Mari at “Watashi To Tokyo” has posted some groovy Sapporo commericals from a few years ago, featuring amazingly agile and dextrous beer-drinkers, leaping about in Matrix-style slo-mo.
But when I’ve knocked back a few Sapporro, I’m more inclined to move like this guy.
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Alcohol, Cool, Crazy, Fun, Japan, Videos, drinking | Tagged: Advertising, Alcohol, Beer, Fun, Japan | 
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Have you busted your melons? Never fear, because there’s a new Japanese product which will mend your messed-up melons!
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Crazy, Fun, Japan, Weird | 
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Recently I’ve been checking out the underground live music scene in Tokyo, and it’s decidely more extreme and entertaining than the rinky-dink J-Poop you see on TV.
Yesterday I witnessed punk band The Jet Boys (presumbably named after Elton Motello’s twisted punk classic, “Jet Boy Jet Girl”), who screamed and bounded around the stage like amphetamine junkies. Their encore featured their deranged acid-blond carnival geek of a singer stripping nude, pouring a carton of milk over his head, playing the guitar with a large radish (and grating it with the guitar strings), before pissing into a hat and putting it on his head.
Now there’s a performance I’d like to see Ayumi Hamasaki emulate on TV.
These kind of outrageous antics have been performed in the past by the likes of G.G. Allin of the Murder Junkies, but curiously enough, unlike the maniacal G.G. Allin, the Jet Boy’s singer was actually extremely shy and polite when I spoke to him after the show.
Similarly incendiary are The Ed Woods, named after the legendarily inept transvestite director of the classic “so-bad-its-good” movies “Glen or Glenda” and “Plan 9 From Outer Space”. These guys are horror-movie afficianados and their flyers and backdrops feature images from trashy films films like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Burning.” They dress up in blood-splattered overalls and straw hats, like inbred redneck zombies, and play music not unlike The Cramps.
(They’d be good for a Halloween party).
When I last saw them perform live, the double-bass playing singer stripped off, poured a bottle of shampoo all over his hair, jumped off the stage and slid across the floor on his head, then slid back again until his head smashed into the stage. Talk about showmanship!
And yet, that guy is very friendly and courteous in person, too.
I just feel sorry for the poor bastards who have to clean up after these shows.
“Ed Woods homepage”
“Jet Boys Homepage “
(pics from their websites)
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Cool, Crazy, Fun, Japan, Music, Tokyo, Weird | 
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Wow! Evidently Japanese TV was much cooler in the 1970s.
Playgirl Q was like like Charlie’s Angels “with nudity and sexual content.” Nice! It was shown on TV Tokyo from 1974-1976, and actually pre-dated Charlies Angels by a few years.
Check out the funky theme tune.
Sequel to the long running Japanese TV detective drama of the 70s “Playgirl”, “Playgirl Q” featured Sawa Tamaki as a woman who sets up a private detective agency, recruiting a number of beautiful “thrill seekers”.
Fortunately, unlike the ladies’ magazine of the same name, “Playgirl” didn’t feature any naked blokes.
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Posted by roaf
Like most summers in Japan, I’m spending my time alternating between drinking lots of beer, and then sweating it out again. Summer is a time of al-fresco imbibing in Japan, be it at a fireworks display, a beer garden, or a beach bar. But I thought I’d take some time out of my hectic schedule to offer up some boozy links from Japan.
Some Japanese folks take their alco-antics overseas. Japan Probe has posted a video of a report from Japan’s NTV about the Tsingtao Beer festival in China. Apparantly Asahi Beer is keen to expand into China, because China consumes more beer than any other country (most of the drinking being done by fat, shirtless men, if this video is anything to go by).
Meanwhile, 63 year old Prince Tomohiro (the emporer’s cuz’) is being treated for alcoholism in the imperial household hospital. It’s the third time the poor old fella’s been hospitalized for alcoholism.
Prince Harry is now seeing his future flash before his eyes!
“What Japan Thinks” has posted a survey about hangovers.
apparently 44.3% of Japanese people have thought “I’ll never drink again!” after waking up with a blinding hangover, while 21% have tried the “hair of the dog” technique of drinking more moonshine the morning after.
Also, there’s good news from “Musashino Musings”, – someone’s invented a magic beer glass that tells the waiter to bring more booze. That’s right, the brainiacs at Mitsubishi Electric have invented the “Intelligent Beer Glass”, which uses “wireless liquid level sensing glassware” to detect when you need a refill.
You need never be a “glass half-empty” kind of guy again.
It’s like a “magic porridge pot” for alcoholics. Just make sure nobody tells Prince Tomohiro!
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Posted by roaf
Kentucky Fried Chicken have started selling Kirin beer in their Japanese chains.
