Friday Night

Since the whole festival rumor turned out to be false, I went with another big group into Hachioji to wander around. Ended up going to a bar and getting some excellent (if not at all manly) drinks. Bars in Japan seem to have their own version of a service charge where everyone is given a small appetizer and charged an exorbitant price for it (i.e. 300 yen for a tiny bowl of vegetables). I'm not too bothered by it, though, since you don't have to give tips here.

There were 12 of us there (doing the cool traditional seating where you take off your shoes) and since we didn't want to ask them to split the bill, I volunteered to pay it off and just have everyone pay me back. It took a little while, but I'm pretty sure everyone payed me what they owed, and now I have an absurd amount of coins (the smallest bill here is 1000¥, and most people didn't spend that much)

I think I'm gonna go back on Sunday with just one or two other people and check out the arcades (It's true, Japanese people are CRAZY good at arcade games) and look for used clothing stores.

Today is our field trip to Mt. Fuji. Should be fun. Will take pictures.