![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7150\/6503776877_64caf9b1b7_z.jpg?resize=640%2C321\" "\\"gay-jin")
<\/p>\nThis month Fukuoka Now showcases all that Fukuoka has to offer its gay and lesbian visitors and residents. We’ll give you the lowdown on the places not to be missed, whether you’re looking to party or just to chat. But first, we asked longtime resident Marie to give us a tour of the city’s lesbian scene, and the results were surprising.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
HIDE OR SEEK?<\/strong> We were warmly accepted into the bars and soon introduced even to the ‘members only’ ones. Maybe it was because I was single at the time, but I was taken aback by the ferocity of the questions. Girls would start with “Do you have a girlfriend?” before working up to questions like neko? tachi? dochi? Asking literally “are you an attacker or receiver?”, it’s equivalent to ‘are you butch or femme’? Having only just changed my label (it\u2019s necessary to label yourself in most personals), from ‘bi’ to ‘bian’ (bisexual to lesbian) I wasn\u2019t prepared to pigeon-hole myself still further! Not being able to answer I was bombarded with further intricate options such as ‘reba?’ ‘reba-neko?’ ‘reba-tachi?’ ‘zubo-neko?’ ‘femu-tachi’? Explaining that I was just a regular vanillia ‘bian’ with no extra labels worked out in my favor: I attracted attention from all comers!<\/p>\n So returning to the scene recently, I was excited rather than nervous, even though I was heading out alone. I was eager to discover new bars. It\u2019s rather like a game of hide-and-seek. I couldn\u2019t wait for that feeling of triumph at tracking down a new spot: ‘Ha, ha, I\u2019ve found you!’. With my old list of eight lesbian and mixed bars in hand, and a serious thirst, I set off to rediscover gay Fukuoka.<\/p>\n But it wasn’t going to be that easy. Finding the first three bars on the list closed up, and getting thirstier by the second, I phoned a friend. Who phoned several more. Soon the reality was clear: there was only one bar left for little ol’ lesbian me, and it had moved to Kego. It took a phone call to the owner from a taxi to find the place but at the end of my two-hour odyssey I found my treasure at a bar appropriately called “@home”.<\/p>\n The bar lives up to its name. I was greeted with big smiles by the couple who run the place, Hitomi and Kei, and the customers at the counter all made room for me. Not that it\u2019s a small bar: there\u2019s room at the counter for seven or eight and a rare, spacious and extremely relaxing box that can seat around twenty. I hadn\u2019t been there five minutes before I was in full swing, exchanging chit chat with the owners and customers alike, and downing a well deserved draft beer. It was a fantastic atmosphere and I was almost disappointed that I didn\u2019t get asked about my various labels and divisions.<\/p>\n Next, it was onto Sumiyoshi, the local ‘gay district’ where the thought of visiting some of the well-established bars set my heart racing again with nerves. We arrived at Bar Dramatic, known as a “mixed bar” – women welcomed. The serene exterior alone gave me the confidence to push open the door. There it was again, the feeling of stumbling upon a treasure trove. I was greeted by a warm, beaming smile from the mama Tomomi, who despite it being my first visit soon slipped into easy conversation. Several drinks and hours more chat followed as we enjoyed a real open-armed, open-minded welcome.<\/p>\n But despite having a great night, I was still shocked and disappointed. Had Fukuoka had gone back into the closet? I went home to sleep off the beers and recharge my phone. The lesbian scene had disappeared and I felt like crawling back into the closet too. I have a wonderful girlfriend, but what about those who don’t? How does someone in the lesbian community, especially a newcomer, go about finding a partner? There\u2019s plenty of bars and information out there for men. What about those who are just coming out and who need support, friends, reassurance, fun with people they can relax with?<\/p>\n I was woken up by the sound of my mobile telling me I had mail. It was Kei from @Home informing me that an up-and-coming and out local singer, Hibikiko, would be performing soon. Another from a DJ, informing me about more upcoming events. Another from a Taiwanese lady who holds chat sessions on sexuality once a week at @Home. I was delighted. There is a network, and there’s a lot of people out there eager to keep it going.