Chapter 46 045. Civic Movement

To go to North Urawa, take the Keihin Tohoku Line and change trains at Urawa.The sky blue tram skirt will make the blue sky and sea pale.Going to Urawa is the Saikyo Line. It is said that the Saikyo Line is the most serious line for women to be molested.The reason is that passing through the downtown area of ​​Tokyo, the distance between stations is long, and the design of the platform makes the tram always open on one side, so women on the inside of the tram are vulnerable to molestation.Women-only vehicles were later opened during rush hour. The section I took was from Tokyo to Urawa, which is already far away from the downtown area.Saitama County is in the north of Tokyo, connected by tram, which is closer than going to Hachioji.So Greater Tokyo has already connected the surrounding areas into one piece, city, city, and the city outside the city is still a city.Urawa is the capital of Saitama Prefecture, and the Urawa Red Diamonds are the football team here.

When I arrived, I was welcomed by a social group, that is, "Urawa Citizens United".This is a group of students from Rikkyo University or some other university back then: Tetsu Ichinose, Seiko Sakemoto, Tomoko Numata, and Toichi Kuni who wrote books.They organized anti-war demonstrations and student movements, and everyone refused to go to work, so they started a company.The company established a classroom for Urawa students, which is a private school. Tetsu is a math teacher, Tomoko is a Mandarin teacher, Seiko is the company president and an English teacher, and Dong Yibang is older than them. He opened his own company for publishing Edited books.

Such a group of students has persisted for 20 or even 30 years. In addition to the private school as a source of life, they regularly organize civic activities.I met them because Ichinose Tetsu’s father, Mr. Ichinose, was hired as a foreign teacher by Xi’an University of Foreign Languages ​​after retiring from NHK. Zhe came to China to visit his father and discovered Xi’an Rock Popularization Office (Xi’an Rock Popularization Office), a non-governmental organization. The two parties reached a consensus and used one year of preparation to successfully hold the concert of Hiroshi Nagasawa and Heroes at the Xi'an Democracy Theater together with Urawa Rock Center.Nearly a hundred fans came to Xi'an with the concert, and they raised funds for the performance.So when I came to Japan, I was received by the Urawa Citizens' Union.

Shengzi's company and Dong Yibang's studio jointly rented a two-bedroom, one-living room. The study classroom is not far away. The classroom is small and can seat up to nine students. There are two or three classrooms for classes.This two-bedroom and one-living hall is the office of "Urawa Citizens United", with a large wooden table.I'm here, waiting for them to finish teaching and assemble here.In addition to the four of them being leaders, there will also be members of the union who live nearby.There were couples who opened a shop, office workers, college students, and artists. Everyone gathered one after another, and we all went to an izakaya.There are tatami mats in the izakaya, and the tables can be connected to seat more than 20 people. The izakaya is an important leisure consumption place for Japanese people.They don’t come here to taste the food, just like our baijiu drinkers always like to order regular appetizers such as fried peanuts and cucumbers. They like to order fried chicken nuggets, potato salad, pickled cucumber, shredded cabbage salad, tofu Wait, rarely order sashimi and tempura.Then most of the wine is served with draft beer first, then Oolong Hai (mixed with oolong tea and soju) and Lemon Sharapova (soda, soju and lemon), similar to this kind of wine.In the izakaya, I mainly drink and chat. After I came to Japan, I was surprised that the Japanese would drink all kinds of alcohol in one night.You're almost done drinking here, just pay the bill, which is usually AA system.There is a person who is responsible for calculating how much each person shares, and collects the money to finish.Every time they don't accept me, because I am an international student, and the students who sit with me don't accept it either, and some students who are part-time in the classroom receive half of it.

I also discovered a drinking rule. After many people finish drinking in one place for the first time, this is called a meeting, and then divided into several groups to drink separately. This is also called a second meeting. Zhe told me that he drank once, and in the end he drank seven meetings, and only he and Yoshida were left in the seven meetings.The two finally got hungry and came to a high-end sushi restaurant.This sushi restaurant has no price, it is priced according to the customers and what they eat, and they are all integers.Just like the taxis in Xi’an in the past, there was no meter at that time. Generally, according to the distance, it was 5 yuan, 10 yuan, 15 yuan, and 20 yuan.The owner of this sushi restaurant just depends on the price. The mother and daughter before Zhe and the others had to pay 50,000 yen after eating, and Zhe and the others had similar food.

My welcome party was held during the first meeting, and Zhe and Tomoko led me to the second meeting, and Zhe and I went to his house for the third meeting.He was still living in his parents' house at that time, in a small two-story building and yard, and Zhe and I started drinking again at home.