Harry's Last Leg

...continued from "Zach comes to Osaka"

By the stage Zach had left, Harry had already been here about a week. It had been great to spend time alone with Zach, then with both Harry and Zach as a team but now it was time just to hang out with Harry.

Unfortunately neither of us were very active with our cameras. We did manage to catch some photos when we went to Kyoto however. I will try to keep this post short and sweet with the main part being the juicy stuff. The first one also includes some cultural (maybe thats too extreme a word) information about Japan.

Here in Japan tax on Alcohol is extremely low. A bottle of Moet & Chandon will set you back just 30-40 dollars, Laphroaig single malt is similar, and your cheap stuff - smirnoff, Suntory, Jack..etc are all about 10 bucs for 700ml. Beers on the other hand are taxed a similar amount to Australian prices so the smart Japanese beer companies have come up with a new alcohol that tastes like beer but does not fit into the category of beer and receives less tax.

All this means bars often offer a service called Nomihodai. This means pretty much All you can drink! Earlier on during Zach and Harry's stay I had been to a friends birthday party at a restaurant which not only offered Nomihodai but also Tabehodai (meaning all you can eat).

Harry and I decided this would begin a big saturday night perfectly. Get lots of beer into us but still have a good amount of food in our stomachs to get us through the evening. Unfortunately they only offer 90 minutes so you have to rush a little to get the best bang for buck. Harry hadnt realised this and was disappointed when at the end he discovered he could have been far more drunk than he already was. I think it was lucky Harry hadnt discovered this earlier.....

Our next actions found us with some of my friends from Japan who were heading to a club called Pure. Conveniently for Harry Pure also offers Nomihodai. Japanese clubs work slightly different from Australian clubs. Usually on a saturday doors open around 12 and close at 5-6am often with many still rocking out on the dance floor. We arrived a little after 12 and got straight into our Nomihodai.

Within half an hour the dance floor had warmed up and the tracks were causing Harry to slowly move to centre stage. from this point till close the dance floor was defiantly ours. The white russians were flowing, some classics were playing and Harry was on fire. His favorite place for the evening was up on the stage where only girls were allowed to dance. Harry took that stage as his own and was pulled down from there many many times. Soon drinks were up and we felt we no longer had any reason to stay.

Following this we ate Maccas and ventured on home in an extremely rowdy manner - a story for Harry to tell sometime if your keen to ask him.

We expected this to be our last big evening out on the town. It was decided Harry should experience more than just the party life of Japan so one day when I was at work Harry shot off to Nara and explored the temples. Another day we made it to Kiyomizu-Dera on Kyoto. It was hard to catch many good photos as this place was so big but I can tell you it was really amazing. The view over Kyoto and Kansai was pretty awesome too.

Unfortunately, like many temples in Japan, it was over run by tourists, tour guides from China with loud speakers, local school kids, heaps of noisy Americans and it was right at the peak of summer so the heat was unbearable. Because of this we decided to make a pit stop at a nice little cafe along one of the paths in the temple grounds. We sat on the tatami floors and overlooked a nice bamboo forest.

After this we moved on to Ginkaku ji which was had unfortunately just closed. By this stage we were both pretty hot and bothered and decided it was time to head home.

Other than this trip, Harry's last week in Japan was mainly spent in Osaka drinking coffee, enjoying nice lunch and dinner and drinking a few beers here and there. Nothing too out of the ordinary but still a nice week hanging around. One day we did venture to Kobe - another city in the Kansai region. I had work till 7 so Harry went on a trip up the mountain and looked across all of Kobe.

Later I met up with him and we wandered around the city of Kobe. It is quite small and very new. It has the feeling of a planned city. It was completely ruined by an earthquake in 1995 which flattened the city so it has been in a rebuilding stage ever since. Despite this it was quite beautiful and Harry and I found a nice Italian restaurant to set down at and enjoy a fairly decent meal.

After this the excitement of Harrys trip was pretty much over. On his last evening we went out for Ramen at our favorite place. The owner went off and got his lady friend from across the road who sat and drank with us as we ate. As we invited her it was our shout for the beers. Later on, after I announced it was Harry's last night the owner served us a celebratory 1l bottle of Sake on the house. As we enjoyed this our new lady friend continued enjoying our free beers. Soon another random dude joined us so now we had a small party. After about 2 hours of drinking and chatting we finally decided it was time to leave. As we got up to pay the last man who joined us went to the counter and paid the entire bill despite him not drinking/eating anything.

