A Day in Asahikawa

Being stuck in the wilderness far from civilization, I abandoned my writing and now I'm seriously behind. According to my posts I only just left Asahikawa, but in reality I've already been enjoying myself in beautiful Sapporo for the third day. Writing about what's happening right now is much more interesting. Nevertheless, so much interesting stuff happened during this time, and it's a shame to leave it without attention. Maybe I'll write about it in separate posts later, but for now I need to fast-forward a bit.

There was a sign "Hana" hanging at the entrance. It was a karaoke bar. At the bar counter sat Japanese people over thirty and one my age. Atsushi invited me to sit down. We sat at a table opposite the bar counter. In Japanese stores, when you go inside, all the salespeople greet you in unison, even the cleaning lady, if it's in the morning when she's mopping, also chimes in with them. Same thing happens in bars. One of the waitresses, who was also a bartender, came up to me and handed me her business card. Then she sat down next to me, putting her hand on mine.

"Atsushi, is this really just a regular karaoke bar?" He laughed. "Yes." "And where's that girl you were talking about?" He pointed to one of the barmaids at the bar counter. A Japanese guy sat opposite her singing off-key in Japanese into a microphone. The waitress next to him was falling asleep, since it was almost one in the morning, but not just falling asleep - she had her head on his chest and her hand on his thigh.

Meanwhile, the one who handed me the business card brought some snacks and liqueur. When the singer finished, all the bar workers clapped. While I was taking in the whole scene and interrogating Atsushi, the waitress near us changed and another one sat down, this one with two hand-shaped bruises on her chest. Meanwhile, the one Atsushi wanted to confess his love to was enthusiastically chatting with another customer.

In the evening we went to dinner at Atsushi's parents' house. They have a big two-story house in Asahikawa. The food was cooked right on the table in this electric pan.

The whole family together. Parents, Alira daughter of one brother, son of the second brother, and Atsushi

We returned around eight and I fell asleep. Atsushi woke me up at eleven. "Ilya, get up, we need to go to the karaoke bar." "Again?" "Yes, today's a day off, I need to see her. She said her father is coming today." Atsushi was sitting on a chair in leopard underwear. "Her father to this bar??" "What's wrong with that?" I wanted to keep sleeping, but he insisted. "Please, get up, we need to drop by there for at least half an hour."

I started to understand the business model of this establishment. Lonely people come here to feel the illusion of company, family, love. They're boring and uninteresting. But the waitresses listen to their every word with delight, put their head on their shoulder, hug them, and the guy feels big and important. He takes the microphone and starts making terrible sounds, causing delight in the eyes of the same women. After drinking, eating and getting enough touching, he pays a hefty bill and goes outside, where two, sometimes three waitresses escort him to the elevator, shouting in unison into the closing door "Come back, it was great."