For the last three or four weeks I have been frequenting Sannomiya, usually on Saturday nights. Sannomiya (三宮) is the urban center of Kobe, and while paling in comparison to the size of places like Osaka or even (in my opinion, as some Japanese will disagree) Hakata (Fukuoka, in Kyushu), it still holds its own as a center of entertainment during the day and night. Lately, my main focus has been the latter. And so, with what will be the first of many in a series of night-time adventures in Sannomiya. As always, I'm trying to keep this academic, so what I discuss will hopefully shed some light on areas of Japanese culture and some of the more particular areas of my interests in music. With any shred of cleverness in me, I can turn these trips into a viable educational experience. As a note: I shall omit most any foreign-run or predominantly foreign-visited bar in the interest that I see the way that Japanese enjoy the night. There are some Irish pubs around town that look a little too English-friendly, which I wish to enjoy. The more perplexed the barkeeper looks as my white face appears in the doorway, the better (though this isn't too common in an international city like Kobe).The first excursion was on a Friday toward the beginning of April. I willed myself to go out on my own, something I wasn't too willing to do before, and discover the many areas of vibrance in nighttime Kobe. I stopped at a bar called "Chey's". The sign outside read "No cover charge" which instantly appealed to me. As I would later come to find in several other cases, a lot of Japanese bars charge steep service fees, even up to a thousand yen ($10 abouts) just for coming in and sitting down. The bartenders were two young, long-haired and overly-cool guys, and their demeanors initially put me off as a bit unwelcoming. They fit a common mold of young Japanese men, who are often absorbed in their looks and attitudes in order to appeal to others, most likely young women. Their style did, however, become the stylishness of the bar, which sat on the second and third floor of a building, accessible by staircase and elevator, and featured sleek dark interiors. This first time I stayed on the second floor, which was the main bar area. As the night went on one of the bartenders warmed up after we talked about a group of young foreigners who had entered the bar, aged around 13 years old, who were kicked out for not having ID. I remarked that I think Japan carded minors, but the glaringly obvious age of the young foreign kids was too much (or too little) for the bartenders to ignore. The bartender who responded to my commentary on the situation then recommended some local club venues, and the name of the club that piqued my interest immediately escaped me as I later left the bar. I would spend a good majority of this night searching for that club. I would frequent Chey's many times after the first night's visit, and it remains one of my favorite spots. The customers are mostly Japanese, with occasional foreigners like myself popping in. As there is no cover charge, and the drinks are generally cheap, it appears to be a popular choice for locals in Kobe. The second time I went and drank on the third floor of the bar, a place containing a dining table for larger groups of customers, a bar counter, and a kitchen where food is prepared. Working on the third floor was a much friendlier man with a shaved head, a guy more into sports than looking pretty, and we discussed my place of origin among other things. His presence certainly provides a balance to different kinds of customers. Another time visiting Chey's I discovered a female bartender, a young and pretty college student, who completed the package in terms of what bar patrons are looking for in their service experience. I have heard from students at school that someone from school might be working at Chey's but I've yet to meet whoever it is. I went to the 4th year anniversary of Chey's with a college student from a different school who, having never been to Chey's, thought a friend from his school might be working there, but it turned out to be a different bar. Apparently, for college students, bar-tending is becoming a more popular choice for part-time employment. Anyway, enough about Chey's for now. I'm sure it'll pop up here and there as I continue my journeys.
That first Friday I also went to a darts bar called "Kool". The bar was run by a husband and wife duo and was quite small, confined to a dart-throwing place and a bar counter. The atmosphere was friendly and most of the people there, all of them Japanese, appeared to be regulars at the bar. Bars that cater to special tastes, like this one for darts, are common in Sannomiya. While many bars in the United States feature all of the above; darts, billiards, music, etc, it seems that it's more practical for bars to specialize in one kind of specialty outside of serving drinks. From my experiences thus far, bars that cater to musical tastes appear to be the most popular. So far I've been to a tiny little jazz bar nestled at the top of a bafflingly long staircase, a sure-fire serious injury for any unsure-footed drunk coming out of the bar. It required a service fee, however, which was off-putting at first, but not nearly as expensive as some of the other cover charges I would encounter, particularly at a certain bar I came upon during my last excursion into Sannomiya...
