Day 30: Part 2

After hitting publish last night, it was a little past 8:00 p.m. local time. I had been disappointed the local brewery I had wanted to check out, Garyu Brewery, was closed on Tuesday. When I had originally checked their website, the only hours I could find listed were 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., but I discovered it was only open during those hours on Thursday through Sunday. I had used Google to pull up any “beer bar” nearby with the hopes they might carry some of their product. I found a place named “Garden” which was listed in Google as a “beer garden.” I figured I would give it a shot.

When I got to the bar, which opened at 8:00 p.m,, there was only a lone woman in her early 40’s sitting at the end of the bar. She was the bartender. She jumped up excitedly and greeted me in. It was all a ramble of excited Japanese, broken English and my broken Japanese. But from what I could decipher there was a 3,000 yen fee for entry and the barkeep would provide conversation and entertainment. Nothing seedy or anything, just conversation and maybe some karaoke. They didn’t have any of the local craft beers, but I was already there so I was game. I had a bottle of Asahi.

We sat there conversing over my iPhone app and words and broken phrases. Just general stuff like my previous trips to Japanese and a bit about the pilgrimage. Then she pulled out the karaoke machine and we each took turns singing a couple songs. I stuck with my standards and she with Japanese pop songs and Japanese/English hybrid songs.

As I was singing another song, a group of three workmen came in whom the barkeep seemed to recognize. They sat down the bar from me and pulled some dinner out of the bags they had. She introduced me to them and I joined in the conversation in my limited capability. One of the workmen seemed to have a better grasp of English than the other two. The whole group was talking animatedly, but I was in and out of the conversation being only very loosely able to follow pieces of it.

I had finished my two beers that I had originally intended as my limit, but I was having fun so I ordered another … and later another. I was enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and convivial mood. I was about to finish my fourth beer when the guys bought me another one. Cheers!

That’s pretty much how the evening went and it felt good to relax away from the pilgrimage for a bit. Another gentlemen whom everyone seemed to recognized and he seated himself at the end of the bar.

It was after 10:00 after completing my fifth beer, so I again thanked the gentlemen for the beer and bid them all farewell. After settling my tab, the barkeep escorted me out of the tavern and we bid each other good night. That’s it. I had a fun relaxing evening, went back to the inn and crawled into bed.

No pictures or video were taken during the course of this excursion.