Tuesday afternoon I met up with Antoine in Sannomiya for some birthday recreation. Antoine had made a specific proposal – we play bowling and billiards, and whoever wins the games buys the drinks we consume during the game. The last time we played bowling and billiards he beat me both times, so I’m happy to report that I kicked his ass at both games.
We did bowling first. We headed to a quiet bowling alley off the beaten path above a pachinko parlor. I’m not very good at bowling, but neither is Antoine. We just went out there and threw the ball around. The people around us obviously spent a lot of time at the bowling alley – the guy next to us was doing some crazy deliveries and ending up with a follow-through “guts pose” as it is called in Japan. His girlfriend kept looking up at our scoreboard, taking notes I guess.
Anyway, we played two games, and I bowled a 91 the first game and a 126 the second. Antoine did pretty much the same, but came in a little behind me in total score, so he had to pay for the two rounds of Budweisers (official beer of bowling?) that we consumed while playing.
Next off we went to play some pool. The pool hall had remodeled and upgraded, and it was much nicer. Now they had a phone next to your table – you pick it up, say what you want, and hang it up again. Then your order shows up right away. We played for two hours and really had fun. We play pretty sloppy pool, and Antoine likes to try to say stupid things to distract me during my shots – kind of his handicap. Despite this, I still beat him four games to one. Thanks for covering the beer, dude. Happy Birthday.
By the end of pool the beer was catching up to us, and so we went to a sushi place for dinner. The place was fairly busy, and we sat at the counter and ordered up a small sushi dinner. Antoine told me about his plans to meet up with Miwako tonight for his birthday – he said that he had to leave at 8:30 tonight to get all the way to south Osaka in time. He considers that their relationship is pretty much over, though, and he said that he already told his parents and she told hers. Weird. He boldly declared that he was now single, and I had to remind him that his single status was only until 8:30 tonight.
After sushi we went to the Belgian beer place for one last drink, but Antoine had to leave soon after we arrived, and I was left sitting at the table nursing my beer and wondering just how drunk I was.
I did manage to get on a train going to Okubo, and I sat across from a couple speaking Spanish the whole way. I could only understand bits and pieces, but that may say more about how much Spanish I’ve forgotten than my state of sobriety at the time.
Kuniko actually was on the next train, so I waited at the station and she got me home safely. I had a good time tonight – I hope Antoine did, too.
