"Summer has come and passed, The innocent can never last, wake me up when september ends"
-Wake Me Up When September Ends, Green Day

I can now cross grinding with a guy in an “America” muscle shirt at a Japanese steel drum concert and having a drink with a crazy Polish pianist with the world’s largest head off my list of things to do. And all in one weekend.

I think it’s best to begin at the beginning.

Eve and I spent Saturday running around, eating, and spending time at karaoke in an attempt to hit up my favourite spots in Fukushima as my time in Japan quickly counts down. And to point out some random facts about why I'll miss this place: a brand of cat food is called "Cat Smack" and a man, walking a cat on a leash, tied him to a bench while he went into the grocery store- presumably to buy Cat Smack.And they sell "portable toilets" at the dollar store. Just don't ask.
And Since our regular karaoke place had a waiting list of over an hour for a room, we went to another place in town that is the gourmet version of karaoke. While our regular location is nothing shabby, this place, part of a chain called Shidax, is designed like a castle. The rooms are ornate and ornamented with brass decorations. But a change of scenery is always welcome, even if it means not seeing my karaoke man.

It started raining and Eve and I retreated back to the apartment to watch movies. After a few hours of lying around we got offers to join Yaesu at the local hip hop club, Neo, and a plea for some good old fashioned drinking with Corrie. We went to a local izakaya for some sake. After which, Corrie and I separated from Eve and decided to hit up the promising bar, Catfish- sometimes referred to as “Pie Crust” or “Octopus” when the random name slips past us. The slogan on the signs read: “Blues & Booze & Soul Stew.” It was our first time at Catfish so Corrie and I were impressed with the décor- vinyl records, jazz and blues posters, a bar filled with random junk like Godzilla toys, a Dennis Rodman doll, and a King Kong figurine…and a bunch of Rockabilly’s- part of the live band whose set we just missed. "here comes the rain again, falling from the stars"

Corrie and I were going about our business drinking and chatting when the Japanese dude- Kaz- to my right kept “fishing” in front of me with a wooden fishing rod toy from the bar as he tried to enter the conversation. Eventually we ended up chatting with him for an hour or so, as there were few people in bar. We tired to explain the concept of sarcasm to him since the Japanese don’t understand it, talked about Ben Affleck and baseball, and discussed the “Soul Stew” on the menu- if it really is what I pictured in my head: a big vat with people’s souls in ghost form rising out of the steam. But that’s me and I have an active imagination.

Another foreigner came into the bar and sat down next to Kaz. The owner of the bar, “Soul Stew Man” put a CD down in front of us and told us that this was in fact the man who had just entered the bar. Why Soul Stew Man had this guy’s Chopin CD was a mystery. Or why he in fact had 3 of his CDs. We also realized that this was the beginning of our weekend of nicknaming people. The Polish pianist whose name is “Michal with no ‘e’” was odd looking- a giant head with curly blond hair. He kept meeting our eyes in a creepy way as we glanced around the bar.

While in the middle of a conversation where Corrie happened to mention Yokohama, the Michal the Polish Pianist aka Dinosaur Head or Dinosaur Jr. randomly announces, “I just played a concert in Yokohama!” loudly over the 3 of us and our conversation. Seeing as that’s all he was going to offer to our conversation- no introduction, no “hello, my name is…”- he turned his back on us and the 3 of use looked at each other in disbelief.
Soon Kaz had to leave after failing to grasp the sarcasm in Corrie’s, “So can you recommend the fried wiener sandwich over the soul stew?” As we were saying goodbye, he leaned into us and firmly patted my back, and in a menacing voice, uncharacteristic of the Japanese, whispered, “I hate him” loud enough for Corrie and I to hear, and then left the bar. He was of course, referring to Dinosaur Head. Corrie and I looked at each other in disbelief, making sure we had heard him right, and then started laughing. We wanted to run after Kaz and tell him that we hated Dinosaur Head too.

"ring out the bells again, like we did when spring began"

We turned our attention back to our beer and conversation when out of nowhere, Dinosaur Head shoves his phone into our faces, even though my back was to him. Focussing on this cell phone that was just thrust in my face, we realize that it has a picture of a naked baby on it. Like a fresh baby, straight out of the womb with the umbilical cord taped up. WTF? Corrie and I exchange looks of shock and Dinosaur Head tells us the long winded and downbeat story about a death in the family and this new baby. Then, he loudly announces, “Do you know Regis?” I say I do, explain that he is my roommate’s boos, etc. Dinosaur Head goes on to proclaim that I must in fact work for Regis aka Rufus, who I keep denying, as well as informing him that he and I have not met before this interaction at the bar. He then explains that he knows Rufus because he parks his car at Rufus’ school. With that, he got up and left the bar. Our interactions with the Pianist were brief but bizarre. As soon as we were sure he was gone, we couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing. I pulled out his centerfold photo from his CD case and posed with it.
After this, we decided it was still too early and it called for more beer and food- the staple diet- and made our way to another bar. As we left Catfish, we saw Dinosaur Head and hid in the doorway of a building so he couldn’t follow us to show us more pictures of new babies.
Sunday was also a whirlwind of activity, but I’ll leave that for another post…

And it's also International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so avast ye matey's, land ho! Any excuse to yell "ho" is a good one.

"as my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost"