February 13th, 2005
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Nojuku, or three hours at Popeye
I’m in a net cafe in Kyoto. It’s a little after 2:00 am. The first train back to Takanohara is at 5:20, though that is a local train, and it’ll put me back in Nara still a good 40 minutes or so before the kind people lending my (unused) bed at their house wake up.
So, I’m in Kyoto. In a manga-kissa (internet and comic cafe). You can rent a little space, with varying degrees of privacy in increasing cost, for a nominal fee. You get all the internet, comics, and drinks you can take, and the fancier ones, (like this) have a shower room. It’s basically a really compact hotel for about nine or ten dollars. The only down side is people smoking in here. I guess I should have paid the extra three bucks for a private booth. Oh well.
I intentionally passed on the last train to spend time with Nobue. She got off work later than planned so we couldn’t get together until about half past nine, which left us with under two hours if I was to go back to Nara. I kind of knew that I couldn’t get her to stay out all night (no one ever can anymore), but I didn’t care. Initially I thought I’d just crash at the love hotel near Yasaka-jinja that I stayed at the time we were here together and she got sick, but somehow I managed to go through a hell of a lot of money today (leaving little left for my train ticket back to Tokyo), and I’m really not all that tired right now actually. I can probably make it to the first train without too much trouble.
I kind of wanted to get back to Nara tonight so I could spend more time with Rodney and Noriyo, but assuming I don’t sleep but half an hour on the train, I guess I’ll get that anyway. So much for a restful vacation.
Everyone has their reasons, but I actually haven’t been out all night with someone in quite some time. A lot of people I go out with say they’re too old for it, but I guess if they think that, then it’s probably true. I need to make younger friends, perhaps.
I kind of have this complex, or something, where I get incredibly hyper as time goes on. There’s this strange mix of alcohol, food, genki (stamina) drinks and self-will that just drives me on in situations like this. The down side is I don’t really like just sitting and talking for too long. That drains me more than anything. I can’t count the number of times though I’ve been dying for playing wiffle ball in a park at three a.m. I want to run, I want to shout, I want to sing and catch and hug and scream and dig all of the energy just radiating from every thing around me. But I’m pretty much alone on this… so far.
I’ve written about five thousand things in the paper journal my mom’s neighbor gave to me before I came to Japan. I’ll have to type them all in here when I run out of original things to say. For now though I think this will be an interesting experiment to just kind of keep up on my three hours here. I’m not typing nonstop or anything, it’s already 2:54, but I’m taking it in, chatting a little, and reflecting on the rat’s nest in my head.
I’m listening to ETN (formerly ets-global), on some real shitty Aiwa headphones. I think I’m going to have to unhook these and put on my beat Pioneers that I picked up the first time I went to Akihabara. I already have enough headache from wearing my contacts which are now too weak a prescription.
Frank van `t Ende – Deeply in Trance 041 is really good. Even though it has virtually no vocals, there is a really kicking tinging and bass thing going on.
Ok, my thoughts are kind of degenerating past the point where I want to type them into the computer. I suppose you could call this melancholy. Or I could be getting tired. Maybe it’s time to get up and grab some of that great Popeye coffee.
