...I like penguins...
Or, as they say here in Japan, "pengin"
I like pengins...
Go to a Japanese gay club/bar...DONE.
Last night, a group of friends/acquaintances/new people decided to go to Shinjuku, more specifically, the gay district in Shinjuku. My Gay Friend Dickson (tm) wanted to go to a gay bar/club, and Goth Friend Robert (tm) and I decided to go too because we figured there'd be better music than the regular clubs aroundabout. Dickson, being the gay charmer that he is, got another four girls to go too. Quote from Dickson: "See? You should always get a gay friend to get the girls for you." And now I have one. Yeehaw.
So after some wandering around aimlessly looking for a club recommended to us by the ever so helpful Souwa (of Kuroneko fame, fangirls out there would absolutely love him), we ended up asking this random stranger there for directions. The problem with our original directions were that they went something to the lines of "Go to Shinjuku's Nichome, and look for the club with a rainbow flag over it called Club Ace." Of course, when we got to Nichome (the gay district), every store had a rainbow flag over it. 7-11 had a rainbow flag over it. The bank had a rainbow flag over it. So we ended up going to this other random place called Club Dragon.
And here's where we had role reversal #1 of this trip: Cover for guys was $10 w/ 2 drinks, and girls were $20 w/ 2 drinks. For once, I'm not paying more than a female counterpart. Too bad women don't go there (damn).
So I always figured a gay bar/club wouldn't be too different from a straight club/bar, except the music might be different, and there'd be a significantly smaller number of women. Maybe this bar was just seedy. Maybe it's something for all gay bars. Regardless, they had some gay porn playing on a few tv's, and one of the bartenders was wearing nothing but a g-string of sorts. Apparently some girls there thought he was pretty hot, guess they like the big beefy guy look. Anyways, the booze was okay, the music was alright too (better than the straight bars, anyways), and there was this one girl there named Kinty who was pretty fun to hang around with (in a semi-shady sort of way). Another girl, Emily, seemed to be getting farther with a gay guy than Dickson was, for which she's getting plenty of harassment for now (but all in good fun, of course). A little dirty dancing later (but not enough dancing in general) we all took off for the last train home, and called it an evening.
All in all, the gay bar wasn't bad, but it didn't have that really awesome cozy vibe of Kuroneko (or really much of a good vibe at all).
Next week: 80's clubbing.
The other day I was eating dinner with my dormmates, who are named: Jordan, Jonathan, and Jason (sounds like a bad sitcom). Jordan is the pop-y white guy, Jason is the slightly-odd-but-funny Japanese guy, and Jonathan is the uber-fanboy/geek Chinese guy. On this particular night, we wandered over to this random "Chinese" restaurant aroundabout our dorm, and sat down to roder some food. A little snippet of it went something like this:
Waiter: What would you like?
Jason: Oyakodon (which is a chicken/egg rice bowl)
Jordan: Oyakodon (see above)
Me: Curry (which is curry)
Jonathan: Hm...erm...I think I'm going to order some...
(Waiter looks at Jonathan)
Me: (whispering) cock.
Jonathan: ...cock.
As of July 26th or some such, I've been in Japan. Since net is rather limited at the moment, a quick update of what's been up.
1) I spent a week touring random places with my parents, including odd temples and castles and the like. Not too exciting. Met this girl named Roma at one of the temples, and decided we'd meet up later for drinks, concerts, and whatever else was going on at the moment.
2) I started school at Japanese Language Institute in Tokyo. On a bit of a downer, I live in Saitama, which is about an hour's commute either way, making for a net of about two hours (at the least) each day commuting. Doh.
So random things I've done here:
* Met my dormmates, who are pretty cool. One of them's an uber-fanboy-geekboy (and you all know what that means), another's for the Abercrombie and Fitch sort of thing going on, and another's just kind of out there. Good times, bad times...mostly good times.
* Met this guy named Robert, who's got a ridiculously wide knowledge of industrial and rockish sort of music. He's since become my drinking buddy at Kuroneko (Black Cat), this nifty little bar in the Tokyo area.
* Kuroneko, little by little becoming my second home. Robert and I went to this bar on Friday (got a little tipsy), again on Saturday with Roma (mildly drunk), and again on Sunday after one of the bartender's concerts (a little tipsy again). They have the coolest drinks in the world here. Samples that come to mind:
1) Roses - An original mix by the bartender (Souwa) made from this alcohol derived from rose extract. Excellent mix, kind of lychee-ish, but you can definitely feel the rose undertones.
2) (something I forgot) - Another original mix by Souwa, it's a three layered drink. On the bottom is a cherry-ish syrup, the second layer is a white vodka, and the top layer is a black vodka. A little sip from each layer for those who please, and mixable for those who'd rather (all with a straw, of course).
3) Espiritus(sp?) - This particular alcohol makes bacardi 151 weenie sauce. At a delightful 96% alcohol by volume (or 192 proof for those who prefer that measure), "this shit will fuck you up."
4) (another drink I forgot the name of) - Souwa had some cinnamon schnapps or some such, along with this other alcohol, and mixed it up into a shot. What he then demonstrated was the proper way to drink it, particularly, swish it around in the mouth for about thirty seconds, tilt the head back, and light your mouth with a lighter, then drink it down. Yes I did it. Yes it was damn cool. No I didn't get a picture :/ But come Friday when it's Robert and my drinking time, there will hopefully be a picture for it ready.
5) A bunch of other Kuroneko original mixes, e.g. Kuroneko Hakushaku (Black Cat Count), Red Crown, Sakura Sakura, Jet Soda, and this other un-original-but-still-awesome Green Tea Fizz. It's green tea, with some lemon, with booze, with club soda. Awesome.
* The other bartender there, Motoki, has a band called 2nd Effect. On Sunday we went to go see their show, which was pretty....interesting. Japanese people are so dead. They sit there and watch the show and kind of clap at the end (sometimes they clap, anyways...a lot of the time they just stare). While some of the other bands that played were less than ideal, Motoki's band was pretty cool. He looks like Hide...sounds like Hide...kind of kooky.
* Played some Pachinko. I don't understand this game at all.
* Played some arcades. Remembered why I don't play arcades.
* Drank some more.
* Went to Harajuku, home of the gothic lolitas. One word suffices here: tasty. More pictures when I get off my lazy bum and decide to put some up. Let it suffice to say that these girls (and the teeny weeny sprinkling of guys) were, for the most part, very nice. How they can wear so much (or so little, in some cases) in the heat boggles my mind. Vinyl/rubber/leather is bad enough during a normal day in California, here it's infinitely worse.
* Drank some more.
* I'm sure there are other things I'm missing here, but will update on it later because this public computer keyboard is starting to irritate me.