I was determined to visit another place aside from Chey's or Kool's, and so I wandered off into some smaller streets in the main part of town. In an alleyway I came upon a sign that was plastered with CD covers of John Lennon, The Jam, The Police, and numerous other 70's to 80's musical artists. The bar, located on the 4th floor of the building complex, specialized in that era of rock and roll, and given my affinity for Elvis Costello and the promise of "beers of the world" and no cover charge, I was more than willing to give it a try. But was the bar open? I looked to the side of the elevator and saw a colorful sign that read "OPEN", with something else written in Japanese that I completely ignored, which turned out to be a bar name. Assuming this sign to mean that the music bar was open, I ascended the elevator to the 4th floor. Following the same sign at the bottom that read "OPEN", I made a left into the bar. What I came to find was completely inconsistent with my expectations: yes, there was music, but it was pulsating disco-breaks playing along with colorful music videos being shown on screens on all sides of the room, situated along-side posters of Madonna and Lady Gaga, and a young man in full drag tending the bar. Another young man welcomed me in, a bit confused, and had me sit at the front bar. A third bartender appeared and gave an enthusiastic greeting and somewhat limp-wristed greeting. At the bar sat a middle-aged man and a very old man. I sat there for a while to compute my surroundings when one of the bartenders introduced the one in drag as "Japanese okama", (お釜, meaning gay person or male transvestite). I nodded and gave the thumbs up to him in order to show some kind of open-mindedness . One of them said in Japanese "This is a gay bar", to which I responded, "I can see...". I didn't want to bail out at this point and I believed that this was the bar listed at the bottom, although it certainly wasn't the music I was hoping for, and so I sat down for a couple beers. Here I could at least get somewhat of a look into Japanese gay culture, even though the tiny bar wasn't very full. I talked a good deal with one of the bartenders about traveling overseas, his time spent in college, and what it's like for him as a gay person in Japan. Before I left I wanted some kind of picture of the place, but the bartender said that while it was okay for one to be taken, I shouldn't show it to anyone I know in school in fear of exposing his orientation. I decided it was best not to take any pictures at that point, and asked him about what it's like for him to live his life in secret. He said that to most people he will deny his homosexuality, but in places like the bar he works at, he can be himself. This kind of lifestyle is in line with what I learned in a class at school about Japanese culture and society in terms of the "private self" versus the "public self". While homosexuals in the states who are "in the closet" might be in self-denial, in Japan, from this young bartender's situation, it seems that they are only "in the closet" in terms of how they appear before others. The presentation of one's self in Japanese society defers from how one views one's self in private. And so, Japanese gay bars provide this haven of privacy. The old man at the bar could come and be himself and sing karaoke with the cross-dressing barkeep. This privacy comes at a price, of course- the cover charge for being in the bar ended up around a thousand yen ($10). Although I probably would not have revisited the place either way, that was enough for me not to go there again. Before I left, however, I learned the actual location of the music bar I wanted to go to, on the opposite side of the hall. After the dent made in my wallet from the steep cover charge at the gay bar, I almost decided to call it quits but relented to go to the music bar either way. After all, the charge was free.
Inside was a few patrons, and I sat down and told them what I'd just experienced. They were heavily impressed that I didn't turn and run after walking into a gay bar, and I was relieved to be in a place where, like the gays could enjoy being gay, I could be free to enjoy listening to Elvis Costello and indulging my other music tastes. A young man who was at the bar with his mother shared largely similar tastes in music as me, and by the end of Costello's "Alison" he played, through his iPod connected to the bartender's laptop, Oasis, The Verve, Radiohead, Kasabian and any other UK rock act that you can think of. Singing along to the lyrics did actually give a liberating feeling, being in an open atmosphere with people of similar interests.
Just like club circle activities in Japanese colleges, it appears that bars in Japan offer similar experiences for people who want to indulge their tastes. Where bars in the West may tend to have their patrons rely on finding other individuals with similar tastes, specialized bars in Japan take the work out of it and cater to individual interests so that people can feel comfortable among others while they drink. Bars are not nearly as popular in Japan for the reason that it often does require one to take individual initiative to find a preferable place and have a good time. This bar culture, however, appears to be rising in Japan, in a Japanese way. Whether it's a relaxing time in a stylish place like Chey's, playing darts at Kool's, or being free to be who you want to be, it can be found in Sannomiya. There's still a lot out there to discover when I have the free time, and I'm eager to continue my explorations.
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