Good Times in Osaka: Shinsaibashi 11 hour Bar Crawl

Haven't been out for a few weeks now (cross training since the old knee is bad at the mo) so felt like I earnt a night out in Osaka.

With a bar map in hand we headed out to an area of Shinsaibashi around 8. Started at Murphy's, an Irish bar (believe it or not!) on the 5th floor of this building. Very weird experience arriving at an Irish bar via a lift but despite it being a bar it still had an Irish feel with guiness everywhere, bar mats tacked to the walls and even the token very hungover, red cheeked Irish barman. We got lucky as it was live music night and this Japanese band equipped with harpiscord, banjos the lot came on and played some fantastic irish folk music. Another bizarre experience but fun.

We then headed to Wax 69, a pea sized bar with a well nice, chatty American owner Jessie who used to be a teacher (what gaijin isn't in Japan?!) so we had a good old bitch about teaching over some nachos and delicious salsa.

Next stop we headed to LA Gumbo. OK sorry rewind, when we were heading to Murphys a big black American guy who looked like Britneys bouncer had tried to get us to go into his new bar, we took a flier and walked off. So forward back to present and we decided to check it out. God where do I start!

LA Gumbo, Osaka. Note cheesy Diana Ross poster in background & guy with doo-rag!

In Japan a lot of the bars are on different levels of a multi level blocks so once you've committed to get in the lift to the 9th floor and opened the door theres not really much backing out..! LA Gumbos was quiet to say the least but it turns out that Britneys bouncer lookalike is the owner, a lovely one too from Louisiana. He gave us some amazing homemade cornbread on the house (usually a cover charge of ￥1000) and then serenaded us with some smooth jazz....ooh yeah baby!

The place had that 80's vibe, cream leather sofas, loads of cheesy posters of Michael ,Whitney and Diana in their hey days and his stuck in times looking mate fashioning a doo-rag!

Brilliant 80's cheese. LA Gumbos, Osaka.

Loved it though as the owner was such a sweetie, I would have felt totally fine going there on my own.

Next stop decided to head back to the building where Wax 69 was as Jessie's friend owns another bar on that floor called Karma Sutra. It was around 12 at this point. Met the lovely bartender who got me into shark vodka (Shark is the japanese equivalent to Red Bull) Then the karaoke came out and I destroyed Dolly Parton's 9-5, Fat Bottomed Girls, Twist & Shout and Rock the Kasbah whilst the angelic penelope cruz look a like bar girl sang Chicago and had the male testosterone levels raise the roof. We left around 3, thats what karaoke does to you!

Karaoke at Karma Sutra, Osaka

On the way home we passed a club called Sam & Daves. Brilliant! All I could think of was Jaquelines in Ross, how could it not be as cheesy? Well we only really went down the stairs to see how much it was. Bargain ￥1000 yen which included a free drink for the ladies, wooo! It didn7t disappoint. Having not danced to some cheese for 7 months, I felt like a nun on the run. Apart from the weirdo who declared his undying love for Raquel we managed to danced our socks off until 7am and then guess what, went for the kebab equiavelent in Japan, a curry! (or ramen but in this instance curry)

Fab night all round but felt rough the next day and discovered a blister the size of golf ball on my foot the next morning, OUCH!