I get up early again today and am ready to tackle something new. Kevin suggested I go to Osu Kannon, only a few trains stops away from where we are. He said there was a Buddhist Temple there so I decided that going would be a good idea. He shows me how to get there and he takes off for work and I`m on my own in Japan for the first time. I get off the train at Osu and pick an exit. Theres always a ton of exits at every station and I have no idea which one goes where. I picked exit 4. I come up into the streets and have a look around. I see... I see....I don`t see anything. What gives?? I walk around a bit and don`t see very much of interest.
About ten minutes later over the top of some buildings I see what might be the top of the temple that Kevin was speaking of. Osu Kannon Temple. I make my way over there and have a look around. Its a pretty nice temple. You guys can check it out once I upload the pictures when I get back home. So I do the whole temple thing and I look over and see what looks like a few souvenir shops off to the side of the temple. So I was thinking oh cool, I could use some temple souvenirs for my fellow Buddhists back home. So I make my way over there and the first thing I see is a few restaurants. Hmmm...further in i assume. So I go in some more and see more and more stores selling stuff like clothes or tea pots and the like. Oh cool I thought to myself, a row of shops of some cool things. Not bad, let me walk further down and see what else there is and I`ll turn back around towards the temple area. I go down a little bit and I come to a fork in the road. To the left... restaurants and shops. To the right...more restaurants and shops. Which way? Um.. lets go right. I walk down right and another road of shops is revealed. Had to be over 50 shops on that road. i get to the end of the road and there is another road connected to it perpendicularly. I go left this time. This is more of a main street so it looks more normal with shops on both sides. I come to yet another street and go right once more. More shops. I figured the rows and rows of shops would end soon but it doesnt. I walk for what felt like forever and I just keep turning into more streets and more shops. Pretty soon I was completely lost in a spider web of shops. This place has everything you could possibly think of! Clothing store, shoe store, accessory store, pots and pans store, second hand shops, mom and pop shops, dvd store, game store, pachinko parlor, jacket store, glove store, underwear store, used anything store, scarves store... oh...speaking of the scarf store...
So I`m learning quickly that in Japan they advertise like crazy and store owners are always out in front of their stores screaming something out. I can only assume its good things about their stores to try and get you to come in. So as you walk down a street of stores all you hear is screaming in Japanese. Even quicker you will learn to ignore all this nonsense. So I`m walking through the streets and I walk past this store that only sold scarves. I keep walking.. almost past it....and then the girl working there comes out and yells something out in Japanese. I looked over and...she was kind of cute. Hmmm...let me...stop by the store real quick... to look at scarves of course. I step in and alot of English and Japanese exchange with no one having any idea what the other is talking about. But there are signs. So thats good. 3,000 yen a scarf. Hmm... 3,000 divided by 100, whats that like 3 dollars or so? Oh hey thats not bad at all, ill get like...3 of them, thats like ten, twelve dollars. No big deal. I know a few people that likes scarves anyways. We go through this long process of picking out these scarves and I finally settle on 3 of them. Cool, lets get out of here. But wait, very skillfully she upsells me a..belt for a scarf?? What the? She shows me how it works and its actually kinda cool. Ok ill take one of those too. Its only 477 yen..divided by 100...about 4, or 5 dollars? Not bad. Hmm...something doesnt feel right. Oh well. The exchange rate kinda sucks right now, its actually less than 100, its in the 80s but using the 100 scale gives it an approximation.
So she rings up the scarves and the total on the register said 9,500 yen. and I pull out a 10,000 yen bill. And then it clicks..
Brain - SON OF A.. 9,500 divided by 100..carry the 2... subtract...
Gene - DUDE! you converted wrong!!!! 3000 yen is over 30 dollars!!
Brain - omg omg thats like a hundred dollars...
Gene - for three scarves?
Brain - dont forget the belt thing.
Gene - ?!?! you IDIOT
Brain - dude theres no time, either pay or run...
Gene - dude...
Brain - dude shes kinda cute... and she was really nice and helpful..
Gene - Oh really? she was helpful? what did she say to you?
Brain - but shes cute too...we kinda came too far...
Gene - Dude quit being such a dude.. we can jus....oh hey..pretty smile..
Brain - Thataboy...
And thats the story of how I hustled myself out of 100 dollars on some of the thinnest cloth you ever seen. This came not 72 hours after a friend told me to go to Japan and hustle THEM as much as I can. Ah well, at least they are soft scarves.
