Friday Night in Sapporo

konnichiwa, friends,

it is a lazy saturday here in sapporo. it is also nearing the end of the summer shopping season, and so we have SALES SALES SALES all over the place. i have completely given up on buying any sort of clothing, as asians are just built differently than us mick/slovak types. even shoes are funny in size. tee-shirts galore, however, including one from hokkaido university, where we went yesterday afternoon. it is a lovely campus, but, alas, not good old washington college.

speaking of which, ron chernow, who won the first george washington book prize for his great great biography alexander hamilton will be speaking in chestertown on september 15th. this is a gentle nudge to my smartie pants pal nick quinn rosenkranz to get his butt over the bay bridge. and then we shall have dinner. 'k?

last night was big big fun. rob played the part of 1990s rock star, while i basked in the identity of an aging deadhead dowager aunt. we hopped over to rad brothers, which is described like this:

Rad Brothers South 7 West 3 Mitsuwa Bldg. 1 FThose two sister bars are the hottest places in town. Rad Brothers I is the place to meet foreigners and japanese who want to meet foreigners. On Fridays and Saturdays this place is really hot (after 11 pm). They play quite loud music, so deep conversations are a little bit difficult. If you like even louder music, you have to descend to Rad Brothers II. This cellar bar plays loud hardrock music, while displaying videoclips on three big video screens. Sometimes it's a little bit quiet, but when it's crowded it's a very hot spot.

or this:

Rad Brothers - The ultimate gaijin hang-out! Ask any gaijin in Sapporo about the weirdest place to go and he/she'll direct you to Rad. It's the kind of place where all the night owl weirdos go to party until 6am at weekends. I had kind of a love-hate relationship with Rad, because some weekends it was just too strange, with guys dancing naked on the tables and shit and there's nothing to put you off your Asahi then some guys 3 incher in your face. But at Rads you can meet some of the very coolest people in Sapporo. I came across hostesses, strippers, hookers, famous musicians, millionaires, queers, steers, you name it. I remember meeting some Japanese who'd studied abroad - believe me, you haven't laughed until you see a Japanese trying to do an impression of Taxi Driver "You lookin' at me? You must be looking at me cos theres nobody else here!? Shitheel.." Bloody hilarious!!. I picked up a lot of girls here, I mean, don't forget it is obviously a gaijin bar, and so you've got to question the motives of any Japanese chicks or guys going there, as I'd say most of them are looking for love of the Caucasian persuasion, the only problem being you tend to find a lot of the nutcase women here, you know the type, artistic types that get out of bed at midnight and believe that every conversation has to be radical, and question they're whole meaning of life every second of the day. These chicks can be a pain in the ass, but they're okay for a lay. Anyway, Rad is the kind of place you go to chill and have a tequila as the sun comes up and nothing really kicks off until late, but once it does you'll know it, as there is no crazier place to be in Sapporo than Friday night in Rads after 11. It's located around South 5, or, just along the main road that leads into Susikino, quite close to Nakajima Koen. With any luck the gay black guy who constantly hovers around the bar has died by now.

it seems as though the gay black guy has, in fact, died, as he was nowhere to be found.

we did have some grand fun, however, when we met up with one of rob's japanese friends and her "man friend" who we simply call "him." there's a great story there, with a lot of opportunity for self-reflection. let's just say that they have a "complicated" relationship and leave it at that, for the moment.

we were swigging back the cocktails (hey, i got my first -- and tenth -- just kidding -- gin and tonic in japan!) when out of the corner of my eye, i spotted "the twins." the volansky siblings think that twins are as hilarious as nuns, so rob and i greeted them with what can only be described as an invigorating and overzealous round of "konnichiwas!" great hilarity.

we hung around there for a while, until we went back to rob's for a little breather. i was very close to utter exhaustion, so rob and "team japan" went out galavanting. before you all cry out, "oh volansake, you have finally crashed!", know that i just could not go out. and, given the fact that rob met up with aika and they went to a place called booty, where they were witness to a wet tee-shirt contest, i can only say "thank god i was so spent." (this morning, aika said, "we saw titties!")

and so, here i sit, resting a bit with some generic music playing at the cafe. who knows what tonight might bring?

gotohellifyoulovefreedom,
volansake