I'd say it extends back to Saturday, really, but the focus isn't on that. We went out to the Solid Steel Nippon Tour at one of the clubs to see DJ Food & DK and a bunch of other DJs from Ninja Tune. It was a great time. And I haven't met so many Canadians. Seriously, the place was half-full of foreigners, which is unusual, even for that
particular club. We were out until 7am, and went to Denny's for breakfast. Yes ... and Denny's here, well, is actually really really damn good. As is everything American via Japan, it's a weird emulation that is much better. Anyway ...
Monday night we went and met up with my friends Severine and Michel. They're French, from Paris. Both are neurobiologists that study object detection in the visual cortex (Sev, she does this on mice,
Michel, he's working with monkeys), bloody brilliant people, and rather funny. Went to an izakaya for drinks and, since I hadn't eaten, grabbed some food as well. edamame and yakitori shish-kababs, etc.
Anyway, we were in Shibuya, which is a 20-min walk from home. We missed the last train, on purpose, since getting up early isn't a requirement in my world anymore. So, 1am rolls around, we leave the bar, and head home. Dan is drunk as hell, having drank five hot sake. I don't think I've ever seen him so drunk. Not so bad, really, just a bit of slurred speech. No different than the talkative Dan we all know.
We get about 2/3 of the way home and we're in a relatively quiet area, Ebisu, but it's still quite commercial. Dan sees a photo-op of about 50 wine bottles on a set of stairs leading up to a bar. We both notice the
door is open, there's some music filtering out. Of course, Daniel decides to investigate. He pokes his head in and is greeted by the bar tender who speaks passable English. The place is empty, and tiny. 10 people would be packed. so, 2 of us, bartender ... so far.
We order cold sake. I ask for "ginjo", which is the tastier, but slightly more expensive variety. The bartender calls downstairs to have some brought up. this should have been the indication that we were in for an, shall we say, interesting evening. As the saying goes, "a fool and his money are soon easily parted". Fool or drunk, whatever.
We agreed to have just 1 drink (oddly, I stuck to this, Daniel, well, he only had 2) and then go home.
Shortly after we start sipping our very tasty and overpriced nihon-shu, a well-spoken business man in a nice suit comes in. A moment later his girlfriend or wife sits next to him, too. The place is so small, it is impossible not to have a conversation. They're quite nice. Dan starts into his business mode schpeil. I take little notice and start talking to the bartender, trying to practice some japanese, too.
Ten minutes later the bar owner, a very dignified and poised middle aged woman, comes in and starts chatting with us, too. An impressive lady, a property owner, very japanese in a non-japanese-woman kind of way (hard to explain that one). She asks, in a bold way that let's you know she's a smart cookie, if she could have a glass of champagne. I agree, knowing full well that we will be the ones footing her bill. It's just like that ...
Five minutes following her arrival, two more ladies join the quickly growing party. One is in her 30's, the other in her 20's. Daniel is in full swing talking to the businessman and his wife, so I focus on these two women. The older one, also incredibly dignified, I don't remember the name of. She's pretty, but, well, not as pretty as the younger one, who's name turns out to be Momo (Momoka, in full). I start rambling drunkenly in English and Japanese about travelling, teaching, about Canada, and all kinds of things. Neither of them speak English nearly as well as the owner or the bartender, so I get to practice more, which is fine by me. Of course, I'm paying for the girls' drinks, too. They were nice, though, and only had one glass of champagne each.
So now it's an instant party. the place was dead, then we arrived ... seemed very well choreographed to have people arrive, us drink more, spend more money, but it was so fun that it didn't feel like a scam or anything. Hell, we wanted to have fun, we did.
Then some irritated short man speaking English with a French accent comes charging in telling us to shut it up and keep it down; he lives up-stairs. The owner, who owns the entire building, is this dude's landlady. He's staying in a guest house, just like I am. I understand, it's now 2am and he wants to sleep. Sucks for him to live right above a bar, though. He then threatens to call the police if we don't keep it down.
3am rolls up and, well, a single police officer does, indeed, arrive. It's OK, we're all ready to leave by this point. I've already gotten an e-mail and phone # from this Momo and Daniel has gotten one more business contact in Japan. 2, in fact, as we also chatted with the owner. Gotta respect a single, strong woman like that, especially one like that in Japan.
Everything wraps up, we get our cheque. Daniel, well, he didn't realize we'd be paying for the girls' drinks, gets a little weirded out. I knew what was going on, reassured him that I knew, and we paid our ¥10,000 cheque and resume our drunken stumble back. I mean, it could have been a whole hell of a lot more expensive, all things considered.
It's starting to get light out (Japan and it's lack of DST) and it's not even 4am. Get home, and the front door is locked. I know, I know, that should seem normal. But, it is never locked. And I didn't bring my key! So we pound on the door until someone comes. The new guy that just moved in Saturday from the US half-asleep unlocks the door for us. Have to remember to thank him again.
Let me tell you, though, I did pay for the lack of intelligence with an amazing hangover the next day.
