When I am thirsty, I drink water.

I went out on the town the other night with my banking friend Joyce and her friends. Well, it was really more her friends than Joyce, since she went early to get some sleep before an early morning golf trip. Fortunately, her friends were nice company. It was a typical night in the Minato-ku area: bar, bar, club, club, etc., etc. Akasaka, Hirou, Roppongi, Nishi-Azabu. I got to meet lots of Chinese people (ie, Joyce's friends), drink a lot, spend money, and dance in a couple of trendy joints. And I missed the last train home, so I got to do it all night long until the trains started again. Welcome back to Tokyo.

Ever since my first visit to Japan, I've taken particular notice of how little water they drink here. You know how you can go to a restaurant in the states and ask for water, and they'll bring you no less than a pint of water and attentively keep it filled? Like, how there is actually some dude whose job it is to keep everyone's supply of ice tap water on full? Well, they don't have that in Japan. In Japan, if you ask for water, and you get a cup the size of the thermos cap from your elementary school lunch box. With ice in it. Basically, a shot of water. It could be 100 degrees and humid outside, and you could be eating rock salt, and that's all you get. And with such a huge glass, it's unimaginable that you're gonna drink all that, so you're gonna have to ask for a refill. Now for people who grew up here, that's normal of course. I'm pretty sure Japanese bodies are only 45% water, 50% tops. But for me, who grew up in the States and had a close friend in college who actually wrote a computer program to keep track of how many glasses of water one drinks in a day (go Gimpel. Go.), it really isn't enough.

So for the first few days of the trip, I was just drinking what was given to me. That was typically large quantities of beer. But then I decided I didn't want to have to buy jeans with a larger waist size, so I started insisting on drinking water. Usually it goes like this (translated):

Me: I'll have water.
Relative: Water?
Me: Yeah, water.
Relative: They have beer.
Me: No, water is fine.
Relative: They have orange juice and cola.
Me: Water, please.
Relative: Water?

One time, it actually went like this:

Relative: You're not going to drink beer today? Do you have a hangover?
Me: No, sometimes I just don't want to drink beer. I'll have water.
Relative: WATER?!?
Waiter: WATER?!?
Other waiter: WATER?!?
Relative: He'll have tea.

Tomorrow, I go to Sendai to find my apartment.