Nice and warm day, bara weather

24 April, 2023 | Osaka, Japan

The bars I visited in Japan came in two general forms:

1. It’s basically a club of some size; there is dancing, karaoke, several groups of people at tables, etc. They have a cocktail menu. It’s a place to meet new people.
2. There is one group, basically one table, and it’s on the 4th floor filled with similar 450-square-foot bars. It’s almost always 100% regulars, you know the bartender well, they know you well, and the patrons likely are all at least familiar with each other. You generally buy a bottle that stays there with your name on it until you come again and/or finish it. Drink variety is quite limited - usually just whiskey or soju. Often the bartender (probably owner) will take a small quantity with every drink they pour, such that they will be at least as drunk as their patrons by the end of the night.

The second kind of bar makes good sense in such dense cities, it’s not like you - or likely anyone you know - have a big living room or yard for a house party or BBQ.

And it was that the kind of bar I visited on the evening of the 24th.

Well, okay, first I visited an empty pub of the first variety. It was very American in nature - the bartender was American - and after having one drink alone, I left. No knock on the bar, this was was a Monday night.

The place I ended up in after this was probably my favorite (bar) experience in Osaka.

The website for Pokapokaya is straightforward and helpful in finding the place, in stark contrast to every other bar website I visited in Japan. The website is chocked full of original art as well - from the owner, Toru - which you can see above. The background is the bar itself, from which you can judge the modest size.

While I felt awkward walking in and sitting down, I found I was more or less immediately welcomed. The owner spoke some english and one of the patrons was quite fluent. They asked where I had heard about the bar (rainbownightout.jp on a random DDG search, the former of which they recognized), how long I was in Osaka,  where I was from - in Japan the name “Seattle” is always and immediately linked to “Ichiro”, and of course what kind of men I was attracted to.

The answer for all of them, and for most of gay Japan as far as I can surmise, are what many readers may identify as bears, but I think it’s more accurate to call this bara. Like queer, the term bara has been reappropriated by the LGBTQ community in Japan after being used as a pejorative for gay men. While there is a long history related to this term and how it has been applied and defined - I’m going to summarize for those unfamiliar:

All the gay men I met preferred hunks. Beefcakes. The Tom of Finland aesthetic.1

I am not a hunk, but upon the request of another patron, Toru was nice enough to draw me anyway:

When I was walking out, Toru followed me in a way that was similar to what happened the night before? So this was when I finally realized what this was about; either for ethical/cultural or outright legal reasons, the purveyors of these establishments take some responsibility for their patrons getting home safe. I was pleased to let him know I was about a 10 minute walk from my hotel.

I did revisit this location one more time before leaving Osaka, but ultimately the language barrier (and my short time here) limited the ability to form any deeper connection with the place and people. But if there was any place that made me want to change that, it was Pokapokaya.