The Art of Socializing

The Japanese nightlife includes the following:
Amusement and Pachinko (gambling and arcade gaming)
Izakaya (japanese drinking establishments)
Karaoke
All Night Sports Centers
Dance Clubs

In the past month of my stay here in Nagoya, I have experienced all of the above except for Pachinko and Dance Clubs.  I have to say that the Japanese really do know how to have fun at a cheap price.  Karaoke and Sports Centers are the cheapest, while Izakaya and Amusement depend on how much you want to drink/eat or how many games you want to play.

I have been out to Karaoke on two occasions; the latest happening on Friday night for a friend's birthday.  For ¥1,100 ($13ish) per person, you get 3 hours of nonstop karaoke and unlimited free drinks, alcoholic and otherwise.  Pretty good price for what you get.  There are American, Korean, Japanese and Chinese songs.  All non-Japanese songs have Japanese katakana above the words so that anyone who knows Japanese can still sing along.  Mostly, I stick to the American songs...because I haven't heard many Japanese songs.  One of my friends does an amazing "Anarchy in the UK", while another friend loves to imitate and make fun of Creed.  It's a lot of fun.

The Sports Centers are non-stop fun!  For ¥1,500 you can do anything you like all night until 9am.  They have batting cages, archery, mini-golf, golf driving ranges, basketball courts, arcade games that don't require extra money, a catch-and-release fishing pond, billiards tables, roller skating rink, bowling alley, mechanical bull, bb gun shooting range, tennis and soccer games, ball pits, and tons more.  I think I hit over 300 pitches in the batting cages, rode the bull twice, kicked ass at the gun range, was beaten to a pulp during a doubles billiards game, and killed a whole lotta zombies in the arcade.  I will definitely have to go back there again sometime.

As for Izakaya, I have only been out to one on a single occasion.  It is about a 10 minute walk from here and the old lady who runs it is one of the nicest people I have met in Japan.  We cleaned her out of all forms of meat, finished off her potatoes, and I seriously think she had to put in another order for sake and Asahi Beer.  She is an amazing cook and earnest hostess.  When I decide to go out drinking again, I will probably go back there, even if it is ¥450 a beer.

Okay, quick information on currency when you are in/traveling to Japan.
1)  Do NOT use traveler's checks - few banks will cash them, others will deposit them but you need a stamp of your name in kanji to set up an account
2)  Cash is King - few places take Debit or Credit cards, the only places that I know of are chain stores where everything is pretty expensive anyhow, and I have only used my card at an ATM to withdraw more funds
3)  Use your coins! - money less than $10 (¥1000) is all in coin form, and many places where you can exchange currency from ¥ to $ will NOT exchange the coins and you could end up with quite a bit of your money in ¥1 pieces that are never used