The man told us it was a going away gift for Harry. As we walked home we decided we had to make use of the 60 bucs we had just saved and headed into town. We went to Onzieme, one of my favorite clubs in Osaka. It was a fairly random night so the club wasnt so busy. Soon we discovered it was in fact punk night! Harry was so pumped. They were playing some awesome old school tunes. Harrys request was Rock the Casbah which went off! Again Harry took to the ladies dance platforms. This evening was a sweet crowed who were down with pretty much anything so he remained there all evening.

It turned out a surprise evening of fun and capped off a fun trip. Again, it was awesome to have a chance to rock out with my homies from Melbourne. Thanks to Harry for coming over even during Summer - his least favorite season. It was a lot of fun! We defiantly rocked the d floor like back home in melbourne.

Next up is Manny's trip where we ventured up north for Fuji Rock festival. Check back in a few days....

Zach comes to Osaka

On the 26th of June Zach arrived at Kansai International Airport at roughly 9 pm. I caught him at the airport and took him home to the guest house where I spent 3 months at including all the time Zach and Harry were here. After settling in we wandered around Tsuruhashi - the suburb of the guest house home to many Korean people, and eventually found a tiny Ramen shop. We sat at the counter and ate ramen. We also had a little chat with the owner. This led to a customer, interested in us as foreigners, shouting us each a beer. This Ramen shop has ended up being my regular and I have had many exciting meals there. This also ended up being both Zach and Harry's favorite meal whilst in Japan.

For the first week Zach was here we just explored Osaka. We went to the shopping areas in the city and went drinking and eating nice food. Zach became fond of the vintage shops and bought a number of Polo and Hilfiger shirts. We also spent time with Rene and Sayaka at their new shop helping them with the fitout.

The first saturday, after I returned to the guest house after work I noticed a Japanese man sitting at a table in the bar with 7 cans of beer in front of him (all empty) being only 3pm i was quite surprised and asked the man what he was doing so early on a saturday afternoon. Someone in between my bad japanese mixed with english and his bad english mixed with japanese the conversation ended in him grabbing two beers from the fridge. I ran upstairs and grabbed zach. After 4 more beers each (all shouted by this random stranger) came decision time. This drunk man decided he was now hungry and wanted to take us out for two dinners.

We decided to take the risk and hopped in a cab with this generous man. We headed into Shinsaibashi, the main shopping district of Osaka. On the way there this generous, drunk man passed out. On arrival, after some work we woke him up. Again cash came pouring from his pockets. By this stage there were four of us - Zach, mr X, a random Korean guy staying at the guest house who had come along for the ride, and myself. We now went to a fantastic Sushi Train where three of us enjoyed delicious sushi and Beers! Unfortunately mr smith had now passed out and Zach was stuck on the far side of him. Again, on finishing our meal we woke him up with great difficulty. Again, he paid the full cop of the bill.

By this stage the random Korean man from the guest house decided he had taken enough and went home leaving us with full responsibility of this drunk mr Smith. Now volatile, X man decided he wanted second dinner so reluctantly we went along to a steak restaurant where the man ordered a number of steaks, chicken and many many beers. When we were only half way through our first our second had arrived. This continued on with spirits and more beers until finally we had to call it quits. We tried ordering water but he cancelled that and ordered more beer. At this stage we all had 3 mostly full beers in front of us. At this stage the man was fucked and had fallen asleep. Zach decided he had had enough and asked for the bill. Zach pulled out some cash and paid the $100 bill. Then we left dragging the man out of the restaurant.

we hailed a cab and headed on home. During the cab ride home he was singing some rediculous tunes and stopped the cab half way. we were forced out and the silly man asked us to join him at a bar. Impressed as we were by the resilience of the man we refused and went home.

A little disappointed by the result as we didnt feel the night was quite worth the hundred zach had to drop we hoped never to see the man again. The following night as we were out Hiro (the owner of the guest house) called me telling us that the man had dropped in again and wanted to drink more. We thought we had a stalker by this stage!

The next day we discovered however that the man had not been able to remember most of the previous night and felt bad so left each of us $100! After that we were most satisfied by our nights work!

