Japanese bars

[Yakumo]

The drinking atmos is really mellow. No wankers pissing you off, no scum, no dip ****s spilling drinks on you and it's easy to get served unlike UK bars where you become invisible unless you're waving a load of notes at the staff. Smoking is also fine in the bars I go to. no special room or corner. Japanese love to smoke it would seem and cigs are much cheaper here.

[JazzFunk]

^Oh, wow, sounds amazing! I love that chilled-out, polite kind of vibe, it really appeals.

There's a few pubs in Leeds, like The Duncan and The General Eliott (a pub that can't decide how its name is spelt, so contains two different variants on its facade), places where the hardened, weary, middle-aged super-boozers hang out - are there any dives like that where you are? Or any crazy, druggy bars??

[Mr Ono]

Almost makes me want to take up drinking.

[Yakumo]

^Oh, wow, sounds amazing! I love that chilled-out, polite kind of vibe, it really appeals.

There's a few pubs in Leeds, like The Duncan and The General Eliott (a pub that can't decide how its name is spelt, so contains two different variants on its facade), places where the hardened, weary, middle-aged super-boozers hang out - are there any dives like that where you are? Or any crazy, druggy bars??

The real piss heads normally hand out in sad dingy holes while dickheads end up in the titty bars if anywhere. Normal folk who like a good drink go to places like the one in my video. I was actually there last night. Got there about 9pm and left at 6:30am. The owner and I takled a lot about cameras. He's really in to his photography but like me he's new to it so we share ideas and info. I also get a few free drinks. The owner is a really great guy.

[fishbowlhead]

Ill never forget getting blind drunk on sake in a roppongi sake bar, when we left we decided to check out the other floors of the building, stopping on a random pick turned out to be a karaoke bar full old business men, the music stopped and the whole bar just stared at us standing in the tiny lift, we felt like wed just come across a hundred mens dirty little secret, man those lift doors just couldnt close fast enough, 2 seconds after the lift started going down they were straight back to singing. I miss Tokyo

[JazzFunk]

Cheers for all your observations, this is a fantastically interesting thread. Most UK TV that centres on Japan tends to focus on either the tech n' neon cityscapes, or your historical stuff like samurai sword crafting and zen gardens or whatnot, you never get a good handle on how the Japanese handle their vices, seems boozing is handled very differently whatever part of the world one lives in.

If I'd've been pissed enough, I would've got out of that lift and stepped into that bar, btw!

[Jay]

UK bars where you become invisible unless you're waving a load of notes at the staff.

This is literally the best way to get ignored in a UK bar.

Bars I enjoyed on my first trip to Japan last year were Muteki Mario, a (tiny) Mario-themed bar near Shinjuku and 8-Bit Cafe, which is in the same area and slightly bigger. Would love to explore more bars next time I'm there.

[QualityChimp]

Re: Japanese bars

I went to a blossom festival in Japan and found it hilarious to watch drunken salary men running for the train in lurching zigzag patterns!

Drunk people: the universal language of comedy!

[k0pp0]

Nothing like seeing loads of Japanese yute spewing into bags on train of a Friday night, or the conductors trying to wake up a random dude by poking him with sticks.

I actually saw quite a cool think in Japan.. Well it didn't start out cool. Basically we walked onto the train home after being kicked around the Dojo, and sat down in what can only be described as a haze of booze-smell. Gradually we realised that there was a heated discussion between 2 guys going on, and one of them was pretty bloody big and reeking of drink. He'd taken his belt off and was about to use it to beat the sh1t out of another guy. Both were Japanese, and my instructor turned to me and said 'What do you think?'. I said 'leave them to it, only get involved if it get's really nasty, I don't want to spend the night with the police'.

So, just when the big guy was going to start smacking the other one, a really old and very small gent came up and interrupted the fight with lots of bowing and slowly but surely talked the big guy down and walked him to another part of the train.

I nearly clapped.

Few weeks later I was reading another forum where another chap from the US talked about the same kind of experience, although the anger was directed at him.

Over here everyone would have probably just watched. Or filmed it on their phone.

[Yakumo]

It's embarrassing to be British when nights out at the pub are concerned. Dickheads fighting over **** all the time, no order at all when waiting for a taxi, wankers who think they are invincible to cars on the road. It's pathetic.

[Anpanman]

Yep, remember a few years back, we went to Osaka (our nearest big city if you exclude Kobe) to meet friends, into an Izakaya about seven at night which was absolutely bouncing - excellent atmosphere, and were told we had a table limit of two hours.
Came out at nine and went for some noodles then ended up at a coffee house until eleven when we went our separate ways.

Couldn't believe it, eleven at Saturday night in one of the biggest cities on the planet and it was quiet - OK other parts of Osaka would be much busier but we were still fairly central, no nobheads fighting or puking in the streets, no police sirens - what a contrast to the UK.

[Yakumo]

We have police down in Kokura (Kita Kyushu ) but that's just to keep Yakuza arse holes in line. No **** ever goes down because there's an understanding and even if it did it wouldn't effect normal people. Yes, indeed. Drinking at night in Japan is as safe as can be. No fights, no muggings, no anything. Just how it should be.