FIRST TIME IN KOBE

I could tell I was going to get into another fight when my host mother moved me from their large and spacious room to their spare guest room. Here is a picture of that room:

“This is stupid,” I told her. "I'd have to curl in four places to actually lie down."

She laughed. She said that it would only be for tonight, because her daughter was inviting friends over.

“Whatever,” I said. “Anyway I’m going.” My plan was to call a friend of a friend of my mother’s that night. He was apparently living in Japan, and my intention was to call him and ask if I could spend the remainder of my Japanese stay at his house instead of the hell I was in.

I caught a train and met Trevor at a McDonald’s in Kobe. It was great to see him again. It was always great to see my friends again.

It was the first time I’d been to Kobe, and I instantly liked it. It looked like a mix between Tokyo and Osaka: there were large buildings and imposing crowds, but there were also trees and parks and a certain peaceful calm that Tokyo could never hold still.

“Dean,” Trevor said, “check this out.”

He brought me to a Konami arcade game place and showed me the types of machines they had. One arcade machine was a giant robot you could actually ride in and virtually control. Another consisted of a giant screen displaying a soccer game, and the players, who were sitting in front of electronic desks, would place cards on these desks and then stare at the screen. I walked around and looked for free tokens.

We then met a girl who gave us a map and started looking for a giant Buddha statue from the map that looked interesting. We walked for some time and found a dockside area with a live band playing instead. There was a large structure of something undefinable in the distance, and for a while Trevor kept nudging me as I kept staring at the statue and thinking of nothing. There was a small market nearby that sold fake clothing and cheap bracelets. I bought a bracelet and walked up to a girl and asked her if she could put it on for me. My Japanese was improving, so I asked her what colour she liked more: red, or yellow? And she smiled and we hugged and Trevor asked for her email and we left. We found a giant dog and patted it and took a photo of it; its owner was a short woman with red hair. We found a shrine hidden behind some trees and walked around while a monk constantly watched us. We continued our trek to find the giant Buddha but found ourselves heading towards a temple instead

And as I walked up the quiet path and as the evening began to rise I rang a giant bell and watched a wedding take place. Trevor told me that there are certain things you should do when ringing a bell in a temple in Japan: donate money, pull a rope that rings the bell, bow, pray, clap twice. Trevor then said he might be wrong. I looked at the woman, at the priest, at the priests, at what they were wearing. We then left and spotted an adult DVD store. Trevor tried to get in but it didn’t open so we headed to the central city area, to a Seven Eleven and bought beer. We found someone singing and playing the guitar and selling his CDs and we drank and watched him. Trevor pointed to a hostess bar, I pointed at a hostess. Trevor told me about the first girl he ever loved, the one from high school. I told him about Eva, about how I was still in love with her even though I hadn’t seen her in probably two years. The imperfect sky above us and the endless stream of people reminded me that time was worthwhile. It was supposed to be cold but I was quite drunk by then so I didn’t feel it.

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