..setting his hand on fire

Went out for the first time in a long time to Sannomiya with my flatmates searching for a bar where we could guarantee no one spoke English and hopefully forcing us to use some Japanese. But it proved more difficult that I thought. The first two places we tried looked promising - no gaijin in site - until the barmen started talking to us in English. But after a bit more searching we ended up in a tiny bar the size of my bedroom - big enough to fit a bar with about 8 stools. I thought there was 9 until I tried to pick up the jacket on the stool and realised that it was actually the head of some drunk guy crouching in the corner. But he didn't even move. There we spent the rest of the night mangling some Japanese and trying to speak to the drunk salarymen and barmen. At one stage a couple of salarymen came in and turned out to be football fans and Ireland their favourite team. But it was actually pretty cool. My flatmate from the states, not having been here long enough to have learned any Japanese, impressed the patrons by setting his hand on fire with his lighter and arm wrestling the barman. All in all, a nice night.