toyooka_thingstodo

BARS

    The Pool Bar is located on Ikuta Road, which is one block south of (and parallel to) Daikai-doori, Toyooka's main street. Ikuta Road is known for its high concentration of bars, "snacks," hostess bars, and izakaya (Japanese-style taverns that serve food like yakitori -- pieces of chicken grilled on a skewer). I like to call Ikuta Road Toyooka's "little red light district." Bero-Bero Bar is a favorite izakaya of mine located on Ikuta Road; its owner is a crazy old bald man named Tako-chan, who has many piercings (he looks like a little Japanese pirate) and likes to sing Frank Sinatra while strumming his guitar. Eccentric, to say the least.

     Meanwhile, on Daikai-doori and across from the City Hall, is the five-storey building called Sun Plaza, which is home to a number of tiny little bars and "snacks." My favorite is called Bar Ha Men (which I think is supposed to be a play on words, sounding like "Bahaman," as in the Bahamas). With a tropical Carribbean / reggae / Hawaiian / surfer theme, Bar Ha Men is a tad more kitschy than the other bars in Sun Plaza, which is why I dig it.

     While there are a lot of bars in Toyooka, unfortunately there are no nightclubs. However, certain bars like Stargate (on Daikai-doori) and Yume Kouba ("Dream Factory," on Ikuta Road) occasionally host DJ events, in which they basically become nightclubs for the evening. Stargate also has live shows, featuring local bands or singers.

THINGS TO DO IN TOYOOKA

1. Shopping 2. Entertainment 3. Bars 4. Restaurants 5. Outdoors

There are a lot of bars in this town; in fact, word has it that Toyooka has the highest number of bars per capita in all of Japan. I'm not sure if that's true, but there are quite a few here! I won't go into too much detail here, but I'll tell you about a couple of my favorite spots.

The bar that we seem to frequent the most is Pool Fool Cool (a.k.a. The Pool Bar), which has two decent pool tables. They also serve some good food, like small pizzas, tater tots, cabbage rolls, and my personal favorite, omuraisu ("rice omelette"). A good place to chill out with friends...

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Steve (current ALT at Kita JHS), his friend Ai, and Greg at the Pool Bar. This probably isn't the best picture of Ai...

LEFT: Some other JETs and I, eating ramen at the ramen van, which opens shop late nights in front of Sun Plaza. Ramen is great after a night of drinking -- especially when it's snowy!