Gaijin Bars and Cafes

Posted on 2005/08/06 03:21:42 (August 2005).

[Friday 5th August]
Spent most of the day out, and most of it in not particularly Japanese bars, cafes, etc. Started off with lunch in Subway, with a friend (plus a friend-of-a-friend) of Chie's that she'd met through her recent part time jobs. One or other other (or both) of the people we had lunch with was training to be a Japanese teacher, or something... Apparently they need some work experience before they can get a job (a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario) so they had decided to do some volunteer teaching - and I was therefore a handy test subject. I think Chie has arranged for me to go off and have some lessons with them or something, I have to admit to not being entirely sure as to what was going on.
Having already got into the centre of Hiroshima, we couldn't really be bothered to leave, so meandered around for some of the rest of the afternoon. I had found a place on the web called Chinajia that I wanted to go and have dinner in, but after some extensive searching round the streets of Hiroshima it appears it may have closed down. By this point we were a bit tired of walking about, so stumbled into the nearest bar for a sit down and a drink. We went into a place called The Shack, and American style bar and grill, which I think is a sister bar to a place we went the other day (Kemby's). Seeing vegetarian options on the menu (such a rarety in Japan) I was somewhat overcome with excitement, and we decided to eat here too. The food was actually very good - I had a kind of tofu burger and Chie had some vegetable fajitas. It was probably all pretty unhealthy but I didn't care, it was great.
Following a couple of beers in The Shack, we then decided we might as well go the whole hog on the gaijin bar front, and go to the Irish pub across the road - Molly Mallone's. Had a couple of pints of expensive, but jolly nice Guinness in there, and then decided to head back home.
On the way back home we went by way of a shop selling lots of booze, which had a very respectable whisky selection. I bought a bottle of Caol Ila Cask Strength, and then proceeded to drink a fair amount of it with Chie's Dad when I got back to the flat.

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