Mean girls, karaoke, and expensive beer

I am now in Shonan International Village. It has not yet hit me that I am in a foreign country. Not really at least. Thus far, I've been surrounded by 64 Americans, 10 or so (of each) Canadians, Germans, and French people. As usual, everyone groups together into their respective nations, though I can imagine how the 10 people can feel overwhelmed by 65 Americans.
Then the Americans divide into groups. I feel like my true calling was to be a sociologist since I am fascinated by how people choose which groups to associate with and how the phenomenon of this social clustering occurs and whether the same principle apply to all kinds of groups. This group mainly consists of engineers, which is a bit different than the research scientists I'm usually exposed to, so I was wondering if it would be any different.

Thus far, its not so much different, but what I think is key is the age group. I'd say the average age of people here is about 25. This being said, you can imagine not everyone has reached their full maturity capacity and some are FAR from it. Its like grouping all these people makes everyone (or mostly everyone) revert back to middle school. The girls become cliquey and the guys behave like they're 12. People, for the most part, seems to be associating based on several characteristics--the earthy, hippy people have found each other, the loners stick to their computers, and the "socially challenged" also seem to find each other and make awkward conversation, I guess. Not that I'm not one to make awkward conversation frequently, but I think I'm slightly more skilled than these people. I never seem to fit into any particular category or really mesh well with only ONE particular group and am usually that peripheral person in a couple of different groups with no true association. Then there's the really outgoing, attractive girl that befriends all the guys (including the socially challenged). I first met her during our dinner reception where EVERYONE makes awkward small talk. After first observing her behaviour (we were sitting at the same table) it turned out that she was actually an MD (well in med school). Now this may not make sense to some of you, but if you're a researcher (namely PhD or other doctorate), the MDs generally stick out. And she did. But she was even more special. I later found out that not only is she from The OC, but she's also from Newport (hello OC fans!).

That evening (our first night there), she invited me to go out with a bunch of people. Actually, she invited my roommate, who she knew from the orientation in DC back in March and me, and because we were sitting at a table, a couple others she clearly didn't want to invite as she tried to "lose them" on the way out. Anyway, we went to this town called Zushi about 15 min away from the conference center we're staying at. We went to a karaoke bar with about 20 people-surprisingly--or maybe not--there were only 4 women. If you know me well, you know I don't like to sing in public, so this was partly torture. But it was ok b/c my roommate also hates to sing in public, so we both sat in the back and simply observed.

Some people were really into it...dancing and everything. In particular, there was this one guy who I will describe as the stereotypical nerd. I know that's mean, but its the best description I can provide--long stringy hair, thick glasses, and best of all, his name was Sterling. Needless to say, he became the person to pick on for this girl. While she was outwardly very nice to him, every other second she'd turn around to make fun of him. At one point, she even gave him a glass of beer spiked with sake. I honestly do not understand this kind of behavior. These are things I can see someone in high school doing, but for someone in their mid-20s, it was pretty shocking. While I felt bad about what was going on, I had no attachment to any of these people, so I simply observed and said nothing, neither egging it on or actively opposing it, and yes, I feel kinda bad for it, but I had just met these people 24 hour earlier, so why should I stand up for anyone. So this continued for most of the night and the guy took in all of it, happily it seemed, to be getting so much attention. I hate to make this comparison, but I felt a little like Lindsay Lohan in mean girls before she becomes "one of them".

After an hour of karaoke, one large bottle of sake and 2 pitchers of beer, we moved on to another bar. Now, people have said that Japan is an expensive city, but this was just outrageous. A pitcher of beer was about $40--and it wasn't any type of special beer, just plain beer! We were taken upstairs to the "private room" in which there was a lone Japanese businessman swinging on a hammock. After the expensive 2 pitchers of beer (they automatically served us 2 pitchers) we took a 10 min. car drive that cost over $30. Not only was it an expensive car ride, but we had missed "curfew" and the taxi driver took us to the wrong building on campus. Unfortunately we didn't realize this until we had already awakened the security guard, gotten into the building and realized there were only lecture halls and no rooms. Oh what a night. We eventually made it back to the right building and luckily the group in the other cab waited to open the door for us.

The next morning, she found us again and its difficult to get away from her, its like she sucks you in. How are you supposed to say I don't want to sit with you at the cafeteria when she's saved a seat for you and there are nearly no free seats left? When she physically pulls you aside to gossip, how do you actively push away and say no, I don't want to listen, when you're dying to hear gossip just because it exists? Maybe I'm just not strong enough and am fine just passive aggressively sitting, listening and not commenting so as to truly be able to say I did not have part in saying anything mean about anyone, even though I'm sitting there listening. Its also more difficult when within a matter of 2 days, people become so closed off into their little groups that its hard to get out of being in the one you were associated with the first night there, even if it was a mistake, and moving to another, especially when the other option is to sit in your room and stare at the wall or TV in Japanese? I guess I can't complain TOO much--afterall there are times when this group of girls has fun. We do ridiculous things like download the Paris Hilton video and share E! news. But its funny how even now at 26, when I feel pretty mature, I'm still 14 at some level.