JAPAN AFTER DARK
Ladder Climbing, Pachinko, and Other Ways to Spend an Evening
by
TAJ
The Japanese have long been regarded as hard workers. Rising with the sun, commuting long distances working 9 or 10 hours a day, they are supposed to be a serious lot whose idea of a real "hot" night might be relaxing in a steaming bath with a cup of warm sake.
But in recent years, as he work day has grown shorter* and the off-duty hours have grown longer, the Japanese have become hard "players" as well. The nation's citizens now have an estimated 287,000 million man-hours worth of free time on their hands each year, and hey spend nearly 30,000,000 million yen per annum - roughly an eighth of the country's GNP - entertaining themselves.
(* NOTE: Japan's Leisure Development Center has estimated that the average daily working hours for employed men and women dropped from 6.21 in 1970 to 5.75 in 1975 and 5.46 in 1980. By 1985, the average day is expected to comprise only 5.13 hours on the job.)
Much of that time and money is spent after dark in urban entertainment districts, where an ever growing variety of attractions offers escape from the workaday world. For amusement there are game centers, Mah-Jongg halls, and pachinko machines with rows of mind-numbing vertical pinball machines.
For formal entertainment, there are traditional and modern plays, foreign and domestic movies, concerts that run the musical gamut from Rod Stewart to Benny Goodman to Beethoven. And at the very hub of the booming leisure industry is mitzushobai, or "water trade," which collectively includes coffee shops, bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and every other type of establishment where drinks of any kind are served.
A Night on the Town
Male salaried-workers in their 20's and 30's are the leaders in Japan's revelries. Tired, hungry, and thirsty at the end of a day's work, they gather in groups of three or four for a night of hashigo-zake, or "ladder-climbing," which is known in the West as bar hopping or pub crawling.
Their first stop is often a German-style beer hall with long, heavy wooden tables surrounded by benches or stools; alpine posters, Teutonic crests, and rough earthenware adorn the walls. Some Japanese beer halls feature live accordion music to create a carefree mood, and everywhere there is noise, laughter, and the cry of kampai (cheers). In the summer months, rooftop beer gardens attract men and women alike as places to talk, drink, forget about work, and unwind.
With the exception of a few light snacks such as boiled sausage, fried potatoes, and sliced ham and cheese, beer in huge mugs is the standard order. Surprisingly, it is the nation's number one alcoholic beverage. Each year Japan consumes 7 million kiloliters of alcoholic drinks - enough to fill more than a dozen supertankers or a glass a day for every adult in the country - and 65 percent of all that is beer. Nothing seems to chase away the thirst of a day so well.
With their initial dryness slaked, ladder climbers move to the second rung of the evening - a small inaka ryoriya, a restaurant serving regional Japanese food. They sit at a low L-shaped counter where they sip warmed sake from cups that seem suited to hold small eggs. Since sake is a sociable drink, traditionally drunk in the company of friends, they pour for each other from ceramic bottles. Small dishes of grilled fish, soybean curd, pickled vegetables, and rice are served. But the food takes second place to the drinking and bantering, which often involves the proprietor, who knows most of his customers by name. There is none of the impersonal informality of a large restaurant in such shops - an indication of how they've managed to survive the onslaught of mass production and fast-food chains.
The third rung on the ladder, for those who continue to climb, is a stop at one of he some 80,000 pubs, snack houses, nightclubs, cabarets, and bars. Among the most popular of these is the kompa, a watering hole whose name derives from "companion" in English and implies the convivial atmosphere to be found inside. Most kompa contain two or three circular bars. Attending each are lovely barmaids who greet their guests with oshibori (warm towels). Regular guests are issued membership cards which entitle them to keep private bottles on stock for up to two or three months. And should a card holder come up a little short some evening, he can always sign a chit and pay at the end of the month. Service such as this might be considered a luxury in many countries, but in Japan it is simply good business that keeps customers coming back time and time again.
