Days 9 and 10: Fukuoka

Trying to make an informed decision in Nakasu, the red light district of Fukuoka.

You can never go wrong with yakiniku. I believe the place was called 88 meat.

Better than magic mushrooms?

Rubbish in Japan has to be sorted. Finding a general rubbish bin is hard.

In case you can read the shirt, it says `shit happens hysteric`.

We actually got to play the baseball thing for an hour. Its much harder in real life than in Ryuga gotoku.

I`m already getting hungry looking at this.

With Sandy and Rei at this cool ramen place where all the seats are separated and you can`t see the servers. Apparently its because it used to be a yakuza eating place.

I want to work for a magazine/website reviewing kyabakuras when I grow up.

Fukuoka at night.

Hellcar actually won something from a UFO catcher. Too bad it wasn`t a love plus pillow.

Self explanatory photo.

Free information magazine and booklet in Nakasu.

Random notes:

- Fukuoka is full of lovely girls.

- one OL was cycling towards me and I was trying so hard not to be obvious.

- we unfortunately did not patronise any snakus/kyabakuras in Fukuoka as Sandy wasn`t really familiar with the nightlife there.

- hopefully going to maid cafe on Saturday with Iino. Can`t promise pictures since you have to pay for them. Not sure about taking pictures with maids handing out pamphlets though.

- Never arrive back in Tokyo by shinkansen with two bags during rush hour unless you want to know what being in a human grinder feels like.

- Always ask for an English menu.

- Fukuoka CBD is more than twice the size of Melbourne`s yet half as packed. As Sandy said, it seems like an awesome city to live in.

- Thanks to Sandy for showing us around Fukuoka.

- I still can`t find the SSF4 technical guide and now that I`ve decided to get a PSP for Hatsune Miku, I can`t even find the freaking game!!!!!!! PSPs in Japan are fucking cheap though.

- If you are an old school momusu fan like me, book-off in Akiba is heaven. Lots of old photobooks for only 500 yen each!

Day 8; Last Day in Osaka

Three idiots ready face the dangers of Osaka night life.

With Hellcar going back to Kyoto for more temple sightseeing and a scheduled date with biyoshi, Rei and I decided to do some walking around Osaka in the afternoon. Billy at this time had sadly, quietly slipped back on the shinkansen back to Tokyo and Australia. We went to the Sega Joypolis and the most shocking thing there was that there was no VF5R or even SF4 machines! WTF??? A Sega arcade without fighting games, not to mention one of the longest lasting and best remaining Sega franchises. I know the Sega Joypolis is aimed more at families but surely they could have spared one or two arcade cabinets for fighting games. The Namco Land/World nearby had VF5R but no SF4. I felt like I was in bizarro world.

I can assure you she looks better in real life.

Met bframe5 for the first time after a few years of blogging comments and msn chats. It was a relief to have a guide in Osaka though this was only his third time there. We initially wanted yakiniku cause it would be better if someone actually knew what we were ordering but we ended up going to a kushikatsu. Its one of those fried food on a stick with lots of dipping sauce places. Probably due to the fact that it was at like the 6th floor of a shopping centre. it was pretty expensive.

Nice shot by bframe5!

Next was a shochu bar. Nice looking girls but I was the only one who missed out on seeing the 3rd floor girl. We had our own nice tatami room and just drank sochu and some light food. Bframe5 said that kyabakuras should at least be the third place you visit because it cannot be enjoyed when sober.

I think all Japanese girls are experts at posing for the camera.

We were ready to go to Vivi, an OL themed kyabakura. Rei and I had actually passed it in the afternoon and its rather magnificent billboard caught our eye so we knew where to go. Unfortunately, the guy working the entrance of the 3rd floor kyabakura seemed overly concerned at the fact that we were not Japanese, our language skills and whether we had enough money. Bframe5 said that it was the first time ever that he had been treated that way and of course we decided to walk away, though the hostesses did look sumptuous in their tight OL outfits.

Get your hand out of my wallet!

We found ourselves at another kyabakura. A bit small but at least they didn`t ask for our credit cards upfront. Unfortunately, the first batch of hostesses that we got were bad. Bframe5`s was pretty ugly and Rei got the best of the 3. After the initial OMFG, I feel like I`m in Ryuugagotoku/midnight dorama` it become WTF this bitch is trying to get me to buy her a drink every 5 minutes. And they were very fucking aggressive. I think we each bought our hostesses 3 drinks and they weren`t that attractive, except for Rei`s.

Nana looks really good in this.

