After shopping with Taizo and his wife, his wife returned home and Tiazo and I went to an izakaya to drink with his funny university friends. Taizo, his two friends and I moved on to a darts bar where I conceded defeat in the practice round, then schooled the lot of them in the first real round winning 100 yen from each. Ok, I was really just lucky. It also helped that the good player was standing double the distance from dartboard and throwing each dart like a baseball.

We continued on to a batting centre. Knowing how difficult it is to strike a fast moving little white ball with a long heavy stick, I opted instead for something else. I timidly entered the table tennis cage where I was soundly humiliated by a noisy little machine spitting ping pong balls faster than bullets in a Jon Woo film.

Fortunately after that, we continued on to engage in one of my strong suits: partying. Having never been to a dance club in Umeda we decided to give that a try and consulted the lifestyle magazines in the nearest Lawson convenience store for names and locations of party spots. After finding one of the clubs we decided not to pay the 3500 yen cover charge to see a bunch of famous DJs from the UK of whom we had never before heard. Instead we went to the perennial favourite "Bar Isn't It".

Bar Isn't It, known to me and my (gaijin) friends as BII or "Isn't It" and to Japanese as "Izunto", is a chain of bar-come-dance-clubs across Japan. I know of BIIs in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. The formula is simple and successful: 1000 yen cover w/ 1D, 500 yen drinks, mixed music, and hokey decore. The bartenders are lively and foreigner friendly. Girls inevitably dance on the bar. And you are often treated to a little fire breathing pyrotechnics courtesy of one brave bartender. The alcohol flows until 5 am closing and is sometimes passed around in bottles or poured down the open mouths of eager patrons like a corrupt scene of a mother bird feeding its drunken offspring.

The crowd was strange that night. I suppose only the wierdos come out to dance on a Monday night or perhaps anyone with any sense spent 3500 yen to dance to the beats spun by imported UK talent on the other side of town. One young guy, his face frozen in an expression crossed between a wide smile and a grimace tried to introduce me to people he obviously did not know. One giant fellow danced mostly by walking forward, then plowing backwards, ass first through the crowd and occassionally stopping to give me a big high five with both hands. I danced up a storm and managed to make friends with everyone in the club getting bought drinks by the patrons, and offered shots by the bar.

At 5 am we turned in and, before heading home, grabbed a bite to eat with a businessman, originally from Shanghai, fluent in English, Mandarin, and Japanese. Impressive.

The next few days I stayed with Taizo and his wife Keiko's family. They fed, watered, and took very good care of me. I am lucky to have such good friends.

This concludes "Party Every Night" and it turned out to be only four consecutive nights which is not a new record for me but is, however, not typical. The next few days with Taizo were comparitively relaxing.

Stay tuned next time to hear all about my homestay family!