Oh man, I ‘know’ better than to go out running on a weeknight…
A few of us decided to go up to Roppongi last night since we didn’t have anything better to do after the meetings ended for the day…
Soooo, off we go to the train station, two hours later we get up there, and start trying to find any of the old haunts.
Now let me put this in context, the last time ANY of us were up there was at least five years ago. In Tokyo, especially the nightclub district, that is ancient history. In other words, we didn’t find a single place that looked familiar!!!
After taking our bearings on the Tokyo tower (important for later), off we went. And the arguments started…
Cheap beer (well relatively speaking), hostess bars (entertainment, but you have to buy the bar girls drinks), music bars (LOUD, I SWEAR NONE OF THOSE KIDS CAN HEAR A JET PLANE), food (me), and the whole time we are standing in the street arguing, we’re watching people stream around us like water around a boulder, and they are ALL 20 years younger than we are… sigh…
So we finally decide to hit a couple of places, then eat, and then head back. Now the argument was upstairs or downstairs bar. In Roppongi you can have a four-story building with a bar on each floor, or two bars per floor, and they will be different types, have entirely different décor, and wildly different availability of booze and prices.
We started at the Fiesta, an upstairs bar, fairly quiet after sticking our heads in ONE OF THE LOUD BARS. It was actually decent and the beer wasn’t outrageous (about $8 for a one liter Sapporo).
After that beer, we decided to wander again, and ended up in a hostess bar, so that was a $20 beer, and of course one of the guys bites on having some sake…
And the downward spiral began…
Another bar and this time three guys are drinking sake, I’m switching to coffee and wondering if we’re EVER gonna eat. And we’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna get everybody back in one piece. And on to the next bar… Sigh…
By now it’s about 10:00pm, so we finally outvote the drinkers and decide to eat. Yea me! Only problem, one of the guys sweet tooth has kicked in, so he sees these desserts in the window (by the way, they are ALL plastic copies), he just has to have one.
So now dinner has just been reduced to dessert, and oh by the way, the cheap ones were about $8, plus coffee $4, plus liqueur $10. And now the decision process of ‘which’ of the 30 offerings does everybody want starts, and we’re looking at the time, because if we don’t get a move on we’re going to be spending the night down town, which is NOT good, since a cheap hotel in Roppongi is $250 a night…
Finally everybody gets their selections, and we eat standing at the counter (mine WAS good, but that was WAY too much pound cake for the little bit of ice cream and the 1 ½ strawberries I got). The guy with the sweet tooth just HAD to have another, so we left him with one of the soberest guys, agreed to meet back at the train station,and the rest of us hit the street for monkey meat on a stick (about $4).
We’re now trying to get back to the main drag, after wandering around for a couple of hours, so we’re looking for any glimpse of the Tokyo Tower. We finally get back and then have to figure out which way the train station is; thankfully a local took pity on us and pointed us in the right direction!!!
Finally back at the train station, we experienced an Aw S**T moment as we were trying to buy tickets and thought we had missed the last train! Thankfully, we were just screwing up the ticket buying, and again got help from a local, and the ticket was $24. Now the issue was whereinthehell are the other two, and howinthehell did I spend $100 in four hours???
We finally gathered them up and made the platform as the train was pulling in! Turns out the last train is a local, so it stopped at EVERY @#^& station between Tokyo and Yokosuka! We didn’t get back to Yoko until almost 0200!
After a leisurely ¾ mile stroll we made it back to base and I finally got to bed about 0300, only to get up at 0530. And spent ALL day in meetings… AND my head hurts… sigh…
Once again we’ve learned we are NOT 21 anymore… Night all!
Favorite bars in Hiroshima, cica 1976 (Showa 50)
Stand Bar “N” where I had a “keep bottle”
Any rooftop bar/restaurant
The “Texas One Dollar Bar” for acceptance of gaijins late at night.
Favorite late night after bar meal: Soba (noodles)
I kinda miss old Nihon……
mmm … right, so you’re not having fun …. hope things get better …
Your a party animal!!! Awesome!
You made me flash back…
I cannot compare, except to say I was up well past midnight last night doing enjoyable things with enjoyable people, and thus slept in till 8am this morning.
First time in a year I slept past 5am.
I hope you got 5 minutes of good deep drags on ABO this morning.
Aviation oxygen does wonders for a fat head. LOL
Gerry
Mark me down for a flashback, too. Now let’s go get some ramen noodles from a machine and a beer.
60’s Germany my buddy and I wander into a Sekt (Champagne) party in a tiny German town. Seems it was a civic fund raiser and we were asked to buy the servers a drink. Between my buddy and I, we came up with 400 DM and told them to just open the bar. Of course, a couple of locals weren’t going to allow two GI’s to show them up and out came their money. The whole town got smashed. We were fortunate to have a weekend pass as it was Sunday at 2300 when we got back. Took until Wednesday to recover. Our Sergeant was so understanding!
Not gonna say it…nope…nope…not gonna say it…
Heh!
That’ll teach your butt.
PE- Yep, the bottle bars are STILL here 🙂
Julie- It was fun, it would have been better if I hadn’t had to get up! 🙂
Peedee- NOT!!!
LL- Hopefully it was a good one! 🙂
Carteach- That works too! Glad you had a good evening!
Gerry- I wish!
Barco- 400 yen- pay the machine! 800 yen 1 liter Asahi!
WSF- You were LUCKY!
Crucis- Don’t worry, we were saying it to each other yesterday morning…
Paw- It did, but I’m a SLOW learner 🙂
Monkey meat on a stick?!!! I have to say, this post was awesome Jim! I could actually feel your pain!! LOL!
Hopefully there weren’t any youthful cries of CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!….
FF- That’s the ‘standard’ phrase for anything eaten off a street vendor’s cart. In PI or Nam or Thailand, odds were it really was monkey meat 🙂
Top- Oh hell no, we’re MUCH to mature for that 🙂
Re: Monkey meat. Add, “as well as in some places in Mexico.”
Trust me on that one!
I only made it to Okinawa when in the Army, and tried Sake. Yeah, couldn’t do it. Then again, couldn’t Roki( I believe that is what it is called) when in Sarajevo either.
I don’t blame ya scalawag, sake is like particularly sour white wine. (Btw: if you’re in japan, and want to try sake, don’t ask for sake, as that’s what they call alcohol, ask for nihonshu, which is what we call sake).
Btw NFO, have you tried okonomiyaki yet? It’s a sort of omelette that’s called the pizza of japan(for the many different ingredients you can use, the name basically means fry what you like).
Another dish often liked by us westerners is sukiyaki. Thin slices of meat briefly cooked in a special(and quite sweet) soy based soup(or whatever you’d call it). Traditionally the meat should then be dipped in raw egg. It’s eaten kind of like a fondue(ie: you dip pieces of meat yourself).
Crucis- Yep, either that or the toughest pork I ever saw…
CS- I can do it, I just don’t like what it does to me the next day!
Mikael- Yep, I love okonomiyaki! It’s a quick, easy meal anytime. I like yakisoba and yakitori also. I’m not a big sushi eater, but I can do that in a pinch. I just hate eating good bait… 🙂