Tokyo nights

To eat or not to eat whale, that is the question

So the boyfriend and I don't tend to fight a lot over philosophical issues. It's commonly understood that he has his opinions (which are wrong) and I have mine. The only thing I tend to get vocal about is the whaling situation in Japan.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not some bleeding heart liberal who petitions for the preservation of marshlands or donates a large chunk of my salary to the WWF or chains myself to trees. I'm too busy being selfish to save the rest of the world. But I do believe hunting whales is unnecessary.

When the whole controversy of Japan's Taiji dolphin hunt blew up earlier this year my boyfriend started ranting about everyone's dislike for Japan and the "experimental" whaling it does. "You wouldn't care if the animals weren't cute!" he accused. Oh contraire mon ami. I don't think whales or dolphins are cute. In fact, I don't know many people who could look at the barnacle covered skin of a humpback whale and say "Awwww, isn't it the most pwecious widdle thing?"

So I told him flat out that blaming national disapproval on the whole  "don't kill it because it's cute" argument wouldn't cut the mustard. Then he started arguing that hunting whales is a tradition of Japan and they should preserve it as part of their cultural heritage. Woopdeedo. Committing suicide was part of your heritage too. Should we continue with that? Oh wait, I forgot. That's what delays my train several times a month.

We argued back and forth until I brought out my ace, "You do know a lot of whale meat in supermarkets is mislabeled right? You're really buying dolphin meat." *boyfriend looks surprised* "And that dolphin meat has a mercury content 37 times higher than what is considered safe for humans?" *boyfriend looks more shocked* "Just like Tuna." *brow of boyfriend furrows* The rest of the conversation went as follows:

Boyfriend: Wait a minute! Tuna has a high mercury content?

Me: Yes.

Boyfriend: Like in Minamata?

Me: Exactly.

Boyfriend: That itaiitaibyou or whatever it was called?

Me: *slowly* yeeeesss.

Boyfriend: Wow. Maybe I'll stick to salmon. But we should still be allowed to hunt whales!!!

Me: *sigh* Whatever.

The two good things about teaching in an Eikaiwa

Yes, there are only two.

The first is the long Christmas holiday you get. This is a bonus considering that Christmas is just another work day in Japan and most employers are not interested in whether it "goes against your religion" to work on this day. So, while your friends with with better benefits and higher salary jobs are slaving away in the office, you are back home eating turkey sandwiches on your parents' couch and watching infomercials.

The second good thing about being a teacher in an eikaiwa is the free gifts you get from your students. Not a week goes by that at least one student hasn't been away on vacation somewhere. Now, while they may not feel like bringing me home a present from France, Greece, Egypt or the like, one of their classmates did it last week so they now feel obligated to do the same (isn't guilt wonderful?). So, I receive an interesting mix of food (mostly desserts....which explains the weight gain since I started teaching), strange bookmarks, postcards, etc. I occasionally strike gold with cool bottles of wine, sake, bath salts, silk scarves, kanzashi, bags and the like.

Do these reasons make me sound like a selfish bitch who's only interested in material gain? Maybe. But when you realize the crap that most eikaiwa teachers put up with, I think you'll see I'm justified in celebrating the two things that make going in to work a little more bearable.  So let me sit on my high horse and enjoy my "rare, famous" cookies from Kyushu.

The number one reason I love living in Tokyo

So, to try out the blog, I'm going to talk about the number one reason I'm SO happy I moved here. Why? Because posting the 1000 reasons I hate Tokyo takes too long!

So the number one reason is......Kabukicho (歌舞伎町)!!! Why? Because at any time you may run into a few little hosts on their way to work (or hustling in the streets). There's nothing that gets my blood moving faster than a shortie-long back hairstyle and a pair of razor thin pointed boots! The lamé suits also amuse me to no end.

Often host clubs do not encourage foreign women to enter. This may be due to racism, or it could be that the hosts are just terrified of having to practice a language they haven't used since they graduated from high school. Whatever the reason, I usually don't get many fliers when I'm walking down the street (please do not ascribe this to the fact that I'm SO unattractive that no host will give me one...because that will only confirm my greatest fear).

Being curious about host clubs and what REALLY goes on there (they can't all be like the tv dramas, can they?) I started asking around. Turns out one club, Acqua is VERY friendly to foreigners. They also have their own band (made up of the staff, of course) and give out a video to loyal customers (which you can youtube search as "club acqua"). Please note, the videos are NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Naked men, showers, need I say more?

Now, having knowledge of a club in Kabukicho (my favorite place) that accepts the western ladies, I am determined to go. My pal D wants to go for her birthday in January and I needed no promting to agree. So I am saving my pennies to splurge on the (educational) experience of a host club.

For those of you in Tokyo who are interested (or the curious outside of Japan) take a gander at the official site of Acqua here.

A little eye candy for you. Click on the picture to enlarge: