Last month (for ’tis now September!) was my birthday and a splendid time was had by all (well mainly me, as Aki just got to watch me drink 11 beers in 2 hours in a beer garden on top of a department store in Kobe).
Still, I’m sure that was fun for her.

Kobe

After the garden we went to the recently opened Hobgoblin pub in Kobe the first one to be opened in Kansai (there are 2 in Tokyo). For those that don’t know the Hobgoblin chain is run by Wychwood breweries in England, and one of them was in fact my local in my hometown, and many an hour was spent in it’s confines over the, wow, 17years I’ve been going there.

A lot of “English” or “Irish” pubs in Japan are run by Japanese people/companies, and bear little resemblance to the real thing, so I was very pleased to see that it did actually look and even feel a bit like an actual pub. It’s run by an English guy called Simon so that helps. They had Magners, Speckled Hen and even Pork
Scratchings! Splendid.

We didn’t eat there, but the menu contained fish and chips (and unlike in the Hub – another english pub here, actually looked like fish and chips), full english breakfast!!! and on Sundays for 4000Y (about 20quid) you can get a full english traditional roast! Yes, I did say, 20 quid – almost London prices huh? We’re saving up for that special treat. Apologies to Hobgoblin, went back the other day, and there was a mis-reading – the Roast is actually only 1400Yen (about 7 quid). The 4000Y menu was for a “party”. Oops. Will be going back much sooner to try it out
Things were starting to get blurry and I was starting to buy things like pork scratchings in a wave of nostalgia, so we headed back to our favourite wine bar (Petit Emilion) for some birthday cake.

Birthday Cake 2008

Related posts:

1. My Birthday
2. Hobgoblin Mistake
3. Birthday

We went to a beer garden in Osaka. I’ve blogged about beer gardens before, but just to recap, they’re not like English beer gardens (where the garden part is kind of important, trees, grass, etc.), here, due to lack of space, they tend to be on the roof of department stores or hotels, so the beer is more important.

Basically, you pay 3000Yen and it’s nomihodai and tabehodai (all you can eat and drink!).

I didn’t know at the time, but it turned out to be my “oiwai” party (wedding celebration party). Which was great They made me drink a lot, and gave me a beautifully wrapped envelope with money in for my
wedding.

Aki and I are going to a newly opened sushi restaurant in Ashiya with the money – they do amazing sushi!

As it’s not really summer here yet, the beer garden shut early (8:30) so we went to a very cool Okinawan restaurant afterwards.
I don’t know how engineered it was, but I ended up right at the front of the small stage they had for live music.

Okinawan Singer

(apologies for the poor quality of the photo, but it was taken with a mobile phone, and I was drunk ) he spotted me straightaway and started talking to me (where are you from, etc. ). Then said he was going to sing some songs in English. He sang “I love you, I need you, I want you…” kinda embarassing.

After a few songs, he asked if a “James” was in the audience…I raised my hand, and he told me to stand up.

He told eveyone in the restaurant I was getting married, and they all cheered and said congratulations. Again, pretty embarassing, but really nice. He then tried to play the wedding march on his shamisen!

It didn’t end there. Okinawan music is great for dancing to, and this restaurant gets everyone dancing round the tables. So one of the waiters got some drunk salaryman up and dancing and they shuffled round to me and lifted me off the floor (I wasn’t that drunk! – we were sitting on the floor, this is Japan remember), and we started a conga like dance around the restaurant.
Everyone was so friendly, I got lots of hugs from sweaty salarymen, and high fives and hand shakes from everyone. Great fun!

I’ll try to scan some pictures of the dancing in (I didn’t take any obviously, a friend gave me some).

All in all, a fantastic night, and the food was great too. I recommend Okinawan pork, very soft and juicy.

Taiko Drumming

Okinawan Singers

Related posts:

1. Beer Garden and the Snack Bar
2. Japanese Beer Gardens
3. My Birthday

Last year we went to the Hanshin beer garden (there are 2 big department stores/railways in this area, Hanshin and Hankyu), this year we plumbed for the slighly classier Hankyu.

And classier it was too! A wide selection of beers (well, 4 compared to 2 last year), also sake, cocktails and some quite tasty food. You pay 3500Yen and can drink and eat all you want until closing time (opens from 6-9pm).
I only managed to get in 10 glasses and a small bottle of sake, but we did get there at 6.30

Thankfully it was a little windy that day, so not too unbearable in the heat.
I also got to try out the automatic beer machine! Little bit scary though.

Automatic Beer Machine

What I like about these beer gardens (apart from the “all you can drink” – “nomihodai”), is the friendly atmosphere, everyone is just there to have fun and drink and eat, not to start a fight. Relaxing.

View of Osaka From Beer Garden

On the way home we passed a tiny snack bar near the station which I walk past everyday on the way home from work, and have always wondered what’s inside. A “Snack bar” is like a tiny bar, generally for salarymen, where they drink whisky and sing karaoke and talk to the “snack mama”, the owner.

I drunkenly convinced Aki to go in (afterwards I could see why she was soooo reluctant), and we had a drink and I sang some Japanese songs on the karaoke machine while the “snack mama” tried to clap along with my horrendous screechings.

All for a shocking ￥6000!!(glass of sake and a small bottle of wine). We won’t be going back, but glad we tried it at least once.
Oh, I forgot to mention the small cheese cubes we were given as
a “snack”, like dairy lea but…cubed.

Keep your own Whiskey Bottle Behind the Bar

She's trying to keep time!

Related posts:

1. Beer Garden and the Okinawan Party
2. Japanese Beer Gardens

They put them on top of very tall buildings in the middle of cities.

Every summer (for obvious reasons of weather, they only open in the summer), the roof of department stores or other such places are bedecked with plastic tables and chairs and chock full of drunk salarymen and office ladies (I’m sure there are salarywomen too, but you never hear of them…).

The other difference with British beer gardens is that for about ￥3000 (about £15) you can eat and more importantly, drink as much as you want for about 3 hours!

Japanese Beer Garden

We paid our money, got our glass and plates and found a seat. The deal is, you take your empty glass to the bar, and they give you a full one. Sweet, simple and very efficient. The food was self service and included salads, fried chicken (karaage), fried noodles, takoyaki – octopus in dough balls, fried meat and much more.

As it was a Hanshin garden they had a big screen up showing the Hanshin Tigers baseball game.
The place soon filled up, and there were people of all ages from kids up to some very old ladies who seemed to be back and forth to the bar more often than I was!

They turned off the taps and kicked us out about 9.30, after only about 8 glasses – but bearing in mind the glasses aren’t a full pint, and they do like their frothy beer heads here in Japan, it’s not as much as it sounds.

Still an absolute bargain for ￥3000 and great fun too. Really nice atmosphere, and nobody seemed to get rowdy or aggressive.

Fascinating to see salarymen coming straight from the office and gradually loosening up, and the office ladies who turned up later (after I assume going home and dressing up) flirting or trying to be flirted with.

Was good weather too, not too hot and humid that day, just right. Some ladies bought their parasols.

Parasols

PS If you’re interested in Japanese beer check out my Beer website at www.moippai.com/beer-reviews/

Related posts:

1. Beer Garden and the Snack Bar
2. Beer Garden and the Okinawan Party
3. My Birthday