Thursday, January 26, 2006

Cinquecento, the 500 yen End-Up


Every town has a bar where people end up at the end of the evening.
In San Francisco the bar is called "The End Up." In Osaka, Japan
this honor has rotated between The Shanghai, Glens, Rakan and now it
goes to a place called B-Boy Trip, where the action starts aroung 5 am
and goes until noon. But since I am advanced in my years and incapable
of going that late/early, my end up is a novel establishment called
Cinquecento (500 in Italian).

This is a marvelous place, a small street level shop with one, U-shaped
bar which allows you to sit across from other patrons, and a glass door
in front. This is rare as most places are in high-rises in Japan, but here
you can peek in and get an idea of the crowd. It's packed after midnight when
bar hostesses get off work and the last-train crowd has packed up and gone.
The bar's original theme was 500 yen martinis of all kinds, but this has
been adapted to swank cocktails. I cannot bring myself to order a beer here,
as there are other places for that. I lean towards Manhattans or that poisonous
concoction known as an Old-Fashioned. The 500 yen price means you can have four
drinks for 2000 yen, a nice round number and buying a round is easier. Also,
a fatal fact for me, this place lets me run a tab, thus ensuring my continued
patronage.

On Monday there was a to-do celebrating the end of university term, starting at the Canopy Bar in Umeda, with a good number of the usual suspects. I insisted on going to the Owl's Nest the Canadian Bar (as Canada had just voted out the Liberals) but it was empty except for us. I did find a pair of mukluks hanging on the coat rack, which I waved around like a happy anthropologist. Then on to Blarney Stone, where we met an interesting Egyptian journalist, some foreigners working for J. corporations, and a lady named Michiko. I then mounted my bike, hit the bank, and made my way to CQ. There at the end of the bar was one of my favorite people in the world, Sachiko, an accomplished DJ I had not seen in a long time. We actually met at Burning Man in 2001 but lost each quickly(her camp was at 1100 am and mine was at 430pm, miles apart). Another young lady, in her cups staggered over to greet me but I could not place her in my mental catalog by then. Rusty, the original manager was there, and I toasted him. I must have toasted everyone, in fact. The Cinquecento is my personal rubber room, and, as usual, all memory of actually leaving the establishment was rubbed out. I awoke the next day, refreshed, minus 3500 yen. It is almost like an out-of-body experience, flight and teleportation achieved chemically. And, as this is Japan, you are always welcomed back to the establishment. Cheers!

Monday, January 16, 2006

Down down in Den-Den town


Kansai Time Out has approved my latest article for publication (an account of the Tobita Shinchi red-light district) and has given me the green light for a second piece. This one will be on the changing face of Osaka's electronics district Den-Den town. Den comes from Denki, or electricity. Ten years ago the place was dominated by the big electronics outlets; Joshin, Ninomiya, and others. This was back when computers had three different Japan-only operating systems. Then came DOS-V, cheap IBM clones, the coming and going of Aum Shinrikyo's computer outlet, and then the rise of DIY computer part stores. Prices fell and the big electronics places downsized. So what has now come into to fill the store space. Giant comic book and action-figure department stores in the former 5 story electronic outlet spaces, CosPlay stores and cafes, Robot shops, and wall-to-wall porn palaces. It should be interesting. I've already been to a CosPlay cafe, where little girl munchkins mince around serving you coffee in french maid outfits. Only in Japan. I've got a week off after term ends to do it, then I'll fly on Air Canada to San Francisco on Feb. 3

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Ebisu Moneypit Video

O.K. this should work. Thanks YouTube.com
  • Video of SubGenius at Ebisu festival
  • Monday, January 09, 2006

    Another New Year, another Dobbshead in the money pit


    Yes, it's another New Year here in Osaka, Japan and it's time
    to merge two religious practices together; Shinto money worship and
    Church of the SubGenius money worship (in fact, is there any
    religion that doesn't worship money?). Every year for three days,
    locals in Osaka march down to the Imamiya Ebisu Jinja shrine to
    give offerings to the lucky money god Ebisu, who is one of the
    seven Chinese Dieties of Good Fortune. Businesses like to display
    a lucky money rake (as in raking it in) decorated with lucky bamboo
    leaves and little Ebisu tschockes. First they toss last year's rake
    into a sacred garbage pit, then march over to a giant walled-in swimming
    pool size offering pit where millions of yen are thrown, make a prayer, then
    have this year's lucky money raked blessed by a sacred temple maiden.
    The Police are out in force to manage the traffic, which gets maniacal
    at times. Where I enter the picture is at the money pit. I elbow my way
    in to the retaining wall, groove for a few minutes on the sounds of cascading
    coins and fluttering paper cash, before throwing in my offering of a hundred
    sixteen yen (equals ONE DOLLAR - ONE DOLLAR FOR SALVATION!!!) taped to a
    sacred Dobbshead. Then I watch Dobbs smile as he is pelted with money,
    as you can see in the picture. Hopefully it translates into a one day spike
    in SubGenius catalog sales, but for me, the slack is undescribable. I try to
    hang onto the wall as long as I can before the surging crowd pushes me on, through
    the shrine complex and past the lovely shrine maidens. Latching SubGenius rituals, both real and imaginary, onto existing religious practices is your best entertainment value. Hell, the Romans did it for 800 years and then the Catholics outdid them. I'll post a video for 'yall, see comments.