Osaka Otaku: Drinking with Gerard

Amidst this whole disaster with our company sinking and what not, a few people still manage to live life. This was how Gerard did it. He is an instructor at the Nova MM Centre, where I used to/am work/ing and I remember watching one of his first few lessons as part of my duties. It has been one year since that point in time and he decided to stay a few months extra and the whole situation spiralled out of control. I guess he plans to leave earlier than planned.

I met him last night(Friday) at Zerro (the website is annoying as you *have* to allow pop-up windows and there is no excuse for this), a local pub, where he was drinking with a visiting friend, Neil. My purpose there was to enjoy the Friday roast and I had arrived earlier than the other people in my group so I sat and chatted with Gerard and Neil. Their plan was to drink here and then they were going to enjoy what Japan is famous for: karaoke. It just happened that they too were going to Kasuga. When everyone else arrived we finished our meals and headed to Kasuga. Gerard and Neil and Delilah were not far behind. Daniel and his girl were also in tow but they had to gobble down the delicious Turkey roast first.

As always the Kasuga crew were in fine form. Masato was looking happy and Lidia was there, though not dressed in her maid outfit, but cute nonetheless. The drinking soon started and the karaoke followed. Jamie tried out her newly learned Angela Aki song Sakurairo, while Daniel and I belted out Journey's Separate Ways. Sarah and one of her Japanese friends were already there and they gladly partook in our mirth and merriment. Sayaka also made it in with a buddy of hers and they had a few drinks as well.

Gerard was plenty drunk by the time some of his songs came up and he had no problems singing them. Well, okay, maybe he had some problems with the reading bit, but who's counting? Robert, Gerard's good friend who also works at MM, had no such problems and he was able to do some duets with Delilah to the crowd's delight. In his defence, Gerard was dancing to the music and hugging everyone in the bar. It made up for his lack of literacy.

There at Kasuga we also met Hose and Petra, who are friends of Lidia. They were visiting from Spain. Petra is originally from London but moved to Spain to teach English. She too had worked for an English that went bankrupt so she had words of encouragement. In her case the workers were able to sue the guy and the government stepped in and paid them.