We did bump into a few people from school, but they were not our targets. From them though, Kenneth extricated information on the whereabouts of his classmates. Following the lead, we dove into the crowd again, hoping that pure serendipity will lead us to our quarry.
Just when we were about to set off on the hundredth time around Mount Gurney, we caught a break. As we took a breather to prep ourselves for the next sortie, Kenneth caught sight of his elusive mates. With that, our party increased though Kevin decided it was his turn to set out on his own to find his friends.
By this time, countdown time was coming. We evaded the crowds to get to the stage. Along the way, we had to traverse Uprockylands, a very bumpy strip of earth pocked with fallen tree trunks. It is understandable that people stumble and push, but I got annoyed with a man pushing a baby stroller. He kept forcing his way through hitting a few of my friends. When I was about to climb on to the pavement he kept bumping into me. I decided to tell him to be careful. I don't know what's his beef but he stared at me in an antagonistic way, so I repeated my warning again, and continued up the pavement. The guy seemed to be itching for a fight though, and grabbed my sleeve and pulled me down.
I can say this was the first time that I really got into an aggressive confrontation, and despite my knowledge of Aikido, I admit that my mind was temporarily at a blank. I did notice one thing though, that guy was alone and his stroller was even empty. On hindsight, I really find this very funny because I have a huge group of my schoolmates behind me who were a little stunned by this. Anyway, the guy berated me in an unknown language, and from his looks and semantics, I assumed he spoke in Japanese. I basically told him off and turned away. The arrogant prick displayed terrier-like qualities though and dragged my sleeve again, and kept on jabbering in his language. I generally do not have any beef with Japanese, but one thing I can not countenance is someone shouting at me in his native language expecting me to understand. This smacks of arrogance to the max. He then motioned me to take it outside. Knowing he's a tourist, I retorted with the corniest line ever, something to the tune of, 'this country has laws and police', and I told him he cannot do whatever he wants, complete with a sprinkling of an American accent. I hate to be querulous, but I am glad to say I got the last word in, shouting 'Fucking Japanese' as he turned away.
Shaken but not stirred, though I doubt he would end up the better if he did try to hit me, I went back to the small matter of ushering the new year with a few thousand other revellers. The momentous second passed by so fast, but it proved to be the start of our troubles. Despite being present at the past few countdowns I did not have the good sense to leave while I could. The next thing I knew, I was locked in a shoving match with, oh what, the very same number of people I was counting down with. Ironically, in stampedes like this it is good to be in the crush, which basically ensures you won't get ensnared in the other crush downstairs.
15 suffocating minutes later, we more or less made it out in one piece, though our group has been splintered. Thankfully Kenneth's classmates have arranged for a rendezvous point at a nearby hotel. The rest of the night, er morning, passed uneventfully, save for one last fisticuff. I don't know whether they were drunk or not, but 3 guys (or gals, I couldn't really tell) were really going at it, complete with haymakers.
Ah well, I guess all the signs point to a year full of aggro.
