Bar Fight… again.

I swear I have THE WORST luck in Japan. Many Japanese people say to me, “Japan is sooo safe! You don’t have to worry about anything here. America is sooo dangerous. I don’t ever want to get there because I’ll die. There are guns, racism, and terrorism in America, but not in Japan. All white people hate black people in America.” I just want to backhand the ignorance out of the Japanese people who say this to me. I’m not saying America isn’t dangerous, but in my 22 years of living in America, I have never witnessed a shooting, I’ve never seen a serious fight, I’ve never been robbed or assaulted or witnessed any terrorism. Everything bad I’ve seen has been on the news. Perhaps the worst I’ve ever dealt with was being threatened by a drunk guy on a bus. In Japan, I deal with mild racism and discrimination every single day. I’ve been told to home to my own country and that I’m not wanted here. I’ve been robbed twice, sexually harassed countless times (touched in every place I don’t want to be touched) in different settings, been stalked, and have been caught up in three different bar fights.

A couple months ago, I was out with my boyfriend going around to different bars. Mind you I was not drunk in the slightest. We decide to stop into a trendy bar called Posh in Tamatsukuri that my bf has been to a couple times before. We walked in, sat down, and greeted the bartender. There were eight other people sitting in the bar: four people at a table, two women at one side of the counter, and two men sitting next to Shinya and I at the other side of the counter. It took us about 15 seconds to realize that one of the guys next to us was drunk on a different level and belligerent. He was talking in a voice so loud, basically screaming, that everyone was staring at him like wtf. Before the bartender could ask    for our drink order, the guy got so loud that the bartender apologized to us and told the guy that he needs to lower his voice, which made the guy angry. His friend next to him was like, “Let’s get out of here,” but the guy refused and started yelling over to the two girls. I don’t know what he was saying, but the girls basically just like cussed him out saying that he’s being and ass and needs to leave. He got up in a rage, walked over to the girls, and started yelling in their faces. At this point, I’m like oh shit…it’s about to happen…I looked at Shinya and told him this is bad and we need to get out because there’s gona be a fight. This drunk guy is huge and buff and looks like a body builder, by the way. I was afraid that he would hurt me or Shinya. I felt scared for my safety because this guy was a loose cannon and unpredictable.

When the guy approached the girls, the bartender came around, and told the guy he needs to leave the bar immediately. The girls might have actually known the guy…I couldn’t really tell, but it seemed like maybe they might have know each other from somewhere. In a rage, he started breaking stuff and throwing things around. The bartender and the guy’s friend tried to get him to go outside, and at this point, he was blocking the exit and standing close to Shinya and I. Of course you can’t help but watch, but Shinya told me not to look because it might draw the guy’s attention. I just wanted to get the hell out of there and run. The girls stood up too and tried to help get the guy out. He shoved one of the girls down onto the floor. At this point I knew that it was time to call the cops. I didn’t have the confidence to though. I mean I know the number, and I know how to basically say the name of the bar and that there’s a fight which may have been enough, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer the cops questions. Plus, with all the Japanese people in the bar, wouldn’t it make sense for one of them to call instead of me?

They got the guy outside on the sidewalk. Just me, Shinya, the table of four, and the girl who got pushed were left in the bar. I started saying to everyone that somebody should call the cops. Everyone was like, “Ya, we should call the cops…” and no one did. Ugh. Like me, I suppose, they know that calling the cops means spending the rest of the night in the police station explaining the situation. I had just gone through this a few months before. Not being able to go home until like 9 in the morning when you’ve been out all night is extremely exhausting.

We all watched what going on out on the sidewalk. The guy was screaming and the other three people were saying he needs to leave and were trying to hold him back from coming back into the bar. Then I heard the familiar and disturbing sound of a fist hitting flesh. It’s nothing like the movies. The guy punched the bartender square in the mouth. This bartender is a small, quiet kind of guy. He didn’t do anything. I think he was in shock. The girls started crying. The friend was begging him to leave. The guy started fighting to get back into the bar. The bartender spoke up again and proceeded to get punched in the face again. This time his lip started bleeding. I was seriously scared that he was gona come back in and hit me or Shinya. I felt so sad for the bartender; he wasn’t a fighter at all. The guy came back in to try to harass the girl he pushed down before, and I saw an opening. I’m not saying it was the right thing to do, but I grabbed Shinya by the wrist, pulled him out of the seat, and ran out of the bar with him. I heard the bartender apologizing to us as we ran out which made me sad…like it was his fault?! I was happy Shinya and I hadn’t ordered anything yet, or we would’ve had to wait for the ordeal to finish to pay.

I was really shaky and frightened from the experience, and needless to say, it killed the rest of our night. I really hope someone ended up calling the cops. No doubt the bartender’s face was black and blue the next day. I really hope things turned out ok. Hopefully there isn’t a next time, but reflecting back on this, I feel bad for not having the guts to call the cops, and if this happens again, I’m gona do my best to be a hero.