Time was up and bframe quickly said that we were happy to change. We had decent looking girls now. Bframe had the best looking girl though. She was IMHO, the one hostess in the kyabakura worth buying 2 drinks an hour for. She had this bubbly personality and seemed smarter than the rest. Mine was better looking but she couldn't fake any decent amount of enthusiasm in the conversation. WTF are the Jyoou Virgin`s in Osaka??????!!!!!! I think we all asked the hostesses who they listened to and they all said Ayu, Namie and Lady Gaga. That tells you a lot. The bill at the end was fucking crazy. I could have almost bought a Saber Lily Golden Caliburn figure for it! Gaaaaaaaah.

Mika and Nana.

Undeterred though, bframe5 lead us to a snaku. The price was decent, the girls overall were better and they didn`t make money from us ordering drinks for the girls. The girls, Mika and Nana were as pretty nice. Yes, when you get good service you remember the girl`s name though when I think it was Nana said she like the evil trinity of Ayu, Namie and Gaga, bframe and I were rolling our eyes at each other. The service at the snaku was good and the price decent. Bframe5 said that the kyabakuras at Nagoya were definitely better so I guess its also a case of knowing where to go.

3 of the coolest dudes in Osaka.

At the end my wallet was much lighter but at least I can say that I`ve been to a kyabakura, snaku and biyoshi in Japan. Thanks to brame5 for coming all the way down to Osaka and wasting your money to show me and Rei a good time. Not to mention doing the whole `my Australian friends would like to take a picture with you` routine. You`re a legend.

Day 7: Den Den Town and day 2 with biyoshi

Awesome tsukemen. Just dip the ramen into the sauce. 

Woke up to sounds from primary school next door eightish. 11.30 we have tsukemen at the place that the hairdresser recommended. The sauce which was separate was freaking awesome. Think of it as similar to zaru soba but instead of soba, you have udon and the sauce has couple pieces of delicious stewed pork. Excellent brunch though not very filling. Good thing we went there as it opened because a long queue was starting to form.

Nice view from top of J-Hoppers.

Had a bit of trouble trying to find Den Den Town/Nippombashi but we managed to stumble our way there. Its basically rows of shops along this long road with electronics, manga and lots of ero shops. There was even one with 5 levels of JAV. I bought a hatsune mike figure because I was afraid that I might not be able to find it in Akiba when I go back. Will post picture of it probably tomorrow.

Rei focusing intently on some educational material.

Den den town just doesn`t have the same vibe as Akiba. Its just a long road of specialty shops instead of a huge area that is completely different from norm. That said, the shops were really good. There was a shop with lots of figures, some old. Was deciding whether to buy this Kano Uncho chained up figure for 10000 yen but it was pretty big and I was sort of hesitent. Bringing figures back is going to be a problem because the boxes take up so much space but you need them in the boxes in order to protect them.

Chocolate flavoured soda. Its actually tastes suprisingly decent.

Found a shop with lots of old photobooks like Natsumi Abe ones. For an old school momusu fan like me, it was heaven. Didn`t have much time to browse since we had a hair appointment at 7. Tempted to go back tomorrow but hopefully will be able to find good photobookshop in Akiba. I just don`t feel like carrying too much luggage to Fukuoka and back to Osaka.

We had omurice, risotto? and nikudango for dinner.

Went to haircut with Hellcar and unfortunately my hair was cut a bit too short. Should have said trim instead of a 5cm cut. It was a pretty long cut at around 45 minutes. Usually I just lop of the end of my ponytail and shave my sideburns which takes around 15 minutes. I can still tie my hair but gell would be essential for the front. The sad thing was, she remembered Hellcar`s name but had to ask my name again. It was as if I had been hit by a super and ultra combo at once. I am powerless again gaijin power. I was the very definition of chopped liver.

Drink that Rei bought with Lightning from FFXIII on the can.

Not to mention that Hellcar was asked if he could model his haircut for the shop blog. Yes, I now have an amateur model for a friend. I won`t post the blog link to not reveal hairdresser`s identity here but the pictures should be up if not tomorrow, by monday. We asked her out for dinner and once again I was basically playing the interpreter friend. We started running out of simple topics to talk about and I could feel the limitations of my Japanese. A lot of times, I`m just doing a direct translation from English but it doesn`t really make sense in Japanese.

Why I deserve a job in Japan.

Hairdresser had to go back to study at 12ish. Hellcar and I split the bill and thanked her for a good time. Walked to the bar where we met her yesterday and Billy and Rei were there. Drank until 1ish, went back to hostel and now I`m typing the blog. With me and Rei going to kyabakura with bframe5 tomorrow night, I`m 99.9999999% certain that Hellcar will call biyoshi out tomorrow. Gaijin can easily get attention of Japanese girls but asian dudes like me have to resort to kyabakuras/snacks.

Day 6, Osaka: I wish I were a white guy.

Gaijin and 3 supporting characters.

So there we were, after having tomato ramen for dinner and looking for a bar to go to. New Yorker wasn`t open yet so we walked around and came to this bar which shall remain nameless for obvious reasons. The master was really good and we managed to hold conversations with our limited Japanese.