I continue walking..and I walk by this store with this jacket for girls sitting outside. Oh hey cool jacket. How much? 3,400 yen. Ok think real hard how much is that. Less than $40 dollars. Are we sure?...Ten minutes pass. Yes we are sure. Hey thats pretty good. What size is it? hmm... no size...ok take it inside and ask the shop owner what size, they understand small medium and stuff. I go inside and find the dude over the counter and he looks kinda scary until I start talking then he turns into a real nice guy.
Gene - um..excuse me.. size?
Guy - Ohhh size-o?? hashi moosen asheno ehn.. asennn herrookooki
Gene - uh..no japanese?
Guy - OOOOO no japaenese! ehh..no sizeo. vhan size..
Gene - oh one size? one size fits all? dude no way...
Guy - haii haii
Gene - i guess not then..i need to know the size.
Guy - oohhh, haii... eh..sohreee..
Gene - its ok..
So I go put the jacket up and I look at it again. Man I like this jacket. My friends come in all size, someone can fit this. I want it. I take the jacket back inside and try again.
Gene - um, you have no idea what size this is?
Guy - annoo.. haji ishi noonkeh hannteyoo (he is looking at and it really looks like he is trying to figure it out, nice guy)
Gene - ok um.. my friend..is like...this tall ( i make up a heigh with my hand) and.. about this wide.. (i just put my hands apart as if im about to clap)
Guy - ahh hai hai, asenihi oshen dattebayo horigan ishen ohren san k ai yo?
Gene - (oh he asked me a question i heard the accent go up) dude i have no idea what you just said (im shrugging like dude i duno)
Guy - ahh ahsen americano ahiishahe hajhaj yoo hahaha!
Gene - eh..(i point to my jeans) um.. jean size... maybe 3 in japan?
About ten minutes later over the top of some buildings I see what might be the top of the temple that Kevin was speaking of. Osu Kannon Temple. I make my way over there and have a look around. Its a pretty nice temple. You guys can check it out once I upload the pictures when I get back home. So I do the whole temple thing and I look over and see what looks like a few souvenir shops off to the side of the temple. So I was thinking oh cool, I could use some temple souvenirs for my fellow Buddhists back home. So I make my way over there and the first thing I see is a few restaurants. Hmmm...further in i assume. So I go in some more and see more and more stores selling stuff like clothes or tea pots and the like. Oh cool I thought to myself, a row of shops of some cool things. Not bad, let me walk further down and see what else there is and I`ll turn back around towards the temple area. I go down a little bit and I come to a fork in the road. To the left... restaurants and shops. To the right...more restaurants and shops. Which way? Um.. lets go right. I walk down right and another road of shops is revealed. Had to be over 50 shops on that road. i get to the end of the road and there is another road connected to it perpendicularly. I go left this time. This is more of a main street so it looks more normal with shops on both sides. I come to yet another street and go right once more. More shops. I figured the rows and rows of shops would end soon but it doesnt. I walk for what felt like forever and I just keep turning into more streets and more shops. Pretty soon I was completely lost in a spider web of shops. This place has everything you could possibly think of! Clothing store, shoe store, accessory store, pots and pans store, second hand shops, mom and pop shops, dvd store, game store, pachinko parlor, jacket store, glove store, underwear store, used anything store, scarves store... oh...speaking of the scarf store...
So I`m learning quickly that in Japan they advertise like crazy and store owners are always out in front of their stores screaming something out. I can only assume its good things about their stores to try and get you to come in. So as you walk down a street of stores all you hear is screaming in Japanese. Even quicker you will learn to ignore all this nonsense. So I`m walking through the streets and I walk past this store that only sold scarves. I keep walking.. almost past it....and then the girl working there comes out and yells something out in Japanese. I looked over and...she was kind of cute. Hmmm...let me...stop by the store real quick... to look at scarves of course. I step in and alot of English and Japanese exchange with no one having any idea what the other is talking about. But there are signs. So thats good. 3,000 yen a scarf. Hmm... 3,000 divided by 100, whats that like 3 dollars or so? Oh hey thats not bad at all, ill get like...3 of them, thats like ten, twelve dollars. No big deal. I know a few people that likes scarves anyways. We go through this long process of picking out these scarves and I finally settle on 3 of them. Cool, lets get out of here. But wait, very skillfully she upsells me a..belt for a scarf?? What the? She shows me how it works and its actually kinda cool. Ok ill take one of those too. Its only 477 yen..divided by 100...about 4, or 5 dollars? Not bad. Hmm...something doesnt feel right. Oh well. The exchange rate kinda sucks right now, its actually less than 100, its in the 80s but using the 100 scale gives it an approximation.
