This was about the time when I started to get to know my fellow gaijin (外人) co-workers better. Most people've probably heard of the Westerner who came to Japan in search of greener pastures because s/he was a "loser" back home. Certainly there must be some truth in that, and apparently after the traditional wave of English teachers and high-flying executives, there're also the mafia types and entertainment (ranging from family-suitable to dodgy types) industry workers. As in many mega cities, there are whispers of people with too much wealth to flaunt and who look for exotic pleasures. Tokyo, afterall, is one of the those places where money goes a long way and then some.
The famed "meat market" bars and clubs of Roppongi (六本木) sounded a little too feisty. Someone told me a first-hand account of how, upon entering one of the rowdier establishments, he was manhandled in a very familiar way by a couple of girls. Being blonde and blue-eyed (wide, blue eyes by the time he extricated himself from their clutches) probably helped.
Anyway, on a cold winter evening, I decided to go check out Roppongi with an angmoh co-worker.
Would be interesting to see what the bar scene is like... of course I didn't imagine that I'll actually chat someone up, but hey, if we're here, some nice girls must be doing the same thing, right? Whatever, I resolved to chill and have a good time.
It was 8pm when we finally had dinner at a kaiten (回転) or rotary sushi joint in the Mori Tower (森タワー) smack in the middle of 六本木. Inexpensively decent, I supposed. It wasn't crowded at all, just a few salarymen and some couples. When Kurt and I asked for tea, the chef pointed to a small black container on the table which contained green powder. Wow! One was supposed to scoop some powder into one's cup and add hot water from a curved spout sticking out of the table. That's new. Chalk another one up for the "Cool, never saw this before" list :)
After some tuna, egg, hotate (ホタテ--a type of clam) and a greyish mixture of crab and miso that Kurt described as "brain matter", we headed out into the streets.
Way too early, as it turned out. At 9pm, all of the pubs and bars we stopped at were disappointingly empty! There were some chic, stylish-looking places which looked very promising but somehow the staff were standing around, staring forlornly at the TVs or wiping some imaginary stain off the tables. Where were the famed 六本木 revelers? Was it a sign of a faltering economy? Of course there could be (and probably were) private parties going on which were reserved for the well-to-do, but it was like walking in the woods in winter and realizing that all the denizens were hibernating in secret crevices.
We eventually went into a lounge in Tokyo Midtown, a spanking new office/restaurant/shopping building, where at least a sizable crowd had gathered. Good mix of gaijin and locals. It was fun trying to figure who the tourists were. We settled down at the bar, had a beer and chatted a bit before one of his friends, Mie, arrived. Kurt had a pretty interesting background--apparently he attended grad school in Nagoya(名古屋) and dabbled quite a bit in theoretical physics before becoming an electrical engineer. In another era, he could very well be a Russian fur trader, or an frontier pioneer in Siberia, fearlessly and skilfully carving out a niche for himself--he was a selfmade man.
"Somehow I thought you were married. No? Let me tell you this; don't marry an American girl--they will tire of you pretty soon. I've known too many friends with failed marriages."
"No way, she did _not_ do that...!! What did you do?!"
"So he's playing a dangerous game, but that guy is a survivor."
"Sawazaki san is actually a very smart man. I respect him"
"Haha we better make sure none of these leave this place, man, you know what I mean? Ahahaha!"
Back in San Jose, perhaps because most people went home after work, there was little opportunity to exchange office gossip and I was enjoying myself thoroughly. How strange, to be in a bar in 六本木 with a non-Japanese co-worker, a senior one or senpai(先輩) no less, talking about things we normally wouldn't talk about at the company.
We even bumped into two expat friends of mine, stopping for a beer before heading home. Hey, in a city of 120 million people, I finally bumped into someone I knew!
More people started filing in; it was definitely a yuppish, working professional crowd. There was the occasional guy skulking in a corner quietly drinking his beer, but mostly people stood around shoulder-to-shoulder, chatting over drinks. The bartenders weren't smiley happy types, and just went about their jobs in an relaxed, efficient manner. Perhaps that was the mood of the masses. It was a nice place to have a drink after work.
Around 10, Mie arrived. Tall, porcelain-skinned, graceful, she was very nice despite having wandered around in the cold for half an hour due to the poor directions we gave her. See, I thought we were in the Mori building when in fact the lounge was in Tokyo Midtown--a good 15 minutes' walk away. But Mie didn't show any trace of irritation at all (was it the typical Japanese reserve?) In any case, we ended up in a coffeeshop called Segafredo chatting over coffee and dessert.
I was concerned that I was being a big third wheel, but I didn't detect any such vibe (or maybe the beer had dulled my senses). We kept on talking and parted ways around midnight. Me off to home and bed while the other two off to another watering hole. The evening turned out to be somewhat different than expected but it was fun. Somehow, it felt like I saw a side of Tokyo life that I hadn't seen before.
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