Posts tagged as:

kabukicho

The Dalai Lama, Whale Meat & Danny Choo

April 2, 2008 · 12 comments

Last night I attended the same function I met the grandson of the founder of Miss Nippon last year. Again it was held at the Keio Plaza hotel and again it was a great night.

I spent the early part of the evening talking to TVK Yokohamas Kyoko Nakayama which was interesting as always and also caught up with the World Extreme Skiing champion Yoshimasa Wada and told him of my recent Snowboarding trips.

The highlight would have to have been meeting Lungtok who apart from being part of the Tibet Olympic Judo Team several years ago, is currently the translator for the Dalai Lama when he is in Japan. Not only was his conversation interesting I was most impressed to hear he was fluent in 5 languages.

Unfortunately the guy in charge of taking the photo was obviously impared with Sake and he managed to take an out of focus photo.

Dalai Lama

Not unlike last time, the grog and food was put on, and put on very well i might ad. Fast becoming a favourite of mine is Sushi and I only broke away from the Sushi last night to try one thing and that was the Whale Steak. There was a raw option beside the cooked variety but my taste buds weren’t tempted.

Coming from Australia the topic of Whaling came up on several occasions and it was discussed in a mature fashion, more than I can say for the behaviour from the guys from Chasers in this recent clip on youtube. I never have really liked much of their stuff.

{ 12 comments }

Nampa – Japanese for Picking Up

October 13, 2007 · 14 comments

Nampa, Nanpa, or girl hunting, is Japan’s most visible courtship ritual. The most famous form of Nampa is “suto-nan” (street Nampa).

Every weekend, across urban Japan, young men (”nanpashi”) and on the odd occasion early 30`s Gaijin (me) hang around busy streets or shopping arcades, trying to pick up passing girls … just kidding  about me doing it, my Japanese isn`t good enough yet!

Sometimes the girl does the hard work – this is known as “gyaku Nampa” (reverse Nampa) – but it’s much less common.

A lazy stroll down Kabukicho anytime from lunch time onwards will see many a rooster parading himself, complete with a full blow wave hair-do and usually coupled with a Louis Vuitton Man Bag, it truly is a sight to behold.

I had a few Friends from Australia here a few weeks back and one was lucky enough to get a photo with a few of the boys in question.

Nampa

Approaches vary from the clichéd “Ocha demo shinai?” (”Won’t you have tea with me?”) which really is the shittiest of tactics and is usually met with a sigh from those within earshot, to more sophisticated tactics, but it’s generally pretty obvious what the guy is really after.

For serious nanpashi, the aim is to get the young lady into a karaoke bar for a few songs then ultimately into a love hotel by the end of the night, but a (genuine) cell phone number is a decent consolation.

{ 14 comments }

Next Entries →