Having said that though, there is a familiarity here. The Japanese people who visit these clubs obviously expect to see foreigners and are thus more friendly and happy to try talking and finding out where you're from. Contrast this to other 'Japanese' style clubs where the demographic are almost afraid of you in some way.
But! By day, the place is actually quite nice. It has some really nice architecture and buildings and museums and stuff. I took a stroll around just briefly before meeting a couch surfer for a coffee which was nice albeit a tiny bit awkward given the language barrier. Still good practice talking though haha. She was an accountant for a security company - typical business woman in Japan. Liked the idea of travelling & done a little bit but didn't get much time to do it. :p
Near the Chinese & Russian embassies there were huuuuge road blocks. Swat cars & hundreds of police & officials guarding and on patrol. Japanese loudspeaker trucks were out in force and shouting some form of very masculine Japanese. It was pretty scary. At first all I knew was that the China embassy was nearby, so I thought it was something to do with that. There were protestors being tackled & stopped from trying to get past barriers to embassies so tensions were definitely heated.
I eventually asked on Reddit what was going on and it turns out this time every year there is usually a bunch of heavy right-wing activists demanding the resolution of the Treaty of Shimoda.
Basically to help resolve WW2 with Russia they bartered 4 islands at the very far north of Japan. And since relationships are now better, every year people claim Russia should give them back. I think Russia gets lots of caviar from the islands so it's a pretty slowly resolving issue. Surprising some nutcases think going to this much effort over a bunch of frozen rocks they've never even seen before is worthwhile. Patriotism eh.
Went to a bakery. Bakeries in Japan are THE BOMB. The breads are ten fold better than what you've eaten before. Custard cream buns actually have custard rather than a butter-thickness spread of something resembling it. Oh god, I'd happily live off these bakeries if it were nutritionally viable.
Found this street after coffee. Every night it is lit up with these lights as far as you can see.
So you see this kind of thing, in lots of places, the neon lights in most big districts, you try and fathom the number of vending machines - each one having both cooling and heating elements on 24/7, the number of convenience stores on every corner all selling something cooked, you fathom the number of toilets in the country all powered 24/7 with a fairly significant heating element and you might come close to realising where Japan's reliance upon nuclear power comes from. This country loves electricity so so so much.
Nagasaki Champon noodle set for $6
Somewhere between an udon noodle light/watery broth and a ramen's heavy salty oily broth. Lots more focus on the veggies and much lighter and tastier.
5/5 would eat again.
