It was around 1pm on Wednesday in Japan and I was at work when I heard the good news. My friend, who was lucky enough to be able to take some time off of work to watch the election coverage called me at my work number and surprised me with the victory anouncement (it was so surprising because we weren't expecting any actual decision until 3pm or so). When she said, "Guess who our new president is!" I shouted "REALLY!!!!" into the phone before realizing my boss was still there... (don't worry, I didn't get in trouble or anything).
Needless to say, after work 3 of my good friends and I went partying! First, we met in Shibuya, and my friend surprised us by whipping out 4 mini-bottles of champagne, which we drank on our way to dinner at the most American place in town...TGI Fridays. There, after carefully considering what Obama would eat, we feasted on such American delicacies as Jack Daniel's babyback ribs and deep-fried mac'n'cheese (we are pretty sure Obama loves deep-fried mac'n'cheese.) After our hearty "American size" dinner, we bought some beer from the convenience store and set out to drink in front of every American thing in Shibuya, while searching for an actual American bar.
Our stops consisted of: McDonald's, KFC, the Apple Store, the Disney Store, Starbucks, and a Christmas tree (which, according to Japan, comes from America). We also ran into 2 different guys wearing Obama shirts-- one was from Kenya, the other from Nigeria-- which is kinda funny because they weren't American, but it was nice to be able to see the support and celebrate with people from all over the world.
Unfortunately, we weren't finding any American bars, so we ended up asking at the police box...but the cop there said he had never heard of one of those, so in the end we went to a British pub and were told there definitely are none in Shibuya. The pub, however, had very delicious beer brewed on premises, and even some other Americans there to celebrate with, so it was still fun. Also, if anyone knows Latvian, let me know what "obama" means in that language, because when I said "Obama" to this one guy, who I later found out was from Latvia, he started talking to me in Latvian because he thought I was speaking Latvian...I just kept saying "Obama!" and he just kept saying stuff in Latvian.
**UPDATE**
I found out that a word sounding similar to "Obama" in Latvian means "Hello." So, the Latvian guy must of thought I just kept saying "Hello, Hello" to him.
After a pint at the pub, one of the bartenders at the clued us in to the existance of a funky, out of the way "American Diner" that was nearby, so we headed there next. The interior wasn't very reminiscent of the States, but they had very authentic curly fries and nachos (I mean the fake cheese kind-- VERY authentic, and delicious). I also tried to order some "Obama," but it took the waiter a while to get the joke, and I don't think he thought it was very funny.
So, that was the end of our Obamafest, but did I mention that this whole time we had been shouting chants of "Obama! Obama!" (espcially when we saw foreigners who looked American), breaking into songs like "Oh Obama, you're so fine! You're so fine, you blow my mind, Obama! Hey, hey! Obama, hey hey!" and "B-A-R-A-C-K Obama, night! B-A-R-A-C-K Obama, night!" and saying things like "Obama-gozaimasu" (instead of arigatou-gozaimasu).
Hope everyone else had a fun election night too! (or as we say in Japan, "erection night" heh heh.)
Back-tracking a bit, to Halloween, I went as an "Amercan" (like to way Bush says the word). Basically portraying all the stereotypes people from other countries (and even our own) have of the States. Please see picture below:
Now I challenge you to play "Spot the Stereotype." The rules are simple, see how many Amercan stereotypes (from all over the world) you can spot. I had some others, like a burger-king crown, Uncle Sam hat, a Venti Starbucks cup (that I drank my beer out of), and heart-shaped picture of Sarah Palin on my back, but you can't see those in the picture (well, if you look closely the crown is there, so thats a freebie). In the picture there are 8, plus one awesome joke, that only cool people will get (only 2 people got it on Halloween). If you can guess all 8, you win...absolutly nothing! Well, bragging rights, I guess. I will reveal the correct answers in my next post.
