Gaijin Tonic

“Wesley” is a legendarily mental bar in Fujisawa city, down a side-street near the station. I have been there countless times but never before about two AM. A trip to Wesley is always eventful, you meet new people, and lots of fun and surreal occurrences happen. The walls of the place are evidence of this, plastered with a photos of past customers, and covered with the gibberish marker-pen writings of over-excited drunkards. It’s a bona fide history museum, a rogues’ gallery of generations of wasted English teachers.

What really makes the place is the eccentric bar-owner, Yo-Chan, an affable host who looks not unlike a Japanese John Lennon, complete with round spectacles and a middle-parting. A big fan of music, Yo-Chan named his bar after a Jazz musician called Wesley…something. If you’re lucky, Yo Chan will get out his guitar for a sing-along.

Yo-Chan always persuades his customers to drink his specialty, the “Shine Shine” (”die die!”) a huge, milky monster of a cocktail, which renders the rest of the night a total blur. Oddly, everyone in the place seems to drink it, though. If you’re feeling particularly foolhardy, I’d recommend the snappily named “Shine Shine with red shit,” a turbo-charged, hardcore version of the the original Shine Shine. The “red shit” is a kind of intensely strong Jamaican Rum, but the name could just as easily mean that your shit will be red the next day.

If you’re in Fujisawa, pop in. Leave your mark on the wall for posterity, and neck a Shine Shine or two.

Info:
Tel: 0466-28-4493
You can see the address and a map at this web page.