left in Canada.  However, unlike those other boots, which have a 4 inch heal, these I can walk in.  Not only that, they are actually really comfortable!  They look super rocking desu ne?   I like the military-ish look about them.  They are just punk rock enough to compliment my punk rock hair.   I threw them on with a pair of dark blue jeans, and this cool button up shirt I got from Danielle.  Throw on a multi-coloured scarf and your good to go!  The only problem was, with my hair up I couldn't wear my toque.  And it was cold that night in Himeji.  But, that is the price we pay for excellence.

Made a "fringe" from the tips.

Looks Rockabilly from the top.

So here is the do, from various angles.  These two photos I took with my phone.  The one below, I knicked from Merran's blog.  Which, by the way if you want to see how real blogging is done, you should check it out: http://kawaiihunter.blogspot.com/
Hmmm... I'm not sure how I feel about posting so many pictures of myself?  I'm not narcissistic, I'm a little uncomfortable.  But, it is all about the hair!

As Merran put it, "Bad Ass".

The night wasn't all about me, it was Ches's birthday after all.  So what kind of trouble did we get into?  Well, food was a good start.  Sadly no pictures of that (must of been too hungry).  Karaoke soon followed, which was great.  Ches did an fantastic rendition of Rapper's Delight, by the Sugar Hill Gang.  I know some of you think you don't know this song, trust me you do.  You just don't realize you know it.  I do have video documentation, but I've heard it may not be appreciated it if said video was posted.  I sang my go-to song, Take on Me, which is strange seeing as I cannot sing worth a marshmallow.  Thankfully, there is no video documentation of that.  The night was filled with the Beatles, Johnny Cash, Gwen Stefani, and Journey, to name but a few.  Merran and Ches, with the help of Jorell belted out an awesome version of Baby got Back.  Again, documented, but left off for the sake of friendship.  There is one video I am willing to share.  It was of our (their) Japanese friend singing a Japanese song.  His name is Takeshi, the song, not a clue.  But here you go.

Oh, before we joined the karaoke, we ran into some Japanese boys outside, Merran and Danielle had to finish their combini beer.  Japanese convenience stores (combini), truly are convenient!  They were six shades of Sunday, or whatever, but very friendly.  They mostly stood around and stared at us, and we at them.  Danielle conversed a little with them in Japanese (she is taking lessons and learning the language, unlike yours truly).  But they soon grew bored and staggered off.  However, I do think the one it the green jacket is super cute, and all of 21.  Ahhh, trials and tribulations of aging...

After the Karaoke bar we headed to a Latin Dance bar.  I had the opportunity to get my dance on, and had a great time for the short time we were there.  It wasn't so much a club as it was someone's basement rec room.  At least that is what it felt like.  It was quite dead and was pretty small.  But, if there is music, I care little for my surroundings.  However, others were not so dance inclined and we made out way out.  Just a little side note, this Latin club was own and staffed with Latinos, who spoke perfect Japanese and Spanish, but no English.  Sigh, they hailed from Peru originally.  I've been thinking about going to Peru.  Teaching there, learning some Spanish...maybe.

Well, after the club we made our way to this little bar.  Lots of people speaking Japanese, and drinking.  But also a fair amount of Gaijin.  It was fun, in a strange way; Japanese people practicing their English, English people practicing their Japanese.  Me watching it all unfold.  I did meet a nice Japanese guy, who spoke decent English and tolerated my lame attempts to say a few things in Japanese to him.  But I didn't get a picture.  Instead, I got a picture of me with the cute Japanese tattoo artist!  I loved him!  I was fascinated, and he spoke no English.  After the crazy hippie magician (don't ask) tried  to get him to take off his shirt to show me a tattoo, the cute Japanese tattoo artist high-tailed it to the far end of the bar.  However, on my way out, I stopped to stare and I admit to touch him.  I did it with the pretense of looking at the tattoos on his hands.  I didn't even attempt to speak, but all his mates around him were telling me that he was a tattoo artist.  Something the hippie magician already mentioned, but I listened intently anyways and nodded knowingly.  Now, if you know anything about the Japanese, they are not big on physical contact; no hand shaking, no kissing in public, nothing like that.  But this lovely man not only allowed me to grab both of his hands and turn them over to look at the ink, but to stroke the tattoos that covered the backs of his hands.  A moment I think I enjoyed more than he did.  But he was good-willed enough to indulge me in a picture before I tramped off into the snow.

The night was drawing to an end.  After an eventful walk home involving some ranting and chaos, which unfortunately is going to stay between the people involved, we bedded down for the night.  Or more accurately day, as I believe it was 7:30am by that time.  Can't wait for the weekend, this time we will be in Osaka.  Oh, the trouble we could get into here...