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I was always under what was probably a poorly uninformed impression that Japan was a quiet, understated country. In my few (wasted) years in high school Japanese class I learnt about the culture of a quiet people, who respected tradition and weren’t amenable to the loud, disrespectful ways of us Westerners (hence the trainee Japanese teacher who came on exchange to Maclean High School for a few months and after one period of our Year Nine elective Japanese class she was so shaken by our loud and outrageous behaviour she took off the remainder of the week and steeled herself against any further aural assaults by refusing to come to any more of our classes).

Deafened by the Roar of Pachinko ... or how to embarrass lesbians without really trying

Patrick Gatland
2007-01-23 12:54:33

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the start of the year.

So Japan was an adventure and a half. I’ve never been to a more vibrant and exhilarating city and Tokyo has rocketed to the top of my favourite cities listed. Auf Wiedersehen Berlin! The people were friendly and so hospitable. Outside a bar in the old Golden Gai district there was a sign that read in English “You are welcome in this bar if you speak Japanese”. Reading between the lines we quickly understood that we perhaps were not welcome at the bar. However, as our group was milling about the entrance a patron came outside,

Felt like I was in Barcelona, but again just The Ghibli.
dragged us in and then proceeded to buy us our drinks and food for the rest of the night. He spoke about 20 words of Japanese but together with him and the waitress (a cool girl who spoke some English as she had been to Australia once - only to Coffs Harbour (?!?) mind you) we had a great time discussing our respective homes. Not speaking Japanese was not a problem at all and there was certainly no anti-Gajin feeling on that night (which was surprising because the four of us big western lads took up half the seats in the tiny, tiny bar).

I still have lots to tell about Tokyo but this blog is way too long already. Instead I’ll just leave you with three more of my favourite things about a stunning time in a special city:

1) Looking out over a Tokyo cityscape as I sang “Hollaback Girl” during a 6 hour karaoke marathon;
2) The gyoza I ate every day from this tiny little restaurant round the corner from where I lived;
3) Having people tap me on the shoulder in the subway and say “Welcome to Japan!”

Wow.

Special thanks must go to Yvette for my holiday in Japan. She put in so much time and effort (while already on her own trip) in recommending where to go it was as though I had her walking behind me the whole way saying “Hurry up Gatland, there’s more to see!” What a champion. And also thanks to my mate Kohtaro who pointed out some great eating spots. He truly is the Okinomiyaki specialist!

And as an interesting post script. I have just finished reading an article in this week's Economist which explains how a lot of Pachinko parlours are owned by Korean organised crime groups who siphon the gambling funds from the parlours directly to the awful regieme in North Korea. One more reason to dislike the bounce of the silver ball.