Awamori Shochu from Okinawa is the Devils Drink

I have never been one of those `sake expert` types. For me, a good drink is a good drink(if it is cheap it may become a great drink LOL). Despite my habit of trying to get drunk in the most inexpensive way possible, I have found an odd drink which is worth shelling out some extra yen. A few months back my Japanese sword dancing teacher took me out in Kita-Senju for drinking and introduced me to Awamori.

I am not big on drinking sake but this stuff is something different. This fire water from Okinawa will fuck you up good and proper. It reminds me of moonshine and tastes about the same. After my first drink I felt like I had just swallowed a million African fire ants. After the second drink I realized this stuff is a real man`s drink. The more I drank the more my sword teacher kept laughing and encouraging me to drink more.

He kept saying in Japanese, `Drink the Zanpa! Be a man! Awamori shochu is good for blue eye Samurai.` Yeah, blue eye Samurai is his nickname for me. After drinking a whole bottle of Awamori, the izakaya  manager finally politely informed us that it was time for our drunk loud asses to leave.  Well, the old man had not had enough. He takes me to a karaoke place for more drinking. Being a crazed drunk old man, as soon as we get settled into the karaoke he orders a damn bottle of Awamori and starts singing Japanese folk music! I am not big on Japanese folk music. I have always though it sounds like a dying cow begging to be shot in the head. Yet, the old man loves the music of old Japan.

We finish off half the bottle of Awamori in about 30 minutes. In that time span, he had already sang three songs and being a right proper drunk bastard. He drags me into the fun and I end up singing those damn folk songs with him. Get this picture in your head, an old Japanese guy with a greaser gaijin drunk off their asses singing(poorly) traditional Japanese folk music in a karaoke booth. It was like a scene right out of lost in translation. Hell, I don`t even remember exactly how I got home. I think his son, and my good buddy, Akio helped us to get back to our respected places of living.

After that night I have been hooked on Awamori. It gets you drunk as fuck and stupid as a ho in Texas. When I roll up into a bar and want to get retarded drunk I skip the beer and go right for the Awamori shots. It is a bad habit I know but at the regular price of around 360 yen  a pop I cannot resist. My love of Awamori has become so infamous among my Japanese friends that I was given a big ass bottle of it at our end of the year party!

So if you want to get a proper falling over drunk going on grab a bottle of Awamori!

A Brewing Problem in the Gaijin Sub-Culture

I have always considered Tokyo to be a pretty safe place. The city has a slight problem with train suicides and crazed mass murders from time to time, but overall it is safe to go about your daily life. Well, it seems as if an odd wind is moving the air as of late. People are starting to act really strange.

I have been noticing some really odd behavior from other Gaijin as of late. Some kind of inner chaos has been brewing up from the depths of Tokyo and infecting the hearts and minds of those caught in the spider`s web. I don`t know how many people have noticed this, or even give a flying rats ass, but something is rotten. I smell shit. I smell the kind of shit that I have only smelled in good old West Virginia. A kind of extreme discontent which hollows out people until nothing is left inside of them except anger and madness. I know this kind of social ill well as I grew up surrounded by it everyday. It slowly grips the minds of the people. At first, it is wrote off as just another random nut who forgot to take their meds. Soon enough you start to see it everywhere and few people can pretend it is not happening.

I will give you a good example. When I got off work this past Tuesday evening I met up with my wife in Ikebukuro for a few drinks to unwind. Well, around 11:00 pm we made our way home. Well, all was fine and dandy until we reached the Joban line. A middle age looking Gaijin was standing a couple of feet away from us. He was watching us from the corner of his eye and attempting to listen in on our conversation. I could smell trouble on him but wanting to enjoy my evening I did not pay him much mind. When the train arrived, the wife and I, squeezed into a semi-comfortable spot and started chatting a little. We where not being all that loud really. We where talking about random stuff and making jest about our experiences of the day. I noticed out of the side of my eye that this guy was still watching us and listening to every word we were saying. I found this odd but I still was foolish enough to not pay attention to him.

Out of no where he starts going off on me like a dog with rabies. He was talking pure shit to me for no good reason at all. From what I was able to understand he said the following: `I don`t like you motherfucker. Who do you think you are? You can fool the Japanese but there is a fellow Gaijin on the train with you. I don`t like you motherfucker. I have lived in Tokyo for ten years and I can have you snuffed out. I know people in Kita-Senji so you better watch yourself asshole. You just shut the fuck up now before something happens to you.`

In this kind of situation a lot of people would tense up and dirty a pair of pants. I on the other hand grew up around this kind of redneck behavior so I was able to stay cool as ice. The important thing to remember in these situations is to not show any fear on your face. Even if you are about to crap all over yourself do not show any fear on your face or you might as well bend over and get anal raped. The whole damn mess was made complex due to the fact that we are on a crowed train and I have my wife with me. If I start a fight it would be really nasty resulting in many people getting the hell beat out of them. A southern boy and a Yankee only one wrong move from brawling on a crowed train in Tokyo is not a good situation to be in at all. My only real option was to keep this guy at bay until I reached Kita-Senju and could get the hell out of the situation. He wanted to fight me real bad and there was no way in hell I was going to back down from this dick. Although, I had no desire to fight him but if he threw a punch I was going to knock him into next week.