<\/p>\n The paradox is, with the increase of gay and lesbian networking websites websites and especially with mobile phone access, people are chatting online rather than chatting in person. Long distance relationships \u2013 where a couple meet on a website and only actually see each other once a month or so \u2013 seem to be common. Well, that’s alright for some. But I say hats off to all those trying to keep the real-world scene alive. Are you coming out or are you staying home to chat? Come on girls, there\u2019s so much fun to be had! OUT AND ABOUT Something for the guys<\/strong> As Colin explained in 2003, and it is equally true in 2009, gay bars in Fukuoka -indeed throughout Japan- are discreet, almost domestic places and can accordingly be hard to find. They don\u2019t cluster around Nakasu, Fukuoka\u2019s main sakariba (entertainment district) but in two under-stated neighborhoods, Haruyoshi and Sumiyoshi. The bars are near-invisible in day time, when they\u2019re closed, and not much easier to find at night, when only a modest neon sign, no more than the size of car license plate in most instances, will advertise their whereabouts. And there\u2019s not much from the outside to tell you that they\u2019re gay \u2013 maybe the neon will be pink or lavender, but maybe not. Combine all this with the idiosyncratic address system in Japanese cities \u2013 yes, I know it\u2019s logical, but it\u2019s a challenge to the outsider! \u2013 and it\u2019s an achievement to find any gay bar, let alone one in particular.<\/p>\n Nor is it always plain sailing once you’ve found the bar. For one thing it doesn\u2019t seem possible \u2013 the experienced can advise further \u2013 to enter a bar and walk out again immediately. These bars are not large, usually seating no more than a dozen patrons. That quick from-the-entrance scan beloved of gay men world-wide, and the equally quick exit when the talent doesn\u2019t come up to scratch \u2013 how does that play when entering the bar puts you in pole position at the bar, as it were? So be prepared for many bars and many beers (around \u00a51,200 a time) on that first night. Best put it down to research expenses.<\/p>\n On my most recent visit I called in first on Love and Hate, in Haruyoshi. A number of the bars have quirky English names and these are rather more likely to have a master (bar owner) with some English, at least so my not-very-scientific survey shows. The master at Love and Hate certainly had enough to tell me that his bar was for young men \u2013 not a category I fall into and seemingly the common category not just of the bar\u2019s customers but also of their desires. He went on to explain the coding in the free monthly bar guide ‘Season’, in particular, the panel of numbers \u2013 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 plus \u2013 in which some would be highlighted. Yes, it was not just Love and Hate which was age specific (20s and 30s, I learned from the guide) but all of them, though some were less \u201cexclusive\u201d than others. I moved on to Forward (20s to 50s; that looked promising) in Sumiyoshi: it\u2019s the closest in a line of eight on a lane off Sumiyoshi Dori. Its Master is what gay men from elsewhere would recognize as a \u201cbear\u201d \u2013 stocky and bearded \u2013 but welcoming enough to someone like me, who didn\u2019t fit the prescription.<\/p>\n The time taken over the drink I had there was enough to bring in another customer, who gave the master a gift brought on a recent trip \u2013 to Seoul I think \u2013 and drank from his own whiskey bottle, stored on a shelf above the bar. These are common customs in Japanese bars, as many readers will know, and highlight the way in which gay Japanese bars are more like straight Japanese bars than they are like non-Japanese gay bars. Got that?! But then, another custom I found common in the bars I visited may be more gay\/Japanese-specific: you’ll often very quickly be asked about your ‘endowments’, and one in particular. You don\u2019t need too much spoken language to get the point across, so even if you don\u2019t speak enough Japanese to reply, be prepared, although with statistics, not an exhibition, as it were.<\/p>\n I visited Kuma, further down the lane, a couple of nights later. The \u201cturnover\u201d of bars and owners is slow compared with Western cities and the master was the same as on an earlier visit. Indeed he told me he\u2019d had the bar for seven years. He\u2019s from Kumamoto, a city south of Fukuoka, but lived for years in Tokyo and elsewhere, working as a restaurant manager. Finally deciding he wanted to be his own boss, he came back to Kyushu and set up on his own. He does it all himself, the provisioning, the bar-tending, he lives nearby and gets around by bicycle \u2013 no car. \u201cWhat do you do when you go away?