Welcome to Japan

[Calvin Kent]

Trying to get back on course and away from the doom and gloom!

Sometime around 69-70 I flew out to Japan to join a Clarkson tramp running around the pacific. I'm not too sure where we actually joined it but after enjoying lunch in a hotel in Tokyo it was back to the airport for a domestic flight somewhere followed by several hours in a coach. We finally fetched up at a pretty decent little hotel as the boat had been diverted and we were told we would be here for a bit. The hotel must have been inland a way as there was no port nearby and only one or two staff spoke English. I think it was three weeks we were there in the end give or take a day or two.

We soon established that beer with meals could go on the company tab and as we were all fairly skint we settled into a routine of, depending on the waiter, whatever was on the menu and looked edible with as many beers as we could get out of them. The one downside was that the waiters would insist on opening all the bottles and taking the caps away with them.

After a few days someone from the agents office turned up and we were given a small sub allowing us to venture beyond the confines of the hotel. We had been warned there was a considerable amount of anti-American trouble going on at the time and it was best to be off the streets before dark. Myself and a mate set off to find a shop to buy bottle stops in an attempt to stymy those damned waiters and found what we thought was a nice little bar off the main (only) drag and bought a couple of beers. It soon became evident by the body language and comments we were not wanted in here by the locals but being eighteen and invincible and living in a time before every one was a Bruce Lee wannabe we decided to have another round anyway. Just when it looked like it was about to kick off another local came into the bar who spoke English and asked if we were American. On hearing we were English he spoke with the noisy lot who were getting more and more threatening and the place changed completely. Suddenly everyone was our friend and our money was no good. I think if we'd asked for one of their daughters we'd have got it. They even introduced us to sushi and I've never touched it since. Mind you it was winter and to thaw the fish out they laid it on the top of a paraffin heater that hadn't seen a lamp trimmer in its life. Half frozen paraffin flavoured raw fish has to rank with the vilest things I've eaten but with this I had to smile and say yum yum. We went back the next night and again we were not allowed to pay for anything. It started to get embarrassing so we left early and went back to the hotel.

All the beers from dinner were gone so I turned in but had a bad case of the world spinning and found myself wandering round reception looking for something to read. The night desk guy told me there was a swimming pool in the basement so thinking that might straighten me out I got a pair of shorts from my room and went down there. I'd done a couple of lengths when this vision came out of a door and asked me if I required a bath and massage. I told her I was a poor seaman with no money to pay for her services but she assured me all she needed was my room number. Thinking back, I think her only English was "room number" as everything else was sign language but we muddled through somehow. There followed a wonderful introduction to the joys of the Japanese bath-house culminating with a full body massage. I couldn't quite get my head around this young lady as she was at once shy but also matter of fact and brazen. Needless to say, having found such a convincing cure for a hangover I presented myself the next evening in much finer fettle and again partook of the delights but thinking in for a penny in for a pound (well it wasn't my money) we went a bit beyond hand relief. On the third evening she told me she usually had no customers after 0100hrs and if I phoned reception she could come to my room for my massage. This I did and from then on she spent the nights with me returning downstairs at 0600hrs.

I have no idea how big a bill I ran up over the next few weeks. A lot of us were having quite a few beers a day with our meals so the final bill was always going to be big but i just had this ongoing nightmare that an itemised bill would turn up in London and I'd have to stay on the boat until the debt was paid. It was a long nine months to pay-off and I couldn't even brag about it. Which reminds me I never did get those bottle stops.

Regards
Calvin

[Captain Kong]

Excellent story Calvin. MORE!!
cheers
Brian

[John Cassels]

Which Clarkson ship ?.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Calvin, your story brought back memories of Japan, both at sea (in 50/60's) and subsequent career(in the 90's), In the bars once they had established you were not American but were English their cold shoulder became extremely friendly, but mind you I was in Nagasaki at the latter time. Had a kareoke singing competion with a Japanese Frank Sinatra, later discovered he had been to a Kareoke School (I kid you not) they take it very seriously. All their modern Kareoke machines have a computerised system which tells if you are hitting the right note, well I happened to win that particular contest and never had to pay for another beer during my tenure there. Next night was a beer drinking contest, sadly I lost that one, there is only so much onion water(Sapporo) you can drink