A Night in Sailor Town

A couple of weeks ago we met up with Greg, a fellow Floridian from Stuart, and he took us barhopping around “Sailor Town”. We ended up at “Anchor” which is a sister bar to “Playmate”, the usual hangout. Since the ships are in, we were completely surrounded by sailors. As soon as we walked into the bar, we were greeted by a Navy guy who we had met earlier that night and he asked if we had ever had a special type of Shochu (we forgot the name already). When we said No, we knew we were in trouble. I tried to avoid it by running to the bathroom to hide but it was waiting for me when I came out. A shot of the “snake shochu”. This Shochu (shochu is sake made from sweet potatoes) is originally from Okinawa and the snake inside the jar is a poisonous one….that’s all we know. Nick and I both took the shot although he faired it better than me. I swear I could taste the snake!

Coincidentally later that same night Naomi (Australian who had emailed us letting us know she’d be vacationing in Sasebo) and her friends walked in the bar. We ended up staying until they literally kicked us out at around 4:30am. This was our first encounter with Navy security due to an incident that occurred that night. Apparently a “white looking” man broke a window in town and the Navy was informed so that they could patrol, secure and keep their men in check to see if they could find out who did it. In Japan guns are illegal so we were very surprised when a group of Navy security officers walked into the bar with weapons. Needless to say I was a little scared but apparently this is routine for them. As we walked out of the bar, we were met by a lineup of these same officers who waited and accounted for all their men coming out of the bar to make sure no fights broke out, I guess.

We apologize for the lack of updates lately, however we hope to have some more in a few days. Yesterday we celebrated Nick's Birthday at a new bar.....what an experience that was! We'll have to explain it later.
This Wednesday/Thursday we are going to Fukuoka, the big city, to celebrate our birthdays together. We were hoping that we could see a baseball game but there are no home games this week so it'll have to be another time. We hope to do some shopping and I'll be searching for a nearby COSTCO's. I know that doesn't sound like much to you all but we're looking forward to it.
Also, I started Salsa lessons last week. It was so much fun. The room was full. Apparently there's a Salsa wave coming through Japan and it's the new "it" thing to do. The teachers are Japanese but they have lived in almost every Spanish speaking country there is and speak fluent Spanish. They lived in Cuba for a few years so they are teaching us Cuban style Salsa.

For the next month or so we have a few trips planned already so stay tuned.