Green beer

This from Of Rice and Zen, a very funny blog about an English teacher's experiences in Japan that I recently discovered:

Seeing loud drunken gaijin being inconsiderate with sound waves fills you with shame and anger. You vow never to be seen in public with such DG again. In fiction this kind of hubris usually comes before an ironic fall into a big pile of bathos.

This pretty much sums up my St. Patrick's Day yesterday. I went to Murphy's in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, allegedly the first Irish pub in Japan, to celebrate with some Australians. Yes, I became that drunken gaijin, swilling down overpriced green beer and getting my face licked by pretend Irishmen. I am not proud.

I returned to Osaka today to buy some CDs - the new Belle & Sebastian album, and Delays latest, which was an impulse buy. I saw them supporting the Manic Street Preachers in April last year, and they seemed to be going away from the winsome indie of their debut album to a more muscular, electro-pop style. B&S also take a more musically in-your-face stance on their new album. Good stuff all round.