I’m back in Yokohama and the city is devoid of people I know.  And since it is holidays, I have a lot of time on my hands to do some Japanese language study so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and meet new people and a Japanese/English culture and language exchange.

For some reason, I just assumed the group would be meeting in a bar/restaurant, so when I finally got the address in the restaurant district near Sakuragicho Station, I couldn’t work out where it was.  I used my usual tactic of standing around looking confused which worked perfectly, as someone came along and asked me if I was looking for the meet-up.  He pointed to the building I was standing in front of, so I entered, still looking confused.  I was also pretty hungry as I assumed I would be able to eat and drink something at the venue and so I didn’t have dinner.

The meet-up took place in the basement of the building which turned out to be the furtherest possible thing from a bar.  It was a church

Hmmm – not what I expected!

.  I was ten minutes late so the others had already seated themselves in a circle and were taking turns to introduce themselves.

We then had to tell a partner who we would trade lives with if we could.  This was way above my level of sushi-ordering Japanese so unless I wanted to explain that I would rather be a tasty morsel of nama saba, I had to speak English.

Just fifteen minutes later, the group leader said it was time to pack up and go inside for the service!  Apparently the meet-up is for just half an hour before the church service.  I thanked them politely and made a quick dash for the elevator.

I’ve also signed up for a picnic with another group on Saturday.  Since tonight’s experience, I’ve double checked the details and there is food, drink and it goes longer than thirty minutes.  Here’s hoping!  🙂