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Tokyo Tripping - February 2003
For this installment of
"institutionalized" we find recurring anti-heroes The Good Dr.
B-Hatt, Nathan Sweatmoore (a.k.a. dr.zero), e.Bowla (a.k.a. DJ Virus) in Tokyo and reintroduce King Carlos – originally
introduced by Wit-to-the-Klown after his Tokyo excursion with the Bitter Bostonian.
Tokyo’s Narita Airport greets Drs. B-Hatt and Zero with a combination of European zeal and
Japanese culture. Walking out of Narita and seeing the European touring buses
pull up on the “other” side of a narrow street has a distinctly London
Heathrow-ish feel, especially since it is overcast on this early February
evening; however, the beverage vending machines, product packaging and an
obviously Japanese population inside is tell-tale Japan.
Wasting no time acclimating B-hatt and
Sweatmoore to Tokyo, King Carlos and e.Bowla take their recently
arrived rookie visitors to a prime Yakitori joint for dinner. Samantha is in Tokyo for business from NYC for a few days and he joins
the “minions of filth” for a fine sampling of skewered chicken parts. For
those of you not in the know, yakitori is skewered chicken cooked over what I
would refer to as a make-shift grill. While the main characters have a strong
constitution and eat everything the chicken offers and post-war yakitori
demands, Samantha being the strong woman that he always is passes on the
liver, gizzard and other off-center offerings. A fine meal it was and enjoyed
by all, including Samantha’s employer who paid for a hefty portion of the
meal. To ensure that the yakitori was washed down completely, e.Bowla
introduces his doctor friends to the Inishmore Tavern for some of Tokyo’s finest Guinness. A fine way to end a first night
in Tokyo.
On our first full day in Tokyo, Sweatmoore and I head to the Harajuku, Shibuya
and Roppongi areas of Tokyo.
Basically in Harajuku, Sweatmoore and I find an alley way structure of
Tokyo’s subversive culture. Punk is alive here!!! I am convinced punk is more
alive in Tokyo than in NYC. We eat some great Japanese cuisine
here too. I had some great curry Udon noodles, some Chicken Balls, something
I would call the Japanese equivalent of a Tofu Knish, and went to a Takoyaki
stand for what was described to me as octopus dumplings. We also stumble upon
what has become universal, the 100 Yen Store (100 Yen is the rough equivalent
of $1). Filled with some of the best Japan has to offer, we know we have to return for
souvenirs. On this particular visit I put a 100 Yen coin into the picture
machine and got 2 pictures of Sweatmoore and myself with Sweatmoore drinking
from his flask, complete with all the post production add-on effects a 100
Yen machine has to offer. On top of the hilarity of the picture, what makes
it even funnier is that I later figured out these machines are used almost
exclusively by Japanese school girls.
Shibuya was kool too. Here I sampled some
of Sweatmoore’s order of a food that was cooked in a round thing and had egg
as part of the ingredients. It is in the Shibuya section of town that we
checked out some of the record stores and guitar shops. Also on Friday night
e.Bowla DJed at the Neo Lounge in Shibuya. Later Friday evening e.Bowla and I
headed across the street to Club Asia. Club Asia is everything one looks for in a club. I have been to about 100 clubs
with live music in my life and Club Asia was one of the best. They had the
perfect set-up. In the entrance level they had a stage for live music. When
we entered there was a Japanese band playing what I would loosely describe as
Rockabilly/Punk. Upstairs they had a great DJ spinning some kick-ass hip-hop
and drinks at both Neo and Club Asia were 500 Yen (approximately $4) and the
pours were large. To top things off they had a good tattoo artist working the
main level for approximately $130/hour, a bargain in any country. This club
rivals some of the best clubs I have ever been including, but not limited to
Coney Island High (NYC), The Marquee (NYC), The Black Cat (Washington DC),
and The Trocadero (Philly). While e.Bowla and I were at Club Asia we left
Nathan at Neo Lounge with his new friend Yoko. Several hours later when
Nathan realized we all deserted him he went down to Vuenos. I went into
Vuenos around 3AM to find Nathan
and found an equally great club. Shibuya is definitely a kool part of town.
