Adventures in Japan

Another expensive weekend

Of the three, count 'em three, free English language publications available around these parts, at least two of them advertise a bar called Café Absinthe. Now with a name like that, how could we not go? Answer: we couldn't. Not go, I mean. So we did. Go.

Surprise surprise, the bar advertised in foreigners' magazines was full of white guys. At least these seemed younger and slightly hipper than the ones we usually see in such places. The bar itself was brighter and not quite as funky as I was expecting. But it didn't totally suck. And it reminded me that I like the idea of absinthe much more than I like the taste. I drank my absinthe in a cocktail, because it seemed like the thing to do. Unfortunately, it still tasted unpleasantly like licorice. Apparently the wormwood content of absinthe sold in this country is as negligible as it is in Canada, so I think I've officially given up on my dreams of an interesting absinthe experience. Although lighting drinks on fire is always a pretty good time...

After the absinthe, we wandered until we found food, an ATM, and a taxi for our lovely companion, then we walked home. I had a couple of pretty good Irish coffees, so I was all right. I'm not sure what Tyler had been drinking, but he was dozing as he trudged the hour or so back to our apartment. It was cute.

Somehow not feeling the post-absinthe lightness of our wallets, we ventured out again the next night. This time without any plan in particular. We probably could have wandered the whole night listening to street performers (like the Chinese lion dance drum guys, or the choreographed funk guys) if "the man" hadn't come along to shut them all down. I'm not sure if they were police, or the Japanese equivalent of mall security guards, but they went up the street shooing everyone along. Pity.

So with no more free street entertainment, we sought to amuse ourselves at an izakaya. Failing to find the one we were looking for, we ate okonomiyaki. You know, the Japanese omelette-y, pancake-y, pizza-y things. It was overpriced and really, really nothing special. But it kept us downtown long enough and put enough beer in us to think that all-night karaoke would be a good idea.

We tried one of the places with one of the giant mechanical dragons out front. For one not so low price (but pretty reasonable, compared to the hourly rate) we got a karaoke booth from 11:00PM until about 5:30AM plus unlimited free drinks. Unfortunately, the booth we were given had unpleasantly warped mirror-type panels on the walls. I guess it was meant to make the room seem bigger, but really it was just distracting and more than a little off-putting. The room didn't seem to have any climate controls, either. If it hadn't been for the free drinks, we might as well have been singing in an elevator. Speaking of, the background music for our songs had a decidedly Muzak quality. And it seems all the foreign songs play over top of the same two videos. One was just a lot of shots of San Francisco, London, and Rome, with a little Paris or New York thrown in for good measure. I believe we also saw a lot of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The other video featured jazz musicians and a guy tap dancing on the street. Try watching that all night. Maybe we wouldn't have noticed if we'd been drinking steadily, but the service was very, very slow. And rarely did we get exactly what we asked for.

We lost one of the screws from Tyler's camera, so we haven't had it out with us the past few days. That's a real shame, because many of Tyler's performances were worth recording. He sang his little heart out. I'm surprised he's still got his voice today. What a guy!