Day 89 (Osaka) : Garo, the Jazz bar for really old people

Today I got an unexpected invite to a get together with some of the student/teachers from the school next to mine and some of my classmates. It was a good chance to use Japanese and shoot the breeze so even though I was/am still tired from the night before I decided to go out to Namba to meet them. The back story is kind of complicated but apparently one of the girls we were drinking with used to work for one of the waitresses at Garo, so that's why we went there. The place was above average price for a small izakaya style bar. Most of the food was between $4 to $9 but the portions were typical izakaya size (very small, about two or three bites per) so it seemed over priced.

The final price for me ended up being almost $50, but since I split the bill with some Japanese cat last night and ended up paying nothing it seemed pretty much fair. It might have been more in my favor actually. I'm getting the impression that the students at the Japanese school are suffering from a Japanese point of view, since they are mostly Japanese. They seem to think that spending a ridiculous amount of money on food or drinks is some how normal and ok. I'm going to have to work to remedy that situation. We could have had better food and more drinks for half the price at a different restaurant so it just doesn't make sense in my head. Even if that bar was playing some fancy schmancy jazz that no one in the bar except for me could recognize.

I got a copy of "The Bucket List" from Tsutaya so I could rip a Japanese copy to study with. What surprised me most is that it played perfectly without any special changes. I was so worried about DVD regions that I forgot Blu Ray discs are region free. How cool is that?

Tomorrow is going to be pretty lame. I have to go to school, look at the test results, listen to a few minutes of home roome, and come home. It would be nice to have a real class instead but I guess one week isn't enough time to grade and assign people to their new classes. [sarcasm]