Morioka Nites

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One of the first Japanese words I learnt when I first moved to Morioka was Nomihodai! It means all you can drink! It’s very important for a gaigin for know this word if they want to survive. It’ll save you a lot of money if you ask any place you go to for Nomihodai. You’re looking at spending about 1800yen ($18aud) for 2 hours or more. Usually you need to order a meal as well but you can order anything you want even a side salad. Our first night out was spent at the Kitchen Bar, a loud busy place where it seems a lot of locals end up after work. Its not rude here to catch the attention of the wait staff by yelling ‘sumimsen’ it basically translates to ‘excuse me’ and you raise your hand at the same time. I know that in Australia if a bunch of loud drunken people were at a bar constantly yelling ‘excuse me’ every 5 minutes you’d want to kick them out but here its all about customer service and they deliver! Because Gaigin tend to drink a lot more then the Japanese you’ll find that at first your drinks come our really fast and as the night continues on it gets slower and slower because in ther opinion we’ve had enough to drink and don’t really need much more. It’s almost tradition that you go to Karaoke afterwards as you're a much better singer afterwards. You can get Nomihodai there as well. There are so many karaoke places in Morioka I have lost count. They all vary in price the cheapest one being around 1300yen and the more expensive being 2000yen it usually includes your room hire as well, and you’ll tend to run into foreigners here too. There are about 1000 foreigners living in Morioka I think I have only seen about 50, you don’t usually run into them everyday. I am getting use to being stared at, I was a little uncomfortable at first - sometimes your every moved is being watched, some Japanese people like to be nosey. I have also gotten into the habit of dropping into the local Family Mart on the way home and buying an Onigiri (rice ball wrapped in seaweed) and Lotte chocolate almonds. The next day after a night out usually plays out the same every time: Wake up at 1pm, slowly get dressed and make your way into Odori (avenue) the man hub of the city and into Coco’s Curry house for the best curry I have ever had in all my life. After stuffing your face it’s usually back home and motionless for the rest of what’s left of your day. Sometimes depending on the time and whether you have to work the next day it’s out for dinner and drinks again!

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