Japan is great. It’s a very stylish place. If I have discovered anything about Japanese life, the motto is “have a style” whatever that style may be. That represents the difference between Japan and Korea. Korea tends to be more conservative where the motto goes something like “have a style which has been approved by the majority” but here, everything is kind of unique, but at the same time well refined.
Yesterday, I visited the Osaka castle and had a wander around taking pictures. It was mainly for the sake that I did something cultural, if taking photos of an old building can be called cultural. It was a huge structure, atop a hill, surrounded by an intimidating moat and wall.
Some of the stones in this wall weighed over 80 tons. They were huge and they surrounded the castle area completely.
After the castle, I wandered back into the center of town and had dinner at one of the little restaurants along one of the main boulevards. I was about to enter when the man at the door advised me to buy my dinner ticket before entering. I purchased it from the machine and then gave it to the lady inside. 5 minutes later my meal arrived. I love eating here. The food is delicious and healthy, plus the restaurants often have a dark brown wood finish and little bits of ornamentation here and there. Also, even in contrast to Korea, everything is scaled down. Most things here are petite, even the trains. It makes everything cute. But back to my dinner. This was like a broth, with I’m guessing a few slivers of roast pork. It was very fatty, and I had a similar thing again today. It tasted great. Today I stopped in a little restaurant near my hotel and had a rice dish with seaweed and bits of chicken or pork or something. Again, very delicious. I really really dig the food here.
Here’s me digging the food
Now, after dinner last night, I saw a big chain of Karaoke places and felt that I needed to try it out, to see the difference between the NoRaeBangs of Korea and the home of singing rooms, Japan. I was blown away. It was cheaper, cleaner, more advanced and it had a ton of English songs, more than I’ve ever seen before. There were so many songs that I wanted to sing, I ran out of time. I’m considering going back there again today. No, not considering, I have every intention of running there as soon as I get done typing.
After that I went to a bar which I’d seen recommended off the internet. It was cool, I had some drinks and talked to some Japanese, a British guy and some French guys. They gave me the scoop on different aspects of Japan which was good. Then a Japanese girl took me to a nearby club. It was in the basement and it was built like a cave. I paid the equivalent of $30 to get in, and after that the drinks ran free flow. This was not necessarily a good thing. The dancefloor was plain enough, but all over the place there were subterranean dugouts with a table and seats. Again, every place has its own style. I soon met a bunch of different people, who seemed to come and go according to a schedule. I’d be standing around, then a Canadian guy would come up, talk about something, depart, only to be followed by the Japanese girl who took me there, who said she had to check something at another bar, followed by another Japanese girl who said she was scared of the black guy trying to dance with her. It was all very interesting. And inevitably, what with the nice atmosphere, cave-style dug outs and a free flowing bar, I became steadily intoxicated.
It’s one thing to go to a bar and have someone buy you drinks. You know that it ends when they run out of money. There are limits. But with a bar where all the drinks you want were covered by your entrance fee, there really is no limit. Eventually I just had to insist on the strongest water they had in the place. I watched the time pass from a dug out and waited until my body had dealt with all the mud slides, tequila poppers and god knows what else everyone thrust at me. Luckily I’m quite a trooper and I was good to go in oh two hours. But it wasn’t the best move on my part being so drunk my first night in a strange city.
Having regained control of my faculties, I waited another hour or so until the subway opened again. I remember telling everyone who would listen that it was the drunkest I had been in a long time. To which their reply was, you don’t look drunk at all. I remember being so tired I wished that I could curl up on the subway as I was riding it home. I remember falling onto the bed and I don’t remember a lot after that.
Today there are a few things that I could do, but they are only touristy things. Had I more time, it would have been nice to catch a train to Kyoto which I understand is quite close to here. There is some nice scenery there or something. But now that it’s heading into my last night in town, I guess I’ll just try to explore the Japanese nightlife again. Oh it’s a dreadful boring task I know, but someone has to do it. I must learn from these Japanese, who just have the can-do spirit. Here are some examples:
The nay-sayers said it couldn’t be done, they said it was impossible. But damn it, they built a giant crab and stuck it on their restaurant.
Women-only subway cars were created to give women a chance to be free from men rubbing themselves up against them as they travel home. But this man wasn’t going to let a little sign stop him from his favorite non-karaoke past-time.
People love dogs. People love coffee. Some bright Japanese entrepreneur made everyone’s dreams come true as he brought mankind’s two loves together for the first time. Dog cafe. This idea didn’t take so well in Korea, as customers kept sitting down and saying “I’ll have a mocha latte and that little brown dog over there.”
And if the famous running man doesn’t inspire you to get up and make the most of life, then I don’t know what will.
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