Happy Friday: solo
Lunch today was Okonomiyaki, but whereas in Osaka we had Osaka style Okonomiyaki, today my colleagues took me for Hiroshima style Okanomiyaki. This is an elaborate preparation: let’s see whether I can remember all the steps in its preparation.
We sat at a counter in front of a large flat hotplate, where we could watch the chef work.
First he spread a circle of pancake batter thinly on the hotplate, like a crepe. He would prepare six or so at once.
With the crepe just about cooked, he dumped a pile of filling on top — shredded cabbage and sundry other stuff depending on the order. Bacon seemed common.
A short while later, the crepe and cabbage stacks were flipped over, to cook on the other side.
Meanwhile, a big pile of boiled noodles was dumped onto the hotplate, stirred around a little, then divided into crepe-sized piles. A little later, the crepe and cabbage stacks were placed on top of the noodle heaps.
Finally, eggs were broken onto the hotplate, allowed to cook for a short while, before having their yolks broken, and the whole egg spread out to crepe size. The original piles were picked up and placed on top of eggs, so that each egg would finish cooking with the noodles settling into it.
The finished product was covered in barbeque sauce, and pushed towards us for us to serve ourselves directly from the hotplace. Delicious.
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In the evening, I took myself to Roppongi. I had better directions to Bauhaus, the recommended rock covers place, so there I went. Walking down Roppongi’s main drag as a lone gaijin is hard work. You can’t walk 100 metres without a someone stepping into your path proferring a handshake: “Hey man, are you having a good evening? Come, let me show you my club, it has nice ladies, to make you horny.” They won’t take no for an answer, follow you down the street, and if you have to wait for a road crossing signal, you’re stuck with them. I was able to convince them all that I had a firm destination planned, and soon I found Bauhaus.
Roppongi tip: for the journey home, I used a smaller street parallel to the main one. It was less busy and there were no touts to dodge.
In Bauhaus I was seated at the back with a good view of the band.
Bahuaus is a fun place: the staff are the band; the band is the staff. Every hour, for half an hour (longer, later in the night), they play rock covers, from Hendrix and Led Zeppelin to Bon Jovi. The highlight for me was Bohemian Rhapsody, with ingenious use of torches.
The band members would shift around each song. There were at least four extremely talented guitarists, including the old geezer I’m reliabliy informed is the owner.
It appeared to be the 60th birthday of a “friend of the bar”: at the start of each set “Happy Birthday” was played, and he jigged around happily wearing a red smock and hat, which I assume must be some 60th birthday tradition.
At one point I was really enjoying myself, but as it got later, two things happened:
- The entertainment of watching other people had fun, became envy of them having more fun than me
- They became unable to bring me beer at the rate at which I am accustomed. The bar worked on the “get someone’s attention and ask them to bring you a drink” system, which is fine until you can’t get that attention, or when you get it, the drink never arrives. Even when I tried to buck the system and get a drink directly from the bar, I was told the drink would be brought, and it never came.
- Later on, a bunch of hoorah henry gaijin turned up
So I left.
Nonetheless, I recommend Bauhaus. I suggest going in a group and ordering Jack Daniels by the bottle — that way you can drink all night with no further service, and live out any Axl Rose fantasies you harbour. They appeared to serve half-full whisky bottles too.