My wife just gave me the `Ryan don`t it` look which is often confused with the `Please don`t get into a fight in Tokyo`look. The last thing I want to do is anger my wife. She controls the sex and I do not want her to take that away. Plus I actually love her and do not want to put her in a dangerous situation. Everyone else just stood frozen hoping that these two Gaijin are not going to fight on the train. So, I told the guy I have no problem with him and stared him down until we got to Kita-Senju. I got off the train but he did not follow me. I guess he really did not want any after all.

I am noticing this kind of shit happening more and more often in Tokyo. There is a section of the Gaijin sub-culture who are losing their damn minds. Maybe I am a magnet for these kind of people or I just give off a smell that says, `Come over here and whip you ass on my face.` Every so often over the last two months some other Gaijin will come up to me and say or do something totally crazy. Like the old drunken Irish guy who ruined my lunch break one day when he would not stop following and talking to me.

I really have a hard time understanding where all this anger and insanity is coming from as of late. Gaijin in Japan live in a sub-culture on the edge of society. Maybe some people just cannot handle being different and after a while they just lose their marbles. There is also the fact that because Gaijin are in a sub-culture some people who are already mentally unstable view this as an open window to raise hell with other Gaijin who have attained any type of social integration within mainstream Japanese society i.e. marriage.

For now I have no answer to this growing problem. The best I can do for now is to give this some deeper thought and deal with these insane people as they come. If you can offer up some kind of game plan to deal with this problem please feel free to leave a comment. Maybe we can figure this out together.

The Green Fairy in Tokyo

Of all the drinks that are available to me in Tokyo the one I never thought about was Absinthe. The odd green drink of legend never crossed my mind in the land of the raising sun. I did not give much thought to the idea that the Japanese had developed a taste for the green fairy. Considering the rep that Absinthe has, and the Japanese government`s view of anything that provides a little extra groove, I assumed that the chances of trying the stuff out in Tokyo was next to nothing. Yet again, Tokyo has surprised and amazed me.
I was throwing back a few at the Hub in Kita-Senju on Sunday after work. You know, just the usual drinking binge nothing special. I wanted to try something new and realized that I had never really dug deep into the Hub`s offerings. I usually just stick to a tower beer or a Cuba Libra and all the good with the world. Well, after downing a tower beer(one liter of beer) I desired a change of pace. Towards the back of the drink menu there is was; Absinthe Classic. I could not believe my eyes. A drink that I had heard so much about yet was never allowed to have due to some fucked up US law(which was recently lifted at the end of 2007). I had to have one; or two.



I want up to the counter and order one. The gal gave me some messed up attitude but served me one glass of the strange green drink of lore. By the way, why do so many gals who work at all the Hubs around Tokyo have a messed up attitude? I guess the world may never know. Anyway, I got this thing back to my table and just kind of stared at it for a bit. I really did know what I had in front of me. Over the years I had heard so much stuff about Absinthe that I was almost a little afraid to try it. I have heard tales of actually seeing a sexy green fairy to being able to gain the power of witchcraft. I only half believed most of the stuff I had heard. After all it is just a really power drink that gives you a slightly different effect from normal alcohol; plus it is green!

Well, after taking my first taste I was hooked. It taste really good! This is due to the manner in which Absinthe is served. It is a really power drink so sugar is dissolved into it using a special spoon and really expensive mineral water. This gives it a nice sweet taste. Although, there is no getting around flower taste which comes cutting right though the sugar.

The thing which has given Absinthe such a lore is the fact that it contains a chemical called thujone. Thujone is a psychedelic chemical found in Absinthe which acts on the GABA receptors in the brain. It is believed to induce a slight psychedelic experience to the person who drinks Absinthe. Although, this fact has never been proven. Well, after drinking two traditional Absinthe drinks and one hard cocktail(without bring watered down). I have to admit that I did not feel drunk but not sober either. It felt like some strange mix of a alcohol and weed. I felt as if spiders were gently crawling on my skin. You know, kind of like a whole body tingle. I do not know if Thujone was causing that or if my body reacts different to strong alcohol due to my experiences with moonshine. Either way Absinthe is a great drink and I suggest it to anyone. So, the next time you are at the Hub order you a few rounds of Absinthe and see how it effects you.