Japanese bars

Video was interesting, thanks for sharing.
You say you avoid Yakuza run bars...would they give you grief if you spent time in their bars, would it be unsafe?
I watched a TV program that said Yakuza do not pester foreigners at all...but since you actually live over there, is there any truth to that?

 

It's true that yakuza don't bother westerners but they are thieving shits plus I hate scum such as them so I wouldn't want to give them any of my money anyway.

 

Thanks for the answer

 

Anyone been to the Daikaijū Salon in Nakano, Tokyo? It's a really crazy place and very close to the Nakano Broadway which is a famous place for shopping retro games.
So if you have a chance you should go and check it out. The bar is open only on Wednesdays from 15:00 to 23:00, though. http://goo.gl/maps/XP6Tj

 

I went to a few bars when I was in Kumamoto last year, none were that small. One of the best places was the German pub, which gave you unlimited beer (Asahi) for 2 hours for only 1000 yen. Needless to say, it probably wasn't meant for someone of my drinking ability. The managers were all very friendly, most amazed to see a western guy walking in the door.

 

Can't add much being that I've never been to Japan but is K1 (which is all but bust now) and MMA still popular?

I used to watch PRIDE when it was still on, back before the Yakuza's involvement was exposed and they got dropped like a hot potato, odd how the Yakuza are everywhere secretly but as soon as involvement is exposed that organization is permanently blackmarked. DREAM was formed by the exact same management PRIDE had and suddenly everything was kosher lol. DREAM are gone now too as well. I think MMA in Asia in general is pretty crap these days with the best talent being the ones that avoid the Japanese circuit before going to the major leagues.

 

I live in Tokyo now, but this thread reminded me of my student days when I studied abroad in Hokkaido (Sapporo, to be specific) for a year.

For piss-poor students such as my then-self, the wide range of 500-yen bars was where it was at - pay 500 yen and get all you can drink for maybe 30 minutes or an hour. Of course, the drinks were more water than not and service was purposefully slow, but you could definitely get your drunk on, if that was your purpose. (And what other purpose would you have for 500 yen all you can drink?)

Then there were the clubs, like King Xmhu (pronounced "moo"), which was supposedly designed by the guy who did the sets for the Indiana Jones movies - this great big fake Aztec temple, replete with fake glowing skeleton embedded in the floor of the entrance. Hardly ever went to that one, through, with it's 4,000 yen cover charge (if memory serves). It's gone now, though. Then there was the aptly named "Booty," which could best be described as a "blacksploitation club," at least by the near-racist designs on the walls. Booty was free, so it drew the absolutely skeeviest foreigners, along with the skeevy Japanese girls who were interested in such guys. Eventually Booty got busted by the police because they didn't actually have a liquor license - all the rowdy foreigners probably didn't help in avoiding police attention. I think they are still in operation, though.

The clubs and a large portion of the bars were located in an area called Susukino, which is almost Wild West-level notorious in other parts of Japan (and even Asian, so I've heard), but really isn't that much different from any major entertainment district in Japan. Bars and clubs and soaplands and strip joints (especially kyabakura, which at least at the time I was in Hokkaido were apparently different from the rest of those in Japan in that customers were allowed a 5 minute, lights-out, all-you-can-grope session with the girl at the end of the session - nowadays I get the impression that kyabakura [or at least the term "kyabakura"] have come to be more like regular hostess clubs - no nudity, just drinks and licentious talk - but never having visited any of the above, I can't provide anything more definitive than gossipy hearsay). I suppose this is also like every other major entertainment center in Japan, but what I always found funny about Susukino was that you could find places like Booty and strip clubs with names like T-Back High School, but you'd also see families even at 12 midnight - husband and wife walking hand-in-hand with a five year old child, without a care in the world.