Only one place in 90s Nagoya for burgers that wasn't in a "gaijin bar" - Uptown Diner in Sakae. It was adorable, with real American diner decor and delicious chocolate milkshakes in frosty glasses. Unfortunately, it also had the slowest and worst service of any Japanese establishment I've ever been to. I'll never forget sitting on the deck and watching the surly, petite waitress march out with her serving tray and bellow, "HAMBURGER!"

#Japan90sNostalgiaMemory #dailyshortstory

A really good hamburger can easily be found in Japan these days, but in the early 90s it was hard to find. Actually, Denny's had a great burger back then. Yes, you read that right. The Denny's menu used to have good burgers and Grand Slam-ish American breakfasts, until they went all in with local market preferences and became as Japanese as could be.

#Japan90sNostalgiaMemory #dailyshortstory

2/2 One of the ojisan owners seemed to be proud to have her and motioned to her while speaking rapid fire Japanese to me. I didn't speak much Japanese at that point, so I shrugged my shoulders and said, "わかりません." This ticked him off and he bonked me on the top of my head with his fist! We left soon after.

I realized years later that the unknown jazz singer back then was Keiko Lee, one of the most famous jazz singers in Japan.

#Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

1/2 In Bubble Economy Japan, you'd see these flashy, gilded buildings downtown that would have dozens of small signboards lined up in neat rows, all bars owned by ojisans that had too much Bubble Money burning a hole in their pockets. A student opened one of these bars and invited the school staff, so that's how I found myself on an extremely low, cushioned chair, drinking mizuwari.

The entertainment was an extremely tall jazz singer, a complete unknown. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

Thank you for reading my little 90s Japan memories. I got through this difficult month of January A-OK, so today wil be my last one. Writing these little posts was as satifying as eating one bon-bon a day from a box of chocolate. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

Yohan was a book wholesaler that dealt with English books, especially ELT. They were the reason English books and magazines were in all the bookstores in 90s Japan. Unfortunately, they failed to upgrade their system from analog to digital as times changed and went bankrupt, crushed by the weight of their inefficiency and bloated payroll. It was a really sad day when they went under. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

I visted the orginal Starbucks in Seattle in 1995 and then watched from Japan, envious, as it got popular in the USA. Coffee at a bookstore! What more could one want? There was a big Rakuten bookstore in Imaike, Nagoya that sold great local "Seattle Express" coffee. Yohan was still in business, so bookshops had English books and magazines on consignment that one could read or buy (or not). All that changed in 1999 when Starbucks opened in Towers at Nagoya station. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

90s Japan was not a place for coffee lovers. Mr. Donut and Denny’s were the only places with free refills. Most kissaten were smoky places with unpalatable coffee, since you were really paying for the space to sit. There were places where men in sleeve garters would grind beans and prepare the perfect cup, but they were few and far between. I’d resort to buying Boss canned coffee from a machine and then feel disappointed about it while sipping. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

After 9pm and I was waiting for the light to change so I could walk through the shuttered shotengai. Two high school girls in uniform saw me and gasped in surprise. I walked in front of them. Suddenly I heard one of them sing, “Wise men say.” I picked up my pace. Their footsteps quickened behind me. “Only fools rush in.” Finally they were right behind me. I turned around to see them with arms outstretched, singing, “I can’t help falling in love with you!” #WTF #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

@idlewild You can read all about what I was doing at this hashtag - #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

@softicecreamlesley just FYI I enjoy these posts a lot! #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

I saw the police motorcycle behind me, flashing his lights. Alarmed, I said to my husband, “There is a police motorcycle behind me, should I pull over?” He looked in his review mirror and said, “Blue lights. Fake police. Real police have red lights.” A strange niche hobby in 90s Japan was imitating American highway patrol officers (think CHiPs). Once I saw an entire gang of them, blue lights flashing, speeding down a mountain road. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

Now there is a huge camping boom in Japan, with brands like Snow Peak achieving almost high fashion designer brand status, but the first camping boom was right after the Bubble burst. The desired brand was Coleman and peak coolness was to arrive at the autocamp in your red Volvo station wagon with a golden retriever, you and your SO wearing matching plaid shirts. Some didn’t quite understand the concept of camping – miniskirt wearing, a child holding a can of bug spray. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

@salyavin I’ve been writing these 90s memories all month in an effort to cheer myself up. You might enjoy some of my other memories under the hashtag- #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

2/2 Try it - go up to a 50-something university professor who came here in the 90s, mention Charisma Man, and watch him physically recoil. Dr. Diane Nagatomo has included him in her academic papers on eikaiwa and gender and books. Charisma Man even made an appearance in the recently published academic book on eikawa I had a chapter in. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

1/2 There was always THAT GUY (always a guy) at a party, strutting around like he owned the place, bragging about how many kanji he knew or how he managed to book a flight to the USA on Korean Airlines for only ¥50,000. THAT GUY later became “Charisma Man”, a comic strip in the satirical magazine (I’m being kind) The Alien. The comic is long gone, but it’s interesting to see the after-effects even to this day. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

The only place to buy foreign food in Nagoya was Mejiya or Hallo Deux. The latter was way out in the suburbs and was very Bubble Economy style, complete with a very bored elevator lady. Then I heard about Foreign Buyer’s Club. The foreign wives’ group was crazy about FBC to the point where my husband called it “FBC Shinrikyo” (FBC new religion? Cult?) One of them won a chance to spend a day at the FBC headquarters and everyone acted as if she had won an Academy Award. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

“We’re not hostesses; we’re Caddy Girls,” the group of young Australian women at the bar insisted. They had come on working holiday visas to work at a gold country club way out in the mountains, but after talking with them a bit, it became apparent they knew absolutely nothing about golf. They swore it was easy money, but proceeded to tell awful stories about being leered at or sexually harassed by Japanese male golfers. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

2/2 We suddenly started getting phone calls from strange Japanese men who thought we were swingers or something! I called up Japanzine to complain and instead of apologizing, they just laughed! I guess they didn’t understand that foreign women had to always contend with strange Japanese men stalking us. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory

1/2 After I married, I joined AFWJ, a group of foreign women married to Japanese. These women were not only good company, but also a great source of information. We wanted to attract new members, so we put free classified ads in English newspapers. One was Japanzine, who decided our ad was too wordy. They shortened it to something like “married foreign women want to meet and have fun with others” and unfortunately it was located a bit too close to the Personals section. #Japan90sNostalgiaMemory