Adventures in Japan

I seem to recall we drank a lot

You know what's great about guests? They get you off your butt to do the things you've always meant to do but never quite got around to. In our case, all-you-can-deep-fry-stuff-on-a-stick, or kushikatsu. And yes, it's as awesome as it sounds.


What you do is fill your plate with whatever foods you fancy, just like a regular buffet, except everything comes skewered on a stick. You take your sticks back to your table, where you batter and bread them as you see fit, then deep-fry them right there in a vat in the middle of your table. Such potential for disaster, yet so delicious. What better way to kick off 6 full hours of karaoke?


Say Tyler, that's a spiffy hat you've got there. But what's up with your glasses?


Oh yeah, you snapped them in half...

Addendum

I was just off work for about a week and a half. It's been a while since I had to walk in high-heeled shoes. My feet hurt.

Ain't technology marvellous?

My brother Darren and his lovely new bride Sue are honeymooning in Japan. On our floor. Romantic! Almost as romantic as going back to work the day after your wedding, eh Tyler?

So anyway, me & Darren & Sue went out poking around yesterday and ended up trying out massage chairs. My, but technology has come a long way since I last sat in one of those! It pushed and prodded and squeezed and shook and did various other things that felt really nice. I think we may have to buy one. Even if it means staying in Japan yet ANOTHER year to pay it off. Seriously worth it.

What an awesome chair...

There and Back Again

We are back again in sunny Osaka. Except it's not sunny. Kinda grey and damp.

Once again, we didn't die en route. But this time Air Canada enthusiastically lived up (down?) to our low, low expectations.

After we landed we went out for a goodbye dinner for David. We just got home from that, I work tomorrow and Darren and Sue (the newlyweds) are arriving tomorrow night.

Time for sleep.

Not Dead

We landed safely in Vancouver, with all our limbs.

Since when did Air Canada not suck? That was a pleasant suprise.

Not the Last Part of the trip, But the Last Day of the Year

Sorry, ran out of time. Gotta catch a plane to Vancouver. There are pictures, but you won't get to see them until we get back

Bye.

Before I get to the New Year's Eve thing, I should also mention that at some point before New Year's Eve, Ben and I and a very energetic girl from California went out to karaoke. We never found a good karaoke place, so we ended up in a bar. A bar with overpriced drinks and people not dancing. Ben and this girl had no trouble making their own fun. I went on a walkabout.

So, New Year's...


I should mention now that we were staying in one of the oldest and most famous sections of Tokyo. There's a big gate and shrine and all sorts of loveliness. It was a great section of town to be in. It got a bit crowded at New Year's. Really crowded. The Asakusa shrine is one of the most famous shrines in Japan and easily the most popular one in Tokyo. So It was filled with stalls and shops and throngs of visitors. Throngs of throngs. Hundreds of thousands of people over the course of a couple days. That's where we were staying.


And we were staying there because our New Year's Eve plan was to take in an evening of music. Twelve hours of music bridging the two years. We weren't there for the full twelve, heavens no.

The reason we knew about this gig is Ben. Of course. He is the music man. A while back he saw a band called Asakua Jinta and he loved them. He raved about them to me. He found out that they were playing a New Year's Eve gig in Tokyo. He knew the group of us were going to be in Tokyo at that time. The rest is history. Nearly four month old history.

When we got there about 9, the show was well under way. We were the only white folk there, which is an odd occurrence in Tokyo. Seriously, Tokyo has too many white people, it freaks me out. Canada is going to be a bit of an adjustment.

I can't really remember the names of all the bands, but I know that as soon as each one finished their set, we ran out and bought their disc. And beer. It was an awesome time.


The first band we saw was just a girl singing and a guy with a guitar. It was pretty good, but then they kicked it up a notch: they added a tambourine! It sounds like I am being sarcastic, but I am totally serious. This girl rocked the tambourine! She made it sound like a full drum kit. Swear to god! The mic was nearly touching the tambourine, that helped I guess, but... I have never heard anything like it.


The next couple o' bands were also all sorts of awesome. Wearing their yukatas and bringing the rock and the funk. I believe one was called Samurai Dynamite. Their CD case was handmade, filled with original doodles. So awesome. I know I'm using a lot of awesomes, but that's the word I used over and over again that very night. And a lot of 'This rocks!'