Kawa from Kyoto!

Then this chick strolls in and the master asks her whether she`d be able to converse with us in English. After some awkward pauses, me and Rei started conversing with her. Usual introductory stuff. I realise that I didn`t know my job description in Japanese. She was a hairdresser but other details are to be omited in order not to identify her.

Does this face actually look like..............

We got to talking about movies, music etc. She was a big fan of Lar en ciel which Rei was so that got the conversation moving smoothly. She mentioned that she was a huge fan of Hyde and said that Hellcar looked like him. During the conversation, she mentioned a couple of times that she thought Hellcar was kakoii and cute. I told Hyde about it and asked if I should call him over but she was all hazukashi and all.

this?????????? She also said I looked like the drummer from Spitz which I do not look like. I probably look like the drummer from GagagaSP.

The theme became practicing English and it was basically me asking her questions in English and saying it in Japanese if she didn`t understand and her replying in Japanese. I wrote down two sentences seen below and suggested she practice on Hellcar but she kept on doing her hazukashi thingie. I`ve seen enough JAV to know that yamete means no so I got Hyde to come over and her to ask him those two lines.

 This is my first ever English lesson. I`m feeling the inspiration to teach English here.



Temple in Kyoto. For me it was pretty much go in, nice temple, where do we go next? Kyoto is too small unless you really really like this sort of thing.

Problem was, Hyde could read katakana and hiragana but couldn`t do much speaking. So I basically had to be the interpreter for them. Translating English to Japanese and Japanese to English. Now I know how the supporting characters in jdoramas feel. I was the plot device to bring the Japanese girl and her Hyde together and I was the device that allowed them to communicate.

Abe on a vending machine.

Seriously though, it was pretty fun. Loved seeing her hazukashi expressions. Like I told her, I think Osaka girls are way better and more natural. She was saying she didn`t have her full makeup on and I was telling her she looked kirei. Somehow or rather, we got to talking about going to her workplace for a haircut. Pretty sure she was talking about Hellcar only but but goddamit I might as well get something out of playing supporting character to Hellcar. Oh yeah, Hyde said maybe to her propositions which I thought was very Kimutaku Pride like.


Dragon from temple near JR Kyoto.

So tomorrow`s plan is Den Den Town, haircut by cute Japanese girl who thinks Hellcar looks like Hyde and I`ll have to do the supporting character thing and leave them alone after that. If only there were a female supporting character. Next time I come Japan, I`m going to have a face off transplant with a gaijin and probably a chest hair transplant as well.

Day 4: Hakone rules

Group picture with master of Kurata Izakaya.

River next to Hakone-yumoto station.

Stew pork soba at Hakone. The main dish was yuba tofu soba which was way too healthy for me.

Yes, smoking and ping pong at Ohmiya Ryokan. They had ping pong bats so we didn`t need to use slippers.

To Yao Ken aka Will J, this is what you are missing out when you decided to FFK us. Did I mention that they got two ashtrays in our rooms and in the toilets!

Chicken skin yakitori! Yes, Jeff they are even tastier than Melbourne`s.

Chanko nabe stew. Apparently E. Honda eats this so he can do the flying headbutt.

Our rock band singer plus the best maracas in Japan = win!

I finally got to sing Love Machine at a karaoke! Unfortunately, my mind went blank at the beginning of the song much to the amusement of my friends.

Yes those are real geisha. Thanks to Hellcar and his gaijin ninja shot skills.

Rei failing at busu-kawaii. Clearly he had enough alcohol at this point.

Billy showing us his excitement from being so close to the geisha.

More Hellcar gaijin ninja shot skills. I need to rent me a geisha in order to practice my Japanese with.

Two guys and 3 geisha? Throw us a bone here mate!

Waking up 10 minutes from check out time.

View from overhead bridge at Hakone-yumoto station.

Our rooms at Ohmiya Ryokan.

Random notes and observations:
- We went to an outdoor onsen and it was really good. Thank god I`m short sighted so I didn`t really see anything. There was a wall divider like in the doramas/anime but it wasn`t to the female section. Ohmiya Ryokan also had a private indoor onsen which I woke up at 6am to enjoy.
- Kimutaku`s ads suck.
- Ohgura Yuko seems to be a staple of variety shows. Saw her in two different shows and she`s no longer speaking in her fake voice although its still very kawaii.
- The boss of Ohmiya Ryokan and master of Kurata Izakaya really went out of their way to make us welcome. Ohmiya Ryokan gave us free tickets for the onsen and made a booking for us at Kurata. I really had a lot of fun and would definitely come back here again. I wish we could have stayed an extra day.
- Now in Kyoto and its raining so we couldn`t be stuffed going to shrines etc. Off to Osaka tomorrow!