Most ladder climbers have already had enough to eat by the time they reach a kompa, so they order only tsumami (finger food), such as raisin butter, mixed nuts, chocolate chips, or rings of fried squid, to compliment their drinks. Some kompa hire guitarists to accompany guests who are fond of singing. Many more, however, feature recorded instrumentals, a mixture of Japanese pop and traditional songs known as karaoke, to urge drinkers into a musical mood. Induced by these electronic sound systems, revelers turn out to be just as fond of entertaining as they are of entertainment.
At last, the evening draws to a close around midnight, just before the commuter trains and subways shut down for the day.
So Much to Chose From
The ladder-climbing routine is by far the most popular form of evening entertainment for men throughout Japan. In most urban centers, it starts around 6:30 p.m., though in some areas, Okinawa, for example, merrymaking starts and ends a bit later.
Innovative shopowners have added specialty bars to the list of possible stops, from jazz clubs and piano bars to country & western style saloons. And the majority offer the "bottle keep" system.
Of course, not everyone in Japan climbs the ladder each night. The nocturnal habits of the nation's population are becoming increasingly diverse. Women, for example, spend more of their evenings at home than men do, but they are much more likely to frequent coffee shops and snack bars, and they dine out nearly 8 percent more often - a statistic that has not gone unnoticed by local restaurateurs in planning their advertising campaigns … and menus.
For variety of cuisine, Tokyo is a hard place to match. Besides a wide array of Japanese restaurants that cater to the tastes of people who have moved to the city from every region of the country, there are an incredible number of foreign-style establishments to chose from. Chinese food is especially popular with Japanese of all ages, as is Korean "barbecue," bits of meat, poultry and vegetables cooked on a grill at the table. Another favorite is the "Viking" dinner, a smorgasbord. And restaurants representing the culinary arts of such scattered countries as France, Pakistan, Brazil, Italy, Iran, Indonesia, America, and Russia, to name a few, have been set up all over the city.
Besides the differences between men's and women's evening interests, there is also a major gap in the after dark activities of younger and older Japanese. Men and women in their 50's and 60's make up most of the audiences that support Japan's traditional performing arts. These include bunraku, a type of puppet play which is most popular in Osaka; kabuki, an elaborate form of drama and dance performed by male actors; noh, a highly symbolic dramatic form using masks; and kyogen, a more realistic and sometimes farcical version of noh. By and large, older Japanese prefer to save their leisure time and spending money for trips to resort areas instead of going out in the evening.
Young people, on the other hand, are more apt to be found painting the town red every night, seeking recreation instead rather than entertainment. They enjoy dancing, as evidenced by the thousands of discos that have sprung up all over the country., even in rural areas, over the past few years. They like sports, which have been a great boon to the evening revenues of bowling alleys. And they have a particular penchant for games of all sorts.
One of the best liked forms of gaming is pachinko, the vertical Japanese version of pinball in which winners are rewarded with prizes that range from a bar of chocolate to golf clubs, clothing, and kitchenware. The parlors where pachinko is played are usually located near train stations, and they are open from 10 to 10, or even later, every day in the week. In recent years, their income has grown at an annual rate of over 15 percent.
Another popular place for young people is the game center. These recreation halls offer standard pinball machines and a wide assortment of new electronic table games such as Taito's "Space Invaders." This sort of entertainment has to be the cheapest thrill in town at only 100 yen per play. Many of the game centers are now going after an older clientele by installing slot machines operated with non-refundable bogus coins and blackjack and roulette tables where customers can "learn to play casino."
Last but not least among evening entertainment are the nation's many steambaths, saunas, and massage parlors, which offer rubdowns guaranteed to satisfy. They are open all night in many places, providing a relaxing way to spend an evening. Undoubtedly, they are the next best thing to a steaming-hot bath and a warm cup of sake.
This article first appeared in Tradepia International, Summer 1981
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