izikya

well the last few days have been interesting. and eye opening. anyway! lets talk about something quite lovely in japan. the bar scene. so in japan bars are weird, its not really a lets get drunk and talk to strangers! it more lets sit at this table and get wasted face with the people i work with and not talk to any other parties. for me this concept is a little strange especially coming from a close knit scene where everyone knew like 20 other people and you HAD to just run up and say hi! plus im use to more blatant ways of making a fool of yourself, ie dancing and karaoke.

so the most popular type of bar, or at least in my podunk town, is called an izikya. which is pretty traditional looking with wooden "booths" and separate rooms for more private parties. they serve small plates of food, which trick you into thinking youre not spending that much money. but you are, my god you are.

first venue. our usual place was PACKED and you have to have reservations because people sit at a table for hours. and there is no standing room, only tables. so the first place we went to was dead dead dead. and not very good food. we think the sushi was frozen and then thawed.

we finally got to the place i like. of course you can still smoke inside in japan so that kind of sucked because im always sick. the beer here is awful if you know anything about beer, but the glasses are huge! and seem endless. the photo below is what i saw a lot. and everyone was punished by non stop drunk texting. oh lord that was fun to reread in the morning. but everyone got their revenge on me by drunk texting me the next day. time drag is lame.

carnage over the cherry blossom flavoured ice cream. i ate some with chopsticks but not much because i was scared i was going to throw up any minute because everyone kept eating whole fish right in front of me.

these are those whole fish people eat like fries. theyre pregnant too. hence why i wanted to vomit in my mouth.

the food at our izikya is great and love how much fried food i eat there. mostly potatoes and yams. sometimes its a dreamy place. sometimes it pisses the shit out of me and all i want to do is punch ignorant people in the face.

especially men who feel like the only great thing you can do in this world is to have kids and that when i get older i want kids. fuck that. ill make my own fucking choices. young or old.

enemy number one in the izikyas are the squat toilets. thank god ive been practicing peeing standing up, because damn...