Finally our second night and first full
day in Tokyo ended with a trip to Roppongi, the Western area of
Tokyo. Roppongi is an area that is dominated by
Westerners. We went back to Roppongi again on Thursday night for Roppongi
Happy Hour and visited several establishments. The most memorably named
Gaspanic, which I like to refer to as AssPanic. AssPanic on Thursday nights
sponsors 400 Yen (approximately $3.50) drinks all night and is filled with
white people and Japanese kids who want to hang out with Americans and other
Westerners. It was on the subway to Roppongi Thursday night Happy Hour that
we saw the only crack ho of the trip. This girl could not stand up straight
for her life. She must have had some coke since she was sniffling and kept
wiping her nose in that coke-head fashion. We saw her about five hours later
on the streets with some guy and she seemed fine. Tokyo is one large ho-happy hospice supporting a variety
pack of hos. There are: Snack Hos, who work the hostess bars; Shanghai Hos,
who work the rub and tugs and the Bitter Bostonian; Crack Hos; which I guess
leads into Roppongi Hos, who work the westerners in Tokyo; and finally the Yakuza Hos, who are working the
Yakuza Mafioso.
Saturday night I went out with e.Bowla,
one of e.Bowla’s friends, Nathan, and King Carlos. This was the only night of
the trip I really drank, since I was on medication and wasn’t supposed to
drink at all. We started out in Shinjuku and had a few adult beverages as we
went from bar to bar trying to find a kool place that wasn’t too crowded.
Mid-way through the night the King headed home and the rest of us went back
to Roppongi for many more beers. It was in Roppongi that e.Bowla’s friend
pointed out that I had reached a point of inebriation that I looked like the
dog in the Sapparo beer commercials on the subway. Indeed I did. Needless to
say much of our visit to Roppongi that night is blurry, but I remember
drinking a plethora of Asahi Super Dry.
Another night Drs. Zero and Bhatt visited
the Ueno section of Tokyo.
It was a pretty kool area. All kinds of shops. Nathan purchased some stuff
from the sex shop for Punky, but I don’t think the gifts were given for
reasons I never asked about. I randomly stumbled on to this establishment
which is like an open air diner where Japanese men eat skewered foods and
drink sake. A great find it was. I ended up there for three hours. After
about an hour Nathan spotted me and joined me and the three Japanese guys I
had met. They were three characters. One was a forty year old normal guy, one
was an older Japanese guy that was pretty funny, and the last was an older
Japanese guy of questionable sexuality. By the time it was midnight and they were closing down the place these guys
were all ruined. The kool older Japanese guy could hardly stand. Here I ate
pork stomach and intestine soup, grilled Shitake mushrooms, and a whole
grilled saba (mackerel), and had a glass of sake. If you are ever in Tokyo you have to visit the back alleys of Ueno. This
may have been the best part of the trip.
While in Japan I ate many tasty foods, some of which I had no
idea what I was eating. In no particular order the things I knew I ate
include fish head, octopus, eel, mackerel, pig stomach and instestines, pork
and bean buns, egg and vegetable mosh pancake, shitake mushrooms, beef bowl,
miso soup, soba noodles, udon noodles, ramen noodles, seaweed, pig feet and
pig ears, chicken balls, skewered chicken parts, assorted skewered meats,
deep fried tofu, deep fried pork, and deep fried chicken.
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Tokyo effected Nathan and my
bodies in opposite ways. I hardly ever had to scat. Nathan, however, had to
scat constantly. e.Bowla gave him nine Strong Wakamoto pills to take to
help. I believe Nathan mistakenly thought they were suppositories. Twenty
minutes after taking the Strong Wakamoto he said he scat them right out.
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Other places and things we did on our trip were basic tourist stuff. We
visited the Imperial Palace
gardens. Ate unagi (eel) at the fish market. Went to Kamakura,
the military capital of ancient Japan,
to visit the temples including The Big Buddha (pictured on the left). Went
to Akihabara to see the cutting edge electronics. And what trip to Tokyo
wouldn’t be complete with out a trip to the Sapporo
beer museum. With only a few hours and few yen left on my last day, I spent
both of them at the beer museum’s tasting room.
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Tokyo was a good thing. I shouldn’t have waited four
months to write this, the delay clearly affects the quality. Sorry.
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