Zushi

Last night there were no scheduled activities, so after Japanese classes ended I went with a huge group of people to Zushi, which is the town (city?) near Sokendai. Fortunately after arriving at the bus stop we split up into a more manageable group of 8, and then wandered around taking in the sights. We didn't have any plan in particular, but wound up going to a bar for a single round of drinks. I ordered an Asahi, partially because I couldn't recognize anything else on the menu, and partially because I'd never tried one before. It was pretty good. After the bar we went into a Pachinko parlor, which can best be described as mystifying. For those who are unfamiliar with Pachinko, it is some sort of a cross between a slot machine and a pinball machine (only without flippers.) It is gambling, but there is no skill involved whatsoever— the appeal is in seeing the pretty lights flash as the metal balls fall down, and occasionally earning new balls if you're lucky enough to "win." Gambling without skill (or at least the perception of skill!) holds no appeal to me, but there were people there who had clearly invested about $500 in balls and intended to gamble them away through the night. Mystifying. The total cost to take a bus into town, buy a beer, and take the bus back was about $15. From this point forward, I'm going to justify money as follows: I'm earning twice as much as I normally do here, my housing costs twice as much, and therefore it's ok if everything else I buy costs twice as much. I'll shortly be leaving for my homestay. I'm relieved that the wife in my host family speaks excellent English, because from talking to other students I've gathered that this is very much so not the case for some of the other host families. Were I forced to communicate in Japanese, I'd exhaust my vocabulary in about 30 seconds.