Igirisu gin

This week has seen some extensive bouts of drunkenness at one of the 'Yatai' in my town. A yatai is a food stall on the street which serves up a mixture of oden, ramen and lots of alcohol. The unbeatable combination of food and vast quantities of booze has rapidly made this my favourite hang out in Tokuyama.

These places used to be pretty common but, as Japan concretes over its past as fast as fuckin' possible so they can build another 7-11, the tsunami of consumerism has washed them all away. Fukuoka/Hakata (used to be 2 places but now its just one big city) is famous throughout Japan for its yatai and ramen. The thing with Japan is that its all the same these days with no local differences so the clever bods who run local councils have all come up with some gimmick to sell their cities. For example, my town's chief product aimed at tourists is chestnuts. I have no idea who the genius was who came up with that one but needless to say we're not exactly beating back the tourists. I have never seen a single chestnut tree in the 14 months I have lived here.

Anyways, to the best of my limited knowledge, Tokuyama is pretty much the only place outside of Fukuoka that has yatai. The stalls are these really old wooden carts which are wheeled into place and then hooked up to a generator or some improvised power hookup.

Antonio

Antonio, is the irreplacable host/chef/entertainer of our favoured yatai. He's the reason we keep on coming back for more. He's fascinated with Elvis Presley and Italy, hence his assumed name Antonio. This guy is a real legend, constantly knocking back sake and making sure everyone else is doing the same.



This is Antonio in mid-rendition of "It's Now or Never", a pretty regular occurrence in the space of a sake sodden night. Its turned into a little bit of a foreigner hangout recently with a few regulars eating and drinking til the early hours but also a great place to chat to drunken Japanese businessmen. In fact I am now a minor expert in the fish import business of Japan, now that's international networking!

A nasty wind was whipping through Tokuyama last tuesday night which meant cold beer was strictly off the menu. Que mass drunkenness as hot sake was consumed by the shitload:



Thats the offending blighter right there, this is only the beginning of the messyness



This is the result. Noriko completely battered, chatting to some random stranger and then looking the wrong way when I'm taking a photo. Ah, good times.