Lotteria Beer Garden

I wrote a few days ago that at the same time we had the two-day Yukata Night, with its beer garden and limited live stage performances, that there was also a smaller beer garden set up in front of the Lotteria burger shop a couple blocks away. This smaller garden was scheduled to run 10 days, with alcohol sales, some snack food, and occasional live stage performances, too. During the week, there were generally 3 sets per day, most of which were lame comedy pieces. I didn't bother dropping by every day. Instead, I'd swing by the Lotteria on my way to the school if I had classes any given night. Often, there was nothing happening then.



Here were have Tomoyo Noda, doing an acoustic set of copyrighted covers.



Saturday, on my way to the school at 12:40 I caught Bijin to Yajuu (Beauty and the Beast). The "beauty" is a female comic who mainly relies on her fright wig to get laughs. The "beast" is the occasional MC that I find annoyingly loud and self-absorbed. The thing about him is that he'll also partner with a female drummer for an Okinawa-style folk song and shamisen duet, and sometimes he's not that bad.



As I wrote for the SDF event, I had a break between lessons at 4 PM, and when I got out, "beauty" had teamed up with someone else to do a folk music piece, under the name "Kyuu-chan and "A-chan" (I'm not sure how to read the kanji, Kyuu might be "Miyu" instead). I think the point was to be funny by showing what happens when you take untrained slackers and have them pretend to be professional musicians. It was pretty painful to listen to, so I didn't hang around after taking my photos.



Then on Sunday, I got out of the apartment at 3 PM to see if there was anything interesting going on up at Amu Plaza as well as at Tenmonkan. Amu didn't have much, but the Southern Cross idols were performing at the Beer Garden.  In the past I've kind of been dismissive of the girls because they dance and do karaoke over CDs of copyrighted AKB-48 songs. However, they went into AKB-48's Aitakatta, with two of the members staying on the stage and the other two running out to work the audience. The one on the right above was much better at interacting with the kids sitting at the tables than the second girl was. The active one went around high-fiving people while singing "Aitakatta, Aitakatta, Aitakatta - yay - kimi ni" (I wanted to meet you). The next thing I know she's worked her way over to me, singing directly at me and getting ready for another high-five. I didn't have much of a choice so I returned the five, and found myself singing a full chorus with her. Then she moved on to someone else. I have to admit that that had been fun, and she was good at what she does.



Afterward, I headed back home to get out of the heat for a while, and write up this blog entry. I was tempted to get some beer, but I really wasn't feeling up for it that early in the afternoon, and at 500 yen ($5 USD) a cup, it's more pricey than I like. Plus, I'd bought my share of beer at Yukata Night the week before.

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I wrote there wasn't much happening at Amu Plaza. There wasn't, but what was happening was the celebrations for school kids that had completed the 16th Kagoshima 100 km Walk. Basically, the event just consisted of some city officials congratulating kids from different schools for their participation in the walk. No idea what the route was.



G-O-A-L!

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Ok, while I was at the beer garden, I checked out the schedule to see who else was supposed to play in the afternoon. The only people on the list I had any interest in were Wicky Toshi (owner of Wicky's House live bar) and his wife, Kana, at 7 PM.



So, I went back for that. Wicky often does Southern All-Stars covers, but this time he did his own music, including the theme song he wrote for the Kagoshima United soccer team - Kick to the Future. At the end, the audience (about 50-60 people) called out for an encore, so the entire set ran a little under an hour. Despite my whining about the prices, I ended up getting a cup of stout for 500 yen, a curly fry for 200 yen, and a cup of shochu and soda for 300 yen. Along the way, I ended up talking to the Southern Cross dancer I mentioned earlier, the sax player for Bon DX (he was there with his daughter because she likes Southern Cross), and one half of the manzai group Party. Plus a couple others. I didn't try talking to Wicky or Kana because they were busy at the end selling CDs of their music. I've recorded a lot of Wicky's performances before, so I just shot Kick to the Future (below) and took some photos, but mainly just grooved to the music. Towards the end, one woman standing nearby started talking to me, and eventually she mentioned that her husband was running one of the food tables, and that he has a restaurant in Tenmonkan. When the music ended, we kept talking, and she gave me a free glass of cider.



Things started wrapping up at 8 PM, and the announcer yelled out "last call."



I taught the woman some English phrases she wanted to learn, and thanked her for the cider, and she went back to help her husband pack up. Then, I finished my drink and returned home for dinner. Overall, I had a lot more fun than I'd been expecting. Not a bad way to start the Obon holiday week.

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