Osaka Nights Part 1

shoot - i am getting behind again. so from hiroshima, i went to osaka, a big and cosmopolitan city near kyoto. the train ride was uneventful, and pushing through intense heat in osaka, i made it the mere half mile to the capsule hotel. working out well in my favor, the capsule was very affordable and included access to the lounge, bathrooms, showers, sauna and public bath/pool. fantastic. just next door was an internet comic cafe. the street, higashi-dori, is a covered arcade filled with restaurants, bars, video game dens and shopping. and, the gay bars were just around the corner.

after checking in and doing a little internet work, i grabbed some lunch nearby (some nice tempura udon) and decided to take a small walking tour of the downtown area. i am getting really good at the subways, and the two stops to the mineta area (mineta means south in japanese - i stayed in the kita (north) area), and took no time at all. i, of course being lucky not to have had a single day of rain on my trip so far, emerged into the full glaring sun. the walk was nice - much of mineta is bars and shopping, same old from any other big city - but i was quite hot. i needed more than a few stops into a coffee shop just to cool off. not feeling the shopping bug, i just took in the city while listening to my headphones (grateful dead again. i had suggested joel listen to "eyes of the world" from the "so many roads" boxset to cheer up, so i took a listen myself, oh how nice). osaka is very clean and very new looking. the side streets have many of the same trendy boutiques and shops as harajuku in tokyo or sanjo dori in kyoto - lots of the same fashions on the street. but people watching and new city viewing is always fun.

after 3-4 hours, i was hot, sweaty and tired. back at the capsule, i gave myself a nice long soak in the onsen, took a little swim and sat as long as i could in the sauna - both the sauna and baths are unreasonably hot; i don't understand how the japanese can tolerate them for so long. i will say one thing about the heat, the longer you can take it, the better you feel - i was loose, clean and relaxed. if you conclude that if i went to lay down, i would fall asleep, you are right. i had myself a nice hour long nap in the capsule. afterwards, i watched some sumo and straight porn on the tv. an odd thing about japanese porn is that all the genitals are blurred/pixelated out. it's like looking through a scrambled television signal, while everything else is clear. cultural differences (as cindy put it, "japanese have so many social protocols, but no morality" - i can see much truth to this statement - very ritualized and rigid ways of acting and customs, but oh, behind those closed doors...).

following dinner at a nearby restaurant marked with a big pig statute in front (everything pork - i opted for gyoza and katsu-don), i went nearby to physique pride osaka, a local gay bar. the bartender, hideki, has been working there for 5 years. he's a very warm person, speaks english very well, and runs a really nice bar. it:s a 7 seat long bar, with some tables behind, a few videoscreens of music videos, and pop remixes on the stereo. i met an older guy named graham, from london (though living in england) and a guy my age named Sam (born in jordan to a jordanian and filipino - great mix on him). japanese gay bars, i have seen, are generally quite small establishments, and the nice thing to come from that is the cozy atmosphere - people get to know one another. at every bar, the bartenders engage everyone in conversation, all the time. so it is a choice to be left alone, rather than in many american bars, a choice to go strike up a conversation. it certainly makes a bar more welcoming, and indeed, easier for a gaijin.

after a few hours, the restlessness of wanting to see more of osaka hit me. i grabbed some snack food from a local convenience store (obsessed with the rice balls!) and went around the corner to Bacchus. the bartender there, Chano, is a very outgoing guy who doesn't pull any punches. he had me talking about my relationships (past and current), sexual likes and dislikes, american politics, thoughts about japanese culture and gay rights. we talked for a long while about being out to your family, and how that differs from japan to the states. i commented that one of my biggest observations is that in japan, the culture has existed for thousands of years, and while religion is present, it isn't central to behavior - culture is. rituals and social norms seem to guide japanese society. however, in the states, where the country is young and heterogeneous, there isn't a backdrop of culture to use to establish a national identity. while i think that heterogeneity is a strength of america's, it also leads people to base their cultural norms and practices into religion - the constant. christianity and judaism have both been present for thousands of years, and thus, there is much to tap into. however, religion also breeds hatred - of other religions, of women. and other races and of homosexuals. i am not blaming religion itself for all of it, but religion has been used as justifications for these hatreds. japanese culture doesn't have that hatred, it just has a resistance to the different and the new. gays are hated as abominations and sinners and pansies - they are seen as something different from the norm. difference leads to perhaps from degree of public shunning, but japanese these days aren't into hate. when i suggested this to chano as a reason why it should even be easier in japan to come out to one's family, he said that the difference factor leads to shaming, dishonor and loss of respect. for example, japanese culture is very focused on bloodlines and heredity, so it's perhaps worse to have no grandchildren than to adopt (which a gay couple might do). i said that perhaps the young generation, when they grow up, can begin to change these norms that foster repression of individuality. we had a good "kampai" to that one.

i then took a walk to a nearby bar called Cafe J's, but it was crazy empty, so i headed back to physique. i talked some more with hideki, and met three guys from nyc. they are all members of some new york symphonic group and were touring japan for four weeks. nice guys, all live in washington heights, and i gave them my email in case there was any way for them to get me a ticket to their tokyo show, as i will be there at the time. however much i was enjoying their company, which was a good amount, by the time 3am rolled around, i needed to rest. saying my goodbyes once again, i grabbed some takoyaki (octopus fritters) from the internet cafe and hit the sack.