So she rings up the scarves and the total on the register said 9,500 yen. and I pull out a 10,000 yen bill. And then it clicks..
Brain - SON OF A.. 9,500 divided by 100..carry the 2... subtract...
Gene - DUDE! you converted wrong!!!! 3000 yen is over 30 dollars!!
Brain - omg omg thats like a hundred dollars...
Gene - for three scarves?
Brain - dont forget the belt thing.
Gene - ?!?! you IDIOT
Brain - dude theres no time, either pay or run...
Gene - dude...
Brain - dude shes kinda cute... and she was really nice and helpful..
Gene - Oh really? she was helpful? what did she say to you?
Brain - but shes cute too...we kinda came too far...
Gene - Dude quit being such a dude.. we can jus....oh hey..pretty smile..
Brain - Thataboy...
And thats the story of how I hustled myself out of 100 dollars on some of the thinnest cloth you ever seen. This came not 72 hours after a friend told me to go to Japan and hustle THEM as much as I can. Ah well, at least they are soft scarves.
I continue walking..and I walk by this store with this jacket for girls sitting outside. Oh hey cool jacket. How much? 3,400 yen. Ok think real hard how much is that. Less than $40 dollars. Are we sure?...Ten minutes pass. Yes we are sure. Hey thats pretty good. What size is it? hmm... no size...ok take it inside and ask the shop owner what size, they understand small medium and stuff. I go inside and find the dude over the counter and he looks kinda scary until I start talking then he turns into a real nice guy.
Gene - um..excuse me.. size?
Guy - Ohhh size-o?? hashi moosen asheno ehn.. asennn herrookooki
Gene - uh..no japanese?
Guy - OOOOO no japaenese! ehh..no sizeo. vhan size..
Gene - oh one size? one size fits all? dude no way...
Guy - haii haii
Gene - i guess not then..i need to know the size.
Guy - oohhh, haii... eh..sohreee..
Gene - its ok..
So I go put the jacket up and I look at it again. Man I like this jacket. My friends come in all size, someone can fit this. I want it. I take the jacket back inside and try again.
Gene - um, you have no idea what size this is?
Guy - annoo.. haji ishi noonkeh hannteyoo (he is looking at and it really looks like he is trying to figure it out, nice guy)
Gene - ok um.. my friend..is like...this tall ( i make up a heigh with my hand) and.. about this wide.. (i just put my hands apart as if im about to clap)
Guy - ahh hai hai, asenihi oshen dattebayo horigan ishen ohren san k ai yo?
Gene - (oh he asked me a question i heard the accent go up) dude i have no idea what you just said (im shrugging like dude i duno)
Guy - ahh ahsen americano ahiishahe hajhaj yoo hahaha!
Gene - eh..(i point to my jeans) um.. jean size... maybe 3 in japan?
Guy - OOOOO... 3... hasheyanong anenne ashen sikoyi da.. eh... hearriko.. ahasejkene
Gene - ok one more time.. um.. (i look to the side and see a shirt thats a size medium) dude..ok...this... is medium...
Guy - hai! medium!
Gene - ok if this...is medium... this jacket is.. small? or medium?
Guy - (light bulb goes of) AHHH!! smallruu.. mediumruuu!
Gene - Did you just say both sizes??!?!? come on man!! help me out!
Guy - hahahha ashenoyo hikori menokorekna sano kiayyyy hahha
Gene - yea i know right, tell me about it
Guy - ashenikak noya asen ko ya?
Gene - yea its cool, dont worry about it.
Guy - ikirishio anskea?
Gene - yea your probably right, ill take it.
Guy - haisne iilkio on saneyy
Gene - yea i kno i kno, true, itll probaly work.
Guy - hosenigonaga?
Gene - i have no idea why we keep talking to each other in our native languages either when its clear we have no idea what the other one is saying.
Guy - hai!
Gene - Arigato!
Guy - Arigato!
Walk out, jacket in bag. Not sure exactly what happened. I just know it was epic.
Later that night I was introduced to Japanese BBQ called yakiniku. Freakin A is was awesome. So damn good. We need to find a yakiniku place in Dallas or make one ourselves or something. The meal was epic. This was just an epic day. From hustling myself to my legendary conversation to dinner to everything.
Me and Kevin reflected on life at dinner too. Epic. Reliving our time back in the day when we used to roll together. Also epic. Deep conversations about life and love. Nothing gay I swear... EPIC