Now I know where to take all my dates!
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PEE is another bar in Shibuya that caught my attention by having a weird name!
PEE apparently stands for Pop, Eros, Elegance. (Hmm. Doesn’t the last word contradict the first two?)
Unfortunately it was closed when I saw it but I might have to check it out, sometime, as a last port of call, because it’s open until 7AM every night. I’m curious to see what kind of demons would be drinking at 7AM on a Wednesday morning.
Here’s their phone number: 03-3464-5116
And here’s their URL: PEE Bar
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Posted by roaf
Monday was “Ocean Day” in Japan, which means that the rainy season is officially over, and the summer has begun! Also on Monday it started raining for the first time in weeks and hasn’t stopped since.
All across the land there are beach bar and beer garden owners shaking their fists at the sky.
But they needn’t worry, because before long I’ll be showing up and emptying my wallet. (Unless they’ve got cheap all-you-can-drink-deals, in which case they’re truly buggered.)
Yes, summer is a always a great time for al-fresco beer-imbibing, wherever you are (except Saudi Arabia, where it’s punishable by several months in prison.)
All across Japan, department stores and hotels cover their roofs with tables, call them beer gardens, and let people go there and get pissed-up for not much money. A particular favourite of mine is the Kudan Kaikan in Kudanshita, on Tokyo’s Hanzomon line, (and that has nothing to do with the fact that the waitresses are dressed as playboy bunnies, honest.)
About an hour south of Tokyo is the Shonan beach area (where I used to live, an hour on the Odakyu line from Shinjuku) where you can sit back and sup beers and watch the sun set over the ocean, while people let off fireworks. Enoshima beach, while dirty and overcrowded, is a favourite destination of mine (and this has nothing to do with the fact that the beach is teeming with nubile college girls in bikinis, honest.)
If you despise the beach boozing because your beer gets warm in the sweltering summer heat, never fear- I’ve just learned (from Japanprobe) of an amazing new innovation which will solve your problem. An enterprising company has started selling beer mugs carved from ice, and you can buy them online for 580 yen. They last an hour in the sun, apparently.
And if you want to avoid the heat altogether, you can always pop into Ginza’s Ice Bar to cool down. It’s entirely full of ice, and is cold enough to freeze your nipples off.
I might go there, myself- it’ll be nice to stop sweating for the first time since May.
2 Comments | Alcohol, Cool, Crazy, Enoshima, Fun, Japan, Tokyo, drinking | Tagged: Beer, Bikinis, drinking, Enoshima, Japan, Shonan, summer, Tokyo | Permalink
Posted by roaf
To get you in the mood for the summer beach season, here are some 80s beer commercials featuring sand, curvaceous ladies in bikinis, lecherous middle-aged men, and lashings of beer.
6 Comments | Alcohol, Cool, Crazy, Fun, Girls, Japan, Videos | Tagged: 80s, Advertising, Beer, Bikinis, Japan | Permalink
Posted by roaf
Another day, another product from Kirin, a company whose employees are required to have the imagination of Willy Wonka.
Not content with being responsible for countless teenagers vomiting their dinner up after guzzling their lethally cheap and strong 8% chu-hai, the malevolent Oompa-Loompas at Kirin have come up with an equally deadly concoction- alcoholic cola! It’s called “Cola Shock”. This is an idea so simple and marketable, that the “shock” is that it doesn’t exist already.
It’s such a ridiculously obvious idea that I can only assume that drinks manufacturers have, until now, had an unwritten agreement with each other to restrain themselves from producing Cola chu-hai, because the potential appeal to teens would be of concern to parents. Plus, youngsters might drink “Cola Shock”, mistaking it for ordinary cola. It would be a “shock” in itself, discovering that young Yuta had been unwittingly drinking booze for weeks, had developed a fierce alcohol-dependency, and was raiding the drinks cabinet and waking up shaking with the DTs, begging for a shot of whisky on his coco-pops before nursery school.
But, times are hard, and perhaps someone at Kirin finally stoop up in the boardroom and said “F*ck it, profits are down. I’m going to come right out and say it. It’s finally time to unleash the alcoholic coke!”
I spotted “Cola Shock” in the convenience store and decided to give it a try. It’s actually drinkable, which is to say, if you like the idea of cola chu-hai, you won’t be disappointed (connoisseurs of fine wine won’t be singing its praises). I mean, it’s sickly and acidic, but no more than your standard cheap supermarket cola mixed with Bacardi or Rum. Ice helps dramatically.
Expect an imitation from Asahi within a month!
17 Comments | Alcohol, Cheap, Cool, Crazy, Fun, Japan, drinking | Tagged: Alcohol, cola, Japan | Permalink
Posted by roaf
