Travelling around Japan on my own sometimes got lonely. And contrary to what you may think, there were times when I could feel my Japanese getting worse, compared to when I was in Australia and using it every day. In fact, that’s probably the biggest problem with being completely independant and self-sufficient like I was – you don’t meet people the same as you would if you were staying at youth hostels every day. I learnt pretty quickly that if I didn’t make the effort, I could go a whole day without speaking a single word of Japanese.
So I was making an effort, every day, to strike up conversation with strangers. I used them, I guess, for the cultural exchange, to try out the new words and expressions I had just learnt, and, if it was a girl,… well, lets just say that girls can offer companionship to a traveller like me that perhaps Japanese men couldn’t. Sometimes they were easy targets, like the bored girl working the family restaurant where I was having lunch who had to talk to me because I was her customer. But usually they were just ordinary people – the customer next to me at Mr Donuts, the old man in the coin laundry, or the group of boys on their way home from school (no, not what you’re thinking).
Now, money was always a little tight while I was travelling, but I realised that there was no point in doing a complete paupers journey around Japan. It often hurt me to pay entrance for some of the attractions, but I figured that it was money well spent. I also allowed a bit of money in my budget for “cultural exchange” each week in the form of a couple of beers at a drinking establishment.
I had a bit of a pattern, whereby I would visit all the main tourist sights during the week, then on Friday and/or Saturday nights I’d try to stay the night in a small town without any major tourist attractions. I’d often find myself in an izakaya where the master or mama said I was the first foreign customer ever!
One such night was when I was in Tono, in Iwate-ken. Tono is known for its folklore which even today people believe in. It’s actually a larger town than I’d usually find myself in on a Saturday night, and there were plenty of tourists passing through. I managed to find a small izakaya a little out of the way and sat down and ordered the first of two beers that I had budgetted for.
Before I knew it the gentleman next to me and his friends, with whom I had initiated conversation, were offering me drinks and food. I had quickly noticed the dynamic of the group – it was an older man, the “sponsor,” with a group of four younger guys. Everyone was referring to the sponsor as “Sensei,” although when I enquired as to what kind of sensei he was (doctor, teacher, etc) they told me he was a Keiba Sensei – a master of the racetrack.
To be honest, I ended up having many nights out like this in Japan, where I would get taken under someone’s wing (usually a drunk person) and not be allowed to pay for a single thing the whole night. This particular night we went to five different establishments, and the Sensei picked up the tab at all of them. The group also changed along the way – someone would leave because they had to work the next day, but two other people would join the group because they had just finished work.
It was time to leave the first izakaya – Sensei was taking me for sushi, and he had already paid for my tab. The six of us made our way to a great little sushi joint where we ordered the “omakase” (let the sushi chef decide) who kept bringing out food until we said stop. The final bill was 5000 yen per person for just the food – thanks, Sensei! Gochisousama!
The third place we went to was a Snack. We drank and sang a few songs. I noted that the ugly snack mama’s relationship with Sensei was perhaps more than your standard customer/snack girl relationship, and my suspicions were confirmed when the final bill came to …. 0 yen! Thanks Sensei for having a relationship with the ugly snack mama!!
To me, a snack would usually signal the end of the evening, but things were just heating up for our little group. As I had mentioned before, some people had called it a night, and others were joining us, including some young girls. Some people in the group were hungry so it was time for ramen! And of course, more alcohol. My “quiet two beers” evening had turned into a beer-and-shochu-bonanza. I wasn’t going to be doing much sightseeing the next day.
The fifth and final place we went to was a Korean Yakiniku restaurant. Sensei was tired, and his snack mama girlfriend had finished work an wanted him to join her, so we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in contact. In fact, he said that when he woke up in the morning and went for his morning walk he would come by my van and we could have a walk and talk together. He didn’t actually come by (either that or I didn’t hear him knocking on my window at 7:30am) but I wasn’t really expecting him to, and I wasn’t sure I’d be up for the walk after a restless two-and-a-half hours sleep.
I think a lot of people who come to Japan and work as an English teacher don’t get the chance to experience this kind of system, where one person, the oldest or most senior, pays for everything. I got used to it when I was working at the hotel, but from what I have heard, English teachers prefer to get a decent salary rather than a smaller salary and people to take you out every other night.
