Drinking with Japanese

"A-Bar" is located near Kiyamachi-dori between Sanjo and Shijo in downtown Kyoto. It's one of the few more spacious bars and has this wooden cabin/reggae quality about it. Colorful pictures, various posters and scribbles from customers decorate the walls and tables. When you get bored, those writings provide a nice distraction: "Good times, Ryan. Feb 20/04". I guess Ryan must have had fun there three years ago. The thing with this bar though is the atmosphere: above all it's the jovial nature that draws us to this 2nd floor-bar (that and the not-too-expensive beer). The tables are really big so you are usually seated with strangers whom you can always strike up a conversation with, if they already hadn't initiated it themselves at that point. Now and then I am approached on the street by a foreigner asking directions to the bar, because they explain: "I heard this bar is good." In short, A-Bar is one of the hottest joints in town. A little story is perhaps the best way to explain.

Yesterday night I strolled into the place at around 20:30. My dear friend and companion, Kendall (U.S.), was with me. Damn! At first glance the bar looked full. Where else could Kendall and I await our friends Erez, Efrat and la belle française, Pascale for a drink together? Luckily the bartender escorted us to one of the four big tables present in the bar. The Japanese crowd of around ten people who occupied the benches immediately made room at the sight of this Belgian skinhead and his wavy-haired friend. One of the Japanese guys, wearing glasses and clearly intoxicated, stood up, introduced himself right away and eagerly told us to sit down with them. The other Japanese at the table were laughing and cheering when Kendall and I were about to take our seats. Actually all of them, including the four girls, had obviously been drinking for a while. They even applauded. I laughingly looked at Kendall and he glanced at me with that delightful smile of his. Before I could even get the attention of one of the bar staff to place our usual order of two bin-biiru (bottles of beer), our glasses-wearing, new friend already bellowed at the bartender to bring us beer. That's when I said to Kendall: "Awesome! We're drinking for free tonight." And last night was not a rare occasion at all. Ten seconds later we were holding out our glasses as they were being poured by the cheerful fellow with the glasses. He seemed like the leader of the gang. Well, he was by no means the loudest (and most drunk) of them all. I took a sip and my body filled with a tantalizing sensation. I was thirsty and the warmth of the bar and welcome at the table were exhilarating after that numbing bike ride in the surprisingly cold night of March.

Contrary to the image that most people have of Japanese, is that they LOVE alcohol and partying. Of course Japanese are usually distant and act rather stiff. But that's the exact reason for their fondness of the fermented sugar-drink. When they are intoxicated, it is the only time they can dispense of their stiffness and escape the pressure of society to walk in line. They are some of the merriest, craziest drinkers I've seen. For example, Japanese glasses don't stay empty for long. Generally a fellow drinker will refill your glass as soon as the last drop has disappeared down your throat.

As such Kendall and I had barely finished our first consumption of the night or the Japanese guy next to me already bestowed us with more of the golden liquid called beer. He started talking to me and I learned him to be of half-Japanese, half-American descent. I asked if they were all part of the same group. Apparently not. Our big welcome committee actually consisted of four different groups who had all met that night at the table in the bar. But in A-Bar such things don't matter. Everybody drinks together, talks with each other. Questions were being fired from all directions at Kendall and me and we were having trouble answering them all at once, let alone hear them in the noisy bar. Nonetheless we were enjoying every second of it; and of the free beer of course. It was a very pleasant chaos.
It wouldn't have been a complete night Japanese style, if there hadn't been any collective downing of beer as if it concerned liquor shots. The guys at our table stoop up, shouted our names and told us to down our beers together with them which Kendall and I did under loud cheering. I maybe had five or six of those beer-shots one after the other, when I decided to sit down again and take it easy for a while. A minute later the half-American fella sitting next to me looked at my empty beer glass, shook his head in disapproval, refilled it and told me to down it. Which I did. Drinking with Japanese is definitely a shortcut to rehab. I wonder where the AA holds meetings here...

Because of some switching places, people visiting the toilet, a red-faced girl was sitting next to me at one point. (Most Asians' face turns red soon after they start drinking alcohol. It's genetic.) Even though she was 24, she was already married and proudly showed her wedding ring to me. I told her it was a shame she was off the market as she was a pretty girl. Doesn't drinking make us all a little more audacious and flirtatious. However, she pointed over to her friend at the other end of the table and asked me straight up what I thought of her. "She's pretty.", I said as a white lie upon which the married girl required if I wouldn't take her friend as my wife then. White lie number two.
It must have been about an hour later when Erez and Efrat arrived and took a seat at our table. I introduced them to our Japanese amigos and vice versa. While drinks were immediately being ordered for them, I explained the situation. Erez and Efrat both laughed and joined in on the ongoing fun and conversations. Pascale arrived another 45 minutes later. The Latin power-combo, Sakura (Brazil) and Melinda (Colombia), eventually adhered to our company as well, heatening up the feast even more with their erogenous appearances. Sporadically people from other tables would join us for a bit and then leave again. And I remember there to be a long-haired wig and fake glasses at one point which most people of course tried on, accompanied by the ensuing laughter and giggles of the others. The drinking and amusing turmoil continued all night. I'm sure Bacchus was proud of us!
I think Kendall and I only ordered one beer ourselves. The rest was provided by our benevolent Asian friends at the table. Towards the end though we were a little worried of having this huge bill, since all of the Japanese had left before us and we weren't sure whether or not they had paid for everything. But no, worrying proved to be redundant. Like it fits the giving and honest nature of the Japanese, a tiny bill awaited us when we left the bar around 1:15. Amazing; drinking and snacking all night and still end up paying for just one beer.

Good times indeed Ryan!