Makes me feel bad that I can't remember more of the band names. But I remember the one that matters most, my favourite band of the evening who performed one of my favourite songs ever. A driving song. Meaning it has a driving rhythm. Not a good song to drive to. You'd probably end up gleefully running someone off the road while banging you hands on the wheel in time to the drums. The kind of song that makes you pause before you hit play, just to feel the shivers go up your spine. The kind of song that, if it comes up on shuffle, you stop it, crank the volume and then restart it. I love this song. It's name? Tree song. It looses something in the translation I reckon.


That was their first song. Matsuzaki Nao's first song. Just piano, bass and drums. Everyone slamming hard against their instruments. The bass player also slammed his foot down with every note, as if his furious playing just wasn't enough, as if he needed to add MORE SOUND.

They played like that for their whole set.


Asakusa Jinta took to the stage about a half hour before midnight. They are like some kind of klezmer ska band or something. Highly entertaining. Also entertaining: hearing Nate and Ben drool over the cute girl who played... some kind of musical instrument.


Midnight came, we all cheered and continued to party on. Some of us partied on longer than others.


The beers were not expensive. And you could toss in a shot off mango liqueur for free. It was really tasty. You could also get a boilermaker for the same price as a beer. What a great deal! I like both beer and whisky!

The boilermaker was a mistake. No, it's a mistake to even CALL the boilermaker a mistake. It was much worse than that. If a mistake got really plastered and had drunken 'relations' with a really bad idea, the fetid fruit of their fermented fluid fueled fornication would be the boilermaker I drank. And that's me saying that. I ingest stupid stuff all the time. Its nearly a hobby. I once did a shot of Bac O' Bits. It tasted of soap.

That was the beginning of the end of the evening for me, and the end of the drinking. Which was all right with me because the good bands had stopped playing and the loud ones had started. But I stuck around to the bitter end. The last band was called Jazz. But they were not a jazz band. They were only a jazz band in the sense that I didn't like listening to them.

Burn.

Except I actually like jazz. But not Jazz.

I wandered home at about... I have no idea what time it was, but it was well past the point where late becomes early. There were still heaps of people wandering around the shrine grounds.

That was our New Year's Eve.

Tokyo a Gastro AKA Tokyo the Second part 2: the Second Course

We had two big days of shopping and snooping about and each day ended in a big meal.

The first day, we ended up in the Lock Up. A prison themed restaurant. Kinda. It was more like a cross between a prison and a mad scientist's lab.

It was an enjoyable experience. Even though they didn't have any English menus. We found that odd. Not that all restaurants always have English menus, but most do. Especially such large places. Oh well, we figured most of it out. We ordered things that were on fire and such. And all of it was good. We ordered seconds. And none of it was as expensive as we were expecting.


The drinks were the best part. Some came in syringes, some with dry ice, but Ben's was by far the best. It was a series of test tubes filled with various coloured liquids and a beaker to mix them in. So awesome.

Indeed, the whole dining experience was awesome, but it was not crabtacular.

For you see, the Lock Up was in the same area, mayhap the same building even, as an all-you-can-eat crab place. All you can eat crab for 20 bucks! Sweet deal. So that is what we did the very next night.

The night of the crab did not get off to the best start. It seems the 20 buck per head advertised price was not quite true. There was also a table charge, and a seating charge and some other kind of charge. An extra ten per, all told. We were kinda cut about that. And the service at the start was a bit slow, which worried us because there was a time limit to the deal.


But things got better once the crab arrived. The dude, as he set down our first platter of crab, pointed at his watch and said, "Start now!" In Japanese. So we did.

So notes on the crab: they were whole, guts n' all. They were cold. They were wet. There was no garlic butter, but there was some kind of dipping sauce.

We set about destroying the crabs with the various crab destroying implements supplied to us. We were not so good at it. Most of the crab stayed in the shell. Most of the juice didn't. When a stream of juice shot over my shoulder I began to understand the extra charges. This isn't the kind of joint where you can just wipe off the table and seat the next customers. I did not envy whoever had to clean up after us.

A kindly waiter saw our crap crab scramblings and took pity on us. He showed us how to get the most meat in the least time. It took us a while, but we eventually got the hang of it and then we were feasting on mountains of crab. We got a little too good, actually. We felt full before the time was up.

Being stupid, we all basically bullied each other into another plate of crab. A bit of a mistake, that. I reckon we filled our crab quotient for the next few months with that one meal. Between the five of us, we ate around 30 crabs. We all smelled of crab at the end of it.

