Any city the size of Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka has its hidden treasures. While I’m not big on city life, I confess to some love for Japanese cities, having spent a fair amount of time in them. In a place like that, it’s always fun to dive in and experience the lives of those cities and their people, most especially the nightlife in those out-of-the-way places.
When working near Kyoto, my friends and I found a tiny place we called “The Six,” as its Japanese name translates to “Six Tatami Mats,” which was how big the place was – seating about 10 people, at most, and only that many if they were all on good terms. I also remember a very interesting Saturday night in Kyoto in which I spent about four hours drinking beer with three guys who I am about 99 percent certain were Yakuza. Great guys who wouldn’t hear of me paying for a beer.
In Tokyo, hidden away in a corner of Shinjuku, about a 20-minute walk from Shinjuku Station, is the famous Golden Gai. It’s a snapshot of old, pre-war Tokyo; narrow alleys, tiny bars, and restaurants, in which you might hear music spilling onto the street and go in to see some fascinating, little local band banging away. There’s lots of live music in Japanese nightlife, and some of it’s amazingly good – it was due to this I learned an appreciation for Japanese modern music, and that America doesn’t have a monopoly on rock ‘n’ roll.
One of the better-known – and fun – Japanese artists is one Mayasuka Suzuki , who not only performs live but also has done television and anime soundtracks. He’s a flamboyant, charismatic figure; two of my favorite pieces of his are “Daddy Daddy Do” and “Giri Giri.”
I really want to spend an evening drinking beer with this guy. I bet he knows all the great places.
You will see lots of pretty girls in this music scene as well. There’s little or no PC in Japan, which is refreshing, given the overtly woke flavor of too much American entertainment lately.
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If more guitar-banging rock with a distinctly Japanese flavor is what you’re after, there are bands like the Wagakki Band, which has a sort of Goth feel, but combines the modern electric guitar with the traditional Japanese shamisen in a hammering style with some great technical guitar work. The lights you see in the audience, by the way, are cold chem-lights – the days when I was holding up a cigarette lighter at a concert while Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing “Free Bird” are long gone.
For a more modern, easier-to-listen-to style, there are artists likeMariya Takeuchi, who I discovered while accompanying my wife on a business trip to Tokyo’s bookstore district of Jinbōchō. Her song “Plastic Love” is a favorite, with a smoother, more urban – and urbane – feel.
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Finally, if you’re looking for jazz, two acts found around Tokyo are the all-girl bands Tokyo Groove Jyoshi and The Jazz Avengers, both of whom observe Heinlein’s Law of Least Action by combining beauty with talent.
Japan, unlike a lot of the rest of the world, is still a place where Americans can travel and feel pretty safe. Granted I’m a sizable fellow, but I have never felt uncomfortable in Japan, even when exploring unknown areas in the biggest cities, sporting my usual tooled boots, big belt buckle, and cowboy hat; in fact, in my first gig in Japan, which lasted several months, I gained recognition in several local bars and restaurants as “Cowboy-san.”
Japan’s a fun place, not just at night but all the time; I’ve seen the cherry blossoms on the ground like pink snow in Tokyo and Utsonomia, and have marveled at the incredible fall colors at Arishiyama, south of Kyoto. I’m also about a third of the way to my goal of achieving the title of Tokyo Ramen King, which requires one to eat a bowl of ramen in each of Tokyo’s 23 wards.
Japan’s a great place. Great food, great people, great beer – and great music. If you ever get the chance, dive in and explore.