nightlife

Roppongi Nightlife and Karaoke

We have to admit that the movie "Lost in Translation" has left an indelible mark on our expectations of what your supposed to do in Tokyo. There is surely no better place on earth to experience the karaoke phenomenon and last night we repeated the experience of the characters in the movie and rented a karaoke cube for two hours- from about 1:15-3:15AM at a cost of US$58 including a drink and two dishes of gyoza. (Karaoke is singing along to music videos you choose.)

Of course, you can't fully experience karoake without a few drinks, so we also went to have dinner and take part the famous Roppongi nightlife.  Once again, Sachi's japanese skills enabled us to find restaurants that do not cater to foreigners and have menus that look like this:

We had sashimi. 

Roppongi is known as a place where foreigners go for nightlife and there are hundreds of bars, taking up the first 5 stories of real estate for many blocks.  For some surreal atomsphere- we went to a reggae bar (in Tokyo remember), where I played darts with a guy named "Hide". Later we went to the Motown Bar, where I couldn't believe the popularity of the Mexican beer Corona and the number of attentive bartenders. The service in Tokyo is amazing.

 Having sufficiently found new courage, we were ready for karaoke, which I have to admit was very, very fun.  I think Seattle needs a karaoke cube joint.

Here are selection of the songs we sang:

• Sitting on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
• Pretty Woman -  Roy Orbison
• You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi
• I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
• Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
• Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye
• Dancing Queen - AbbA
• My Life - Billy Joel
• King of the Road - Roger Miller

 Inquirys should be directed to our agent.

Karl Bartos at the Bed Supperclub, Bangkok Thailand

Karl Bartos at the Bed Supperclub, Bangkok Thailand, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

The Bed Supperclub reminds me of the Korova Milk Bar in the movie A Clockwork Orange, complete with a sterile white atmosphere, impractical "modern" decor with pretention bleeding from between the sheets.

Essentially, it is a restaurant and dance club where you eat lounged on a bed with friends a la the Bed Bar in the HBO tv show Sex and the City. The whole place is housed in what amounts to a giant tube- like an airplane fuselage with two floors of bed-based seating.

We (Sachi, Newley and me) were constanly amused by the scene in general which felt like another world of high fashion, performance art and people who appear to take themselves far too seriously. We were outsiders.

As an example, the server gave is a comment card that had ratings 1-5 with 1 being "meow" and 5 being "ROOAR!" When we arrived there was a brightly lit women standing in the middle of the room, looking a bit like a Cirque Du Soleil clown with vines wrapped around her. Upon asking, we found that she was a performer in an interactive/performance art display, called "Cut Piece". We were supposed to cut away the vines to "free" her and then "contemplate and discuss the meaning amongst friends." We insisted on discussing what it takes to find meaning in such things. We received "instructions" for Cut Piece and the first line read, and I couldn't make this up...

"Walk to the beautiful worm"

and

"Keep piece of brach as souvenir"

Oh, and Karl Bartos of the legendary electronic band Kraftwerk performed as DJ, which was really cool to see. He seemed to fit perfectly as he posed for muliple photographers as text scrolled across the screen above the dancefloor saying "before MTV there was Bartos. This is Karl Bartos."

The Bed Supperclub was a priceless experience for us as backpackers, perhaps in the same way a heavy metal rocker might experience an opera- it's not really our thing, but it's really interesting to watch and seems strangely familiar.

Meeting Newley in Bangkok

Meeting Newley in Bangkok, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

Newley Purnell and I have been online friends for a while, connecting on Flickr and through our blogs but had never really met until last night.

By pure chance, we happened to be arriving in Bangkok on the same day and last night the three of went out.

Newley is a Bangkok veteran compared to us and took us to a very cool bar called Saxaphone near Victory Monument. Live jazz, hip people, good drinks.

Newley seems like the kind of guy we'll be friends with for a long time and meeting him here is perfect timing. It was like meeting up with an old friend after weeks of feeling like strangers in the world. Good guy that Newley.

Newley's blog is at http://www.newley.com.

Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Australia

The Gold Coast is the tourist capital of Australia, and we ended up in a little place called Surfer’s Paradise for one night before heading north again.  We never dreamed the Gold Coast would have a scene on this scale.  We pictured a more rustic place with hotels and cafes and mini-golf.  What we found is much more like Miami Beach, Waikiki in Honolulu or Daytona Beach – a monstrosity of tourism. Amazingly big, and the waves don’t look that good for a place with such a name.

A bit of trivia… Surfers Paradise become popular after a local entrepreneur Bernie Elsey got the idea to have the meter maids wear skimpy gold bikinis in 1965. We saw a couple while there- not that impressive if you ask me. :)

The Gold Coast is not really what we came to Australia to see, but we had a fun night. We ended up spending most of the night at a piano bar called Howl at the Moon, where Sachi found her version of heaven, singing and dancing to songs we all know by heart. 

I find it funny to sing songs like “Sweet home Alabama” and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” in other countries.  I can’t help but think that some of the meaning is lost on the Aussies.  We did sing a rousing version of “Down Under” by Men at Work – and some of the meaning was likewise lost on me.  

In the end, we left the amazing party scene to come back to our room and go to sleep around midnight. You can enter bars in Surfers Paradise until 3am, then once inside, you can party until 5am, but once you exit after 3, you’re essentially locked out.  

We’re still on NZ time (3 hours later) and we can’t really afford, financially or physically, to party ALL night long, at least not tonight.  Speaking of "All Night Long" we've heard that Lionel Richie song covered twice by live musicians in less than 24 hours- is Lionel Richie the David Hasselhoff of Australia? Probably not.