During this week we received word from Harry that he had decided his mid year break would be better spent in Nippon with his homies so Zach and I were looking forward to his arrival. Meanwhile, I introduced Zach to my two friends Rene and Sayaka. Rene is the owner of the bike shop Gira Gira Chariya (tracksupermarket's physical store) where I work now building wheels and often helping with other odd jobs. As well as getting along really well with the outgoing, hilarious Sayaka, Zach was able to instantly connect with Rene's love of Hip Hop. A day at the bike shop would follow the lines of myself chatting about bike parts with Rene for an hour then Zach and Rene would go off about some sample J Dilla used in 1369 in a collaboration with some underground artist or something that i couldnt quite keep up with.

It was hilarious to see Zach and Sayaka working off each other. They were a great comedy duo. one evening Zach taught Sayaka to runway walk. We decided modelling could be a good career path for Zach.

It was really great to have Zach come over. He was the first of my Melbourne friends (other than mum) to come over and it was interesting to get an update on news from home. in this week i tried introducing Zach to a few things I have gotten to love. One of these is the food from Korea town. Kimche, Remen, Bibimba all of which Zach enjoyed immensely.

Within the first week of Zachs stay we realised that the guest house bike would not be sufficient so Zach decided he would drop into Gira Gira and build up his own bike. His choice of parts was minimalist and very classy. The has turn out looking great. Unfortunately however, due the some out of stock parts and long waiting time Zach was unable to use his bike in Japan.

http://www.tracksupermarket.com/blog/2010/09/gira-gira-shop-today.html

Not long after Harry arrived. We had planned on surprising him at the air port but due to lack of judgement on my behalf we were running very late! Zach and I were sitting on the train to the Air Port thinking, what happens if hes already on his way home. He would have no chance of getting there. On arrival to the airport we rushed towards the arrivals gate and on our way we met Harry. It could only have been a matter of minutes. If we had been 2 minutes later, or harry had been a bit earlier we would have missed him. Anyway, we went and picked up some beers and chatted about melbourne as we cruised home.

This night was in fact the second of two opening nights of Gira Gira's new store on the ground floor. Zach, Harry and I went off for dinner and then made our way over to catch the very end of the party. There was however an after party being held at one of my favourite clubs in Osaka called Joule. Approaching the front of the line, as neither Zach or Harry had ID (drinking age in japan is 20) we decided our best option was to be noisy, dumb Foreigners. This not only let us slip through without an ID check but also got us in cheap of Geijin tickets.

After wandering upstairs to the smoking room/roop top dj area having been put off by the rapping gangstars in skin suites we warmed up to some sweet tunes. Up stairs was where the party was at and a number of pretty important dudes in the bike industry including Mr Kashimax (head of Kashimax saddle company) who bought me a beer. On the roof there were also a few chicks one of which Harry chatted up for about half an hour. Unfortunately there was a gap in language and Harry couldnt quite get out the words Ruba Ho (love hotel).

Following our warm up, and a few drinks, and Harrys near miss we decided to hit the main D Floor. It was just like a re run of Seven band room at 10pm on a thursday just with 200 more people. We were ripping up the floor and were clearly the best dancers there. The music was also great. This unfortunately led to Zach head banging all night long which put his neck out. He was sore for days to follow. Lets just say he went for gold.

During the following week we hung out in Osaka, cruising to Kyoto for an afternoon, went out for Ramen. It was an awesome blokes chillin out time. Getting away from Melbourne for Harry and Zach and for me it was catching up with mates from back home. One day we spent at Osaka Castle. We rode there Zach and Harry using the extremely uncomfortable bikes from the guest house. We sat by the mote and enjoyed the Sun.

Soon it was time for Zach to return to Melbourne. It was sad to see him go. one week together in Osaka is quite a lot when you are spending each and every day together. Zach was here for three so after this time we had really spent some time together. Im very grateful for Zach coming over. Many people have said they would come over but Zach was the first to say it and follow through. He set the standard. On the last day, before heading off to the airport we made a final stop into one vintage shop. Zach didnt hold back one bit. 10 polo shirts, 5 hilfiger jackets vintage ray bands. He really took home the entire collection of Ralph Lauren shirts with him.

We slightly lost track of time and got a scare when realising Zach might miss his flight if we didnt hurry. Thankfully he made it however he said he was one of the last to check in possibly with only a couple of minutes to spare.

Too be continued with Harry's last leg of the journey.......