Why I Like Japan

A long time ago when I was studying in Hawaii, I had the fortune (misfortune?) to get people from all over the world as room-mates. 3 of the more memorable people I met are Takashi, Nobuhiro aka Nobu, and Nozomu. At that time I was your typical goodie two shoes nerdboy going overseas the first time. They, on the other hand, were your typical Japanese youth; chain smoking, Kirin beer drinking and cracking dirty jokes and being funny in a lewd way all the time. Titanic Culture Crash! Err, Clash!

The first thing I learn from them is the art of sleeping in the hall. One day, I was coming back from an afternoon class. I opened the door to the apartment, and lo and behold! I saw three guys lying on the floor! I thought oh my god, they must have been knocked out by gas! Better call 911 quick! And then one of them got up, went to the bathroom, took a piss, flushed, and went back down lying on the floor. Later that night I found out that its a normal thing to do in Japan. Woookay.

Another thing I learn from them is reading manga. And their manga has centrefold of pictures of naked gravure star. I shit you not my friend, they have pictures of naked girl in the middle of a book full of cartoon drawing. Imagine reading through Gempak and then suddenly seeing a naked girl right after reading Hikayat Sang Wira and before reading Pertempuran Pahlawan Perkasa. Imagine reading through Fung Wan or Wira Tunggal and then suddenly seeing a naked girl in between the pages where Wunan unleashes Tinju Maut Matahari Selatan 99 Petala Langit. Imagine reading the Simpsons and you see on the page to left Bart saying "eat my shorts!" while on the page to the right a naked Ayako holding a short shorts.

The last thing I learn from them was watching Japanese cartoons called anime. At this time, the ones they had was all in Japanese, so I either had to understand spoken Japanese and read Katakana/Hiragana, or find someone who does. Fortunately, by this time I can speak and understand basic Japanese, and have 2 guys who translates everytime we watch something together. Aaah, I can still remember it.

Alpha-male : "Nobu, what is sukebe?"
Nobu : "oh, it is means old man heh heh heh"
Alpha-male : "Nozomu, what is ecchi?"
Nozomu : "ah, Alpha-male san, it means the good thing, and nice heh heh heh. Neh, Nobu? Good thing nice, heh heh heh"
Nobu : "Sou des! heh heh, come Alpha-male san, we start video of nice hentai heh heh heh"
Alpha-male : "Haaaiii! what does this title mean?"
Nozomu : "Oh, it means evil demon with multiple man snake of python size attack school of angel girls tied up"
Alpha-male : "Oh, sounds like RPG anime... Good thing nice! heh heh heh"

I was kinda sad though when Takashi had to go back to Japan to take over his father's construction business at the end of the first semester. Nobu and Nozomu lived with their girlfriends and we slowly drifted apart. I miss them guys. I miss the crazy talks we have about our man snake.

Alpha-male : "Ore no snake wa Cobra des."
Nobu : "Ceh, ore no snake wa Python des!"
Nozomu : "wahahaha, ore no snake wa Anaconda des! Winner!"

Wherever you are my nakama, I wish you luck. If we ever meet again, I will gladly down a Kirin and talk snake ha ha ha.