1.) Bar ants - nice ass bar in fukuoka (I'll probably talk about that in a later post about the golden week holiday), but they didn't have a table charge (a common practice in japan, like a cover charge, but for a bar), and they had about the best damn garlic bread in the whole country. Also, they were showing this crazy ass show called the world of golden eggs, this sort of low-budget japanese animation show, but the crappiness just adds to the hilarity. Seriously. It's pretty funny (and for some reason all the shows have english subtitles which are pretty much way off what the people are actually saying, but capture the feel of the moment) - also hard to explain if you haven't seen it. So yeah. Oh, this place had a really awesome bathroom too - went all old-school style with a water closet (with a pull-cord on the toilet), and really nice fixtures - I have a video of me all drunk getting way too worked up about the awesomeness of the bathroom, so I'll omit it for now.
2.) Jamp. A sick live-karaoke bar in Fukuoka, steep charge though - 20 bucks. Worth it, however, once we figured out what the place was about - basically you pick the song you want to sing, and the bartender/owner and his band get up on stage with you and play the music while you sing the lyrics. Frankly, they're rather good and justify the price (also seeing some drunk-ass japanese people get up there and do their thing). I sang sort of a punk version of sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band, which the band thought was 'interesting'. We struck up a friendly conversation with the owner afterwards and we gave us this cd he cut a long time ago. It sucked. Ah well.
3.) Drunk at one of my favorite bars in kyoto one night (kakitani, deserves a post all its own), met a couple of young salarymen and we talked about america and japan a bit and agreed with each other a lot since we were plastered. Anyway we exchanged business cards and this was his. I forgot what he did.
4.) Ah, another denizen of this bar - Kazuhiko Matsushita - we met these guys on the second night of being in kyoto when we stumbled upon the place. He's a fashion importer from italy and was dressed to the nines and tens. Hilarious dude, looked like he was doing quite well for himself.
I always see him in there with some gorgeous dame or another, even though he's married and has a daughter (he showed us her picture and she was fiiiiine), whatever floats his sushi boat I guess.
5.) Kakitani - favorite bar in kyoto (more on this later). Card includes a map, which is nice, since the place is nearly impossible to find.
6.) Friend of the other young salaryman from number 3, also drunk, spoke good english as well. Works for wacoal, who are, among other things, one of the largest bra manufacturers in japan. Way to go man.
7.) Ah, the other Matsushita , he was with his brother the first time we went to Kakitani, works for one of the top three shipping companies in japan - SG Advance - I think my first host father may have worked for them. Anyway this guy was a big mucky-muck of some sort (like section chief for all of western japan or something) and got us wasted. Thanks.
8.) The ryokan (japanese-style inn) we stayed at in Beppu, land of steam vents - seriously, everywhere you went there were these jets of sulphuric vapor erupting from pipes all over the place in this town, supplying all the onsen (hot spring baths) with naturally heated mineral water. Made the place smell like shit though). Ill place - they had three separate baths, two outdoor, one indoor, we went to the old-style outdoor one which was one of the most relaxing experiences of my life. The place was really quiet and laid-back, and since it was the holidays, everyone had skipped town for places like tokyo disneyland and shit, so we got the place pretty much to ourselves. After the bath, we sat in our room and watched horrible japanese makeover shows. Hilarious.
9.) Don't really remember this one. I think I got this one from a drunkish salaryman at the smoking section of the hotel where Doshisha University had its welcome dinner for foreign students. I was sitting and chilling and all of a sudden like ten drunk, loud ass dudes in suits stumble out of this other room and all start smoking simultaneously. I ask them what's up, they say some sort of corporate party, dude's like 'why you here whitey' and I tell them I'm here for this thing, but all the other nerdy ass foreigners (including some pasty-ass fat german girls in kimonos who looked like cosplayers; stayed away from them) were fucking annoying, so i was outside smoking with the cool kids (them). The dude laughed and told his friends, who also laughed. So I guess the way to get cred with old-school japanese businessmen is to talk shit about foreigners. I could get used to this.
10.) Some dude from the AA (alkies anonymous) in Kagoshima, which is the southernmost city in Kyushu (which is the southernmost island in japan). Met him in a capsule hotel when he sort of just came up to us and invited us to breakfast (this capsule hotel was fucking nice, had it's own restaurant and a really sick black-slate public bath on the top two floors with magnificent views of Fukuoka and the surrounding mountains). I guess this dude is a bit irritating, but he used to be an alcoholic and now it just looks like he smokes like a chimney (had like three or four packs of cigarettes out in front of him at the restaurant) and talks your fucking ear off. He still calls me sometimes about some bullshit or another. Nice guy though. Likes to rescue homeless people.
11. & 12.) Nishida-san, former chief editor of National Geographic's japan bureau or something. Always drunk because I always see him at Kakitani (another reason my I dig the place so much, always some sick-ass people hanging out in there). Classic japanese businessman. Now he runs some print advertising company that makes flashy pamphlets and shit. Cool dude though really, bought me a few drinks in the day.
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