\u201d I asked, thinking he might never go away. \u201cI just lock the door\u201d, he said, \u201cand open it again when I get back, a month later\u201d. \u201cAnd where do you go?\u201d \u201cAll over \u2013 to Hawaii more than a dozen times, to New York, to the South Pacific.\u201d Suffice it to say, business must be doing OK.<\/p>\n I recalled to Kuma that I had visited his bar some years back and he replied immediately \u201coh yes, you went to visit a brother living in China didn\u2019t you?\u201d \u2013 which was exactly the case. Not bad after five years and more than reason to go back again.<\/p>\n Quite a lot of foreigners make it to his bar, he said, but most of those who do are not Westerners \u2013 they\u2019re more likely to be Korean or Chinese, often in Fukuoka on business. You might have heard people remark on Japanese bars being less than enthusiastic about outsiders. But provided the bar\u2019s not too full, don\u2019t let that put you off. Indeed, quite the contrary: I say enjoy your novelty value while you’ve got it! Many of the other patrons may not have been that close to a Westerner, so you\u2019ll satisfy some of their curiosity. And maybe you won\u2019t have met regular Japanese men \u2013 for that\u2019s what they are, when it comes down to it \u2013 in such relaxed circumstances. What better way to get closer to the heart of life in Fukuoka, in Japan? And if you get a date too, consider it just \u2013 and I hope tasty – deserts. Hakata Community Center (haco)<\/strong> Season Magazine<\/strong> English Websites (national)<\/strong><\/p>\n Utopia Asia: Jguy USguy: Out Japan:
\nRecently I’d been hearing of a vast increase in the use of use of gay and lesbian websites in Japan, so I was eager to get out on the scene again after a lapse of around three years. When I first came to Japan fourteen years ago, before the internet era, there was no way to find a gay community other than getting out and trying your luck. I got lucky! After frequenting the same bar for a few months, a bar assistant greeted me outside the washroom with a spontaneous smacker on the lips! That\u2019s how we formed our little lesbian community. It was tightly secretive and literally ‘word of mouth’. It wasn’t until ten years later, in 2004, that trying my luck online I made a friend who had struck buried treasure and found the hidden scene in Fukuoka. Thrilled and more than a little nervous, we set out to explore.<\/p>\n
\nMarie Simpson<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Next we asked frequent Fukuoka visitor Malcolm, an historian who lives in Wellington, New Zealand to share some of his experiences of the gay scene.<\/p>\n
\nWhen I first visited Fukuoka in the mid-1990s I had no clue as to how to find its gay bars, or indeed any other gay venue, and to be honest I didn\u2019t really try. It was a quick visit, and maybe it was enough to savor the sight of the many beautiful men I passed on the street; to be finally schooled out of the notion (these were my first-ever days in Japan) that Japanese men were mostly bespectacled and mostly not handsome. On later visits to Fukuoka, thanks in part to some familiarity by then with bars in Tokyo, I knew a little better what to expect. And thanks in part to a 2003 story in Fukuoka Now by intrepid Irish reporter Colin, I knew where to look.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7141\/6503777347_d36cbb60fb_z.jpg?resize=384%2C640\" "\\"gay-jin")
<\/p>\n
\nby Malcolm McKinnon<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/1075711.jpg\" "\\"107571\\"")
<\/a><\/strong>RESOURCES<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nFounded for gay men in Fukuoka, its purpose is to inform and
\nprevent sexual infection\/disease and HIV. Friendly and helpful staff, but unfortunately they cannot speak English. Library with information and leaflets on gay scene in other cities.
\n1F Everlife, 4-4-21 Sumiyoshi, Hakata-ku. Tel: 092-404-5119
\nEmail: contact@loveactf.jp<\/p>\n
\n
\nPublished by haco and LAF (Love Act Fukuoka), this is Fukuoka’s only free magazine with map and listings for most gay bars in Fukuoka City and Kitakyushu City. It is full of information such as events, gay profiles and more. Available at most gay bars.<\/p>\n
\nOffers travel tips and message forums.
\n www.utopia-asia.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLong-running, very active messageboard.
\n www.jguyusguy.org<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGay social networking site.
\n www.outjapan.com<\/a><\/p>\n