Day 11 (Saturday 16th Oct, 2010)

Today I wanted to chill and have a relaxed one, because I was planning on going out tonight to enjoy the nightlife of Kyoto.

Another guest at Tour Club asked me if I would like to come along with her to Higashiyama, and I thought "why not?". I thought she was kinda cute...

...She was also really annoying. I don't know why, but I just couldn't stand to be around her. And she had bad breath, and she smoked this really foul smelling tobacco. I like the smell of cigarette smoke, so for me to not like this smoke means it was BAD.

We pretty much went to places I'd already been before, and have mentioned in this blog, so I won't retell those stories. Suffice it to say, it wasn't a great day. Hopefully the night would be better.

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We got back to the hostel at about 4.30, and I washed and dried my clothes (I need some good wears for a night on the town, right?) and I had a quick convenience store bento meal. (I'm going to lose so much weight eating these meals, but they're so cheap and convenient!), and then I headed out for downtown. It's not too far, so I decided to walk; I didn't want to have to deal with a bicycle when I'm drunk at 5 in the morning.

I happened to pass by Teramachi-dori, so I had to stop in at a-Cho (that arcade) for a bit. I didn't play any games, as these top tier Japanese players pretty much crushed by spirits pretty quickly by revealing to me just how bad I really am; but I still like to hang out there. There was a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike ranbat (Ranking Battle, a type of regularly held tournament) going on, so that was fun to watch. They're so GOOD, it's not fair.

A hung around for a bit, then went to find my first bar of the night: ING Bar. I've heard it's awesome, and it sounds/looks cool, so I wanted to see it.
It's the kind of bar that's easy to find when you know where it is; but if you're just wandering about looking for a drinking hole you won't find it. It's on the second floor of a random building in Kyoto downtown (Kyoto Royal Building), with almost no signage on the street (there's a small sign, one of about 20, listing the establishments in the building), but when you know where to go it's easy to get to.

And boy, was it awesome! The place is really small, seating for perhaps 25 people (2 large tables, 2 smaller tables, and a bar that seats 4), and you could perhaps add another 20 standing patrons. It's really dark and gritty, and posters (mostly of the Rolling Stones) cover the walls. There's also a Les Paul hanging from one wall. The bar itself is covered with all sorts of little nick-nacks; statues of skeletons, empty bottles of various liquors etc. It makes quite a nice display.

Behind the bar is Hako-san, perhaps the friendliest bartender I've ever met, and one of the most interesting people in general.
He has an incredible ability to do everything in the bar by himself, all at once (though when it gets busy he has one or two helpers): serve the drinks, mix the cocktails, cook the food, play the music, talk to the customers, and have some drinks and smokes of his own. And he makes it look like its easy to do all these things at once.
When I say he "plays the music", he has two CD players and a record player, and a vast collection of CDs and records behind the bar. He puts one on for a few tracks, then puts another CD in the other player. When the current song ends, he hits "Stop" on that one, then "Play" on the other. Very old-school, none of this fancy MP3s and playlists stuff. Good man.
I sat and had a few beers here, and chatted with Hako-san, mostly about music, then I left to decide if I would go home, or stay out.

Something I forgot to mention: the hostel I'm staying at has an 11pm curfew. So if you go out, you have to go out all night. The hostel opens again at 8am.

So it was about 10pm, and I was deciding if I would go back and sleep, or stay out and risk having to coma in a manga cafe somewhere. I was a bit drunk already by this point (3 longnecks will do that), and I decided to do the all night thing. You only live once, right?
I sort of sobered up a bit while wondering around trying to (a) find a 7-Eleven so I could get some more cash out, and (b) decide where to go.
I stumbled upon a British style pub called Hub, where I had a couple more beers and some buffalo wings, and watched a football game on TV. (Man Utd. vs someone), then I decided to go to a club called "Billy Bar", where foreigners usually get in for free. (Yay, saving money!)

...I couldn't actually find the place, even with my "Funkyoto" map of the downtown area's clubs, so I eventually I decided to go to a nearby place called "Sam and Dave" that looked like it was pumping. Incidentally, I did find a 7-Eleven on the way.

I'm glad I decided to drop in, because this place was great! ￥2000 cover charge is not bad, considering it includes two drinks. I was surprised to see that most of the bartenders were foreign. I still ordered my drinks in Japanese, though~
The place was great, as I said, basically I partied there till they closed at 5am. I made some friends while I was there, with a couple of really cute Japanese girls, and a couple of other guys (who were probably also jocking the girls).
After the place closed, we all exchanged facebook details (this is the first time I was concerned about not having a working phone in Japan), and then went to a nearby place for breakfast. The girls and one of the guys left, but myself and the other guy (who calls himself Johnny Walker) stuck around for another beer. I don't know where the place was, but ￥200 for a glass of beer was not bad! (Slightly bigger than a pot). By this time it was about 7am, and surely time to call it a "night".

As I was stumbling home, I was faced with a dilemma: when you have a night of pouring lots of beer into you, you soon have to dispose of it. Now in Australia, you can just find a dark corner and let it out. But not so in this clean city of Kyoto. And of course, at 7am, nothing is open.
It was getting fairly desperate, but I found a little 24hr cafe who let me use their toilet. I've never been more grateful.

During the stumble home I enjoyed some hot coffee from a vending machine for the first time. :)