Griddable » 誠心会に再（飲）会 – Drinking again with my Karate circle

誠心会に再（飲）会 – Drinking again with my Karate circle

Monday, April 19th, 2010 in: News, Travel

I’ve often said that in the amazing experience of studying abroad there were two things that stood out; homestay and group activities. Group activities sounds a little vague because I belonged to a few different groups, but my main extracurricular was in 誠心会， a Wado-ryu Karate circle.

The previous night being an unanticipated オール（all-night) jaunt to 2-chome, I woke up with a splitting headache and acute photosensitivity; I was unable to remove my sunglasses even indoors. I’m not s huge fan of hangovers so I’m glad I rarely get them. I had to find my way to Maria’s apartment in Ebisu, which meant I had to do a lot of walking with this hangover, carrying all of my belongings on my back. it was super fun!

When I finally arrived at Maria’s I curled up into a ball on the couch and promptly lost consciousness. My phone awoke me; it was my old captain, Maisa. “The nomikai starts around 7, can you make it in time?” Yeah, no problem, I assured her. What time is it now? “um, 6:30.”

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!

Fortunately it wasn’t such a terrible journey, and for the most part my headache had subsided, though I was about to go pump more migraine-fuel into my head… I was only a few minutes late to the party. Tsubuku met me at the station and exchanged our “hisashiburi!”s on the way to the izakaya that the circle had made into its home base in recent years. Almost everyone from the circle was there; I’m terrible with names but the faces were all familiar, with the exception of the recent additions. Lots of first and second-year students had filled the ranks, and their deference to me was a little unnerving. This was the first time I really felt like an OB (old boy, club alumni). It was kind of nice. The only guy missing from the crowd was Otsuka, a nice guy I remembered well; he had to move to Oita prefecture in Kyushu for his work. Jun-yon (one of the girls, a Bekka student at Waseda who had since graduated and was working for Sony in Tokyo) called him up and handed me the phone. He was apologetic for not responding to the nengajo I sent after I’d gone home “We talked about replying so many times but it never happened, I’m so sorry!” I assured him it’s ok, and I was just happy they got my note and wanted to respond.

When Maisa arrived, she descended the staircase into the izakaya with an almost cartoonishly badass swagger. She was wearing motorcycle leathers and swung around a helmet, but her badassery was betrayed when she sat down and I noticed her nails had been elaborately done. “Yeah I’m getting married, remember?” she brushed it off as she pulled stacks of cigarette boxes from her bag and started handing them out. She works for JT, the Marlboro of Japan, so she was practically throwing samples at everyone. It was quite a sight.

Shortly thereafter, Mitsumori-san also arrived. A skinny guy with a unique fashion sense, his appearance is deceptive as I would consider him one of the best fighters from my time at the circle. His confidence and comfort led to a very relaxed stance, but as it lulled you into a false sense of safety, his strikes were fast and accurate. He was surprised that I remembered him in such detail. Memory’s a funny thing, I tell him. What part of the brain allows me to remember faces and details so well, but things like names slip through the cracks?

The nomikai ended and it was late but I wanted to continue catching up with everyone so I went to the 二次会， second party at another izakaya, catching one of the last trains back to Ebisu. Everyone’s parting comments were the same: “Come back to Tokyo and we’ll go drinking again!”