Japan Trip 2012, Day 12 - Tokusatsu Hero Bar "Crystal Sky"

When I arrived in Tokyo, I had intended on getting a little bit of shopping in Akihabara done after dropping my bags off and checking into the hotel. However, part of the plans today was to meet up with one of my friends (the one who went to Hokkaido), and go to a tokusatsu-themed bar. I think I had all of one measly hour at Akihabara before I had to head off at around 20:00 to catch the train all the way out to Tachikawa Station. I hopped on board the Chuo Line, and waited for around 45 or so minutes to arrive.

Unfortunately, this is also another time where I totally left my camera at the hotel, so I apologize but there no pics for this.

Once we found Crystal Sky (it took us a bit of walking), I found it about as normal as I'd expect any bar to be inside a packed space. There was a bit of karaoke going on, but for the most part there were only three other customers here. To note, they did have a 2 hour all you can drink for 3000 yen thing going on, but we only had an hour to spare here. Any later, and the trains would stop running, meaning we'd be stranded somewhere in Tokyo until 5:00. So, we opted to sit around and pay for each drink that came out.

I... honestly can't remember too much of what I had. The main cocktails were themed drinks, which meant they had some sort of fancy name in them, usually with a reference to a tokusatsu show or something. All I remember was that the first drink I had was a whiskey on the rocks. After that, I had two green drinks (as in, sentai green - the smart guy drink)... after my friend spilled the first one I ordered. Didn't think he was that drunk, but eh. I also had an orange drink here, which I think was named after an entire show, but this was the extent of my drinking (as far as I can remember). Not that four drinks did anything to me - the alcoholic content was really light, and I'd bet the same could be said anywhere you go in Japan.

Speaking of my friend, however... he had the habit of ordering the hard-to-make drinks, one of which was layered like a grasshopper. We were served by someone who seemed to be in training - and he seemed to be having a difficult time with the drink even following the recipe book. In the end, he almost served the squeezed out piece of orange he used to make the drink, but then the other two bartenders stopped him and threw the spent fruit slice out. It was a pretty comical scene, actually.

After we were there for a while, the karaoke stopped (and I tried singing Sora, but was totally unprepared for the fast parts) and they got the idea of putting in some... Gokaiger to let me see what it was all about. So, they plopped in the disc and it started playing for a while... but then the player froze. I think they tried other discs as well, but it soon became evident that the DVD player had seen its match. Maybe the tokusatsu was too much for it?

Either way, we eventually had our hour, and had to head back to catch the 23:00 train to Ueno Station. I hear there are promo events that happen in the bar sometimes, and I'd bet those are really prime times to go. Small as it was, the bar itself was decorated in shikishi of what I only can assume are tokusatsu actors and directors. Just hopefully they've replaced the DVD player by now.