The Week That Was

I had a great week off. On the Monday, Ben and I went to see a gig. He had met this kid, Taro, at an Aka Inu show and Taro mentioned that he was in a band. Ben said he would love to see him play. On Monday, we did. The name of the band was...

Comit's Brass Band, or something very close to that. It was an interesting experience. I don't know if any of the band members were of an age that started with a two. Most of the girls in the audience were in their last year of high school.

Taro played guitar. There was also a bass player, two drummers (one of whom looked to be about ten), a pianist (not a keyboardist, the piano took up a lot of stage space) and a crazy procession of brass. I'm pretty sure all the brass players were in grade twelve. They were all full of crazy energy, always smiling.

It was infectious. Then again, I might be biased. The second song they played was a Super Mario Brothers medley, so I had to like them. That plus all the cute girls.

None as cute or as smart or as intelligent as my wife, of course.

The next night, Tuesday, we returned to Kobe to take in another band. This one we had seen before. And loved. K 106 (ichi maru roku) is just a great funk band.
The show was to start at 7. We showed up a little after 7. We freaked out the guy manning the door.
He saw us and said, "Uhhhhhh..."
Ben asked (in Japanese), "Is K 106 playing here tonight?"
The guy said, "Uhhhhhh... yes."
I asked (in Japanese), "When do they start?"
The guy said, "After 8! Come back later!"
He seemed glad to see us leave.

We grabbed some alcohol from a nearby 7-11 and wandered around for a bit. We really should spend more time in Kobe. It is a great city.

We wandered back to the bar where the band was hanging out. They all yelled at Ben when we entered and started shaking his hand. He's a popular guy.

The bar? Not so popular. The band (which has lost a few members since last we saw them) nearly outnumbered the patrons. But they were all regulars. K 106 plays at the club every Tuesday. Every Tuesday. And all the people we met come to the bar to watch the band every Tuesday. Every Tuesday. I am sorely tempted to do the same. As is Ben. We plan on going at least monthly. Seriously.

The gumbo helps. After the band finished, gumbo was served. 3 bucks for a bowl and a bun. It was good! One of the few times where I wasn't horribly disappointed by the spiciness of a dish.
After the grub, we sat and talked with the band and the fans in a bizarre mixture of English and Japanese. We would have stayed longer, but Carla had locked herself out of our apartment and I had to go and help her out.

On Wednesday, Carla and I went into Kobe (3rd day in a row, that's gotta be some kind of record) to poke about. Carla wanted to get some nice glasses. That didn't end up happening, but we had a great day none the less.

Kobe has an awesome Chinatown. Probably the world's cleanest Chinatown to boot. Filled with stalls filled with tasty things filled with tasty things. We were wandering through Chinatown when I spied a guy in a tie with a platter of fried delights. He was just foisting them upon passers by. Most of whom stopped and bought some. That, to me, seemed to be a sign of goodness. And it was. The best gyoza I have had in this country. Bigger than your average pot-sticker and stuffed full o' flavour. The beer was delightful as well.

As we sat and ate and drank we watched the tie guy with his wares. He was not subtle. He shoved food into people's mouths. Good times.

Mainly, we just ate and wandered around Kobe.

Later in the day, David came and joined us. David is not long for this world.

By 'this world', I mean Japan.

He's leaving. Right soon. So it was mighty fine of him to come all the way out to Kobe to hang with us for what might be the last time. We'll miss him.

Thursday was, as ever, spent at Bala's. Playing pool and shooting darts.

I don't remember Friday. It must've been pretty good.

Saturday: ditto. Wait, no. I remember. Kishen and I went over to Paul's new place and ate and drank and Wii'd. One of the puffy snacks we ate tasted disconcertingly similar to smoked Johnsonville Brats.

Sunday: HANAMI! Love these things. One of Japan's best ideas ever. Sit under the beautiful new cherry blossoms each year with a group of friends, eating and drinking to excess.

After that, we loudly made our way back to Ben's and drank some more. Jon introduced us to yet another great drink. Take a black beer, any kind will do and add a couple shots of Kahlua. Delish. Delightful. Dreamy. So dreamy that Carla soon crawled onto Ben's futon and passed out. The rest of us, the men, continued to drink.

Pretty good week off, all told.