Kissing the Blarney Stone

I thought I'd give you a flavour of the bar where I have been working for the past 3 months. It is located in the northern downtown core of Osaka called Umeda. It's name - The Blarney Stone. As the name would suggest, it is an Irish pub (still, it is home to many a non-Irish foreigner). We have many regular customers, as you can well imagine. English speaking Japanese residents often need a night out somewhere that is familiar, comfortable and above all else English friendly. We provide just such an experience and I am convinced that it is this fact alone that makes The Blarney so popular and successful. At t

he moment, there are 5 bartenders, including myself, and 2 cooks. Colin is the head bartender (seen here enjoying a hug from my girlfriend :). He hails from England and found himself in Japan, last year, with a tour group hoping to complete the 88-Temple Pilgrimage. Before finishing the tour, he and his friend Jeff ran out of money and realized they wouldn't make it. Logically the only thing to do was to leave the tour group behind, head for Osaka, find jobs, and stay in Japan for another 6 months... right? Colin found work at the Blarney (and has since made enough money to pay his way) and found he really enjoyed Japan. He has just decided to renew his visa and stay another year. They are also determined to finish the pilgrimage before they leave Japan. Good on them. Yuske is a Japanese bartender. He speak English really well. In this picture he is at the bar on his day off. He doesn't work many shifts and lives pretty far away. I like working with him though. He works hard and is an interesting guy to talk to. Luke, one of our Aussie bartenders, is leaving Japan in three weeks to continue his Asian travels... next destination is Beijing, China (unfortunately I don't have a photo of Luke at the moment). We will be seriously understaffed when he leaves, considering one of our main bartenders also just left late last month. I suspect we will have a new recruit soon, or things will be very busy for the rest of us. I have been enjoying the relaxed pace Japan has offered so far.

Between the bar tending and teaching I can make ends meet and still have time to go sight seeing and traveling as much as I'd like. It's been a great trip so far, and I am constatntly meeting new people and seeing interesting new insights into the Japanese culture. I am excited for the future and all the wonders Japan has to offer an eager explorer like me.

As a side note: I must apologize (mostly to myself) because my camera hasn't been with me on my last three trips. As a result, the blog has been without updates and I have been without pictoral records of these excursions. I am trying to get some photos from some of the other people we went with, but of course it isn't their priority and so I must be patient. Thanks to Facebook, some have already been posted online and I was able to copy them for my own records.

Till we meet again,


Mike