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[Vince]

It's too bad you lost that money, but I'm glad the situation seems resolved.

There was a neighborhood pub on my way to the station that had a sign advertising beer from around the world. A Canadian friend who also lived in the area said he wanted to try it, so we went with our Japanese wives. The inside was a hole and was pretty much empty, except for the drunk lady behind the bar and a few patrons who looked like neighborhood yokels whose butts had become rooted into the stools. My friend asked about the foreign beer menu, and the lady said they were out of all the foreign beer . So he and I each ordered one domestic beer, and our wives each got one ume fizz. The beer was warm, and the ume fizz was undrinkable. I think we also got a bowl of stale okashi and were treated to the bar lady's drunken karaoke. We made it halfway through our beers, asked for the bill, and it came to �6500 - for two standard domestic beers and two ume fizzes. Our wives were surprised but were going to pay it without question, but I pressed for an explanation. The bar lady said there was a seating charge of �1500 for men and �1000 for women. I wanted to ask where the seating charge was posted, but our wives had already chalked it up to shiyo ga nai. I even suggested going to the koban around the corner, but our wives expected that the cops would side with the bar owner (they were probably also worried about the bar owner having connections). So we paid it and left. As your experience shows, things could have been much worse. On our way home, our wives told us the moral of the story: stick to the big izakaya chains. I've since gone to other local places (there are too many gems to avoid them as a rule), but that experience taught me to evaluate those places better.

[jc1977]

I concur with the rest of the replies. It's a spot of bad luck and nothing more. But it is wise to let your Japanese acquantiances show you around if you are new to Japan. I thought I could do it on my own and wound up blowing a wad of money in my first two weeks at one crappy little izakaya that I thought was "cool" because the girls working there were saucy. This also kept me from checking out new places that were much more interesting and foreign friendly. To the OP, you did nothing wrong ... just take whatever advice you can get from the forum and use whatever you find helpful. Good luck.

And if you see that wanker bouncer again, give him a swift kick in the nads and run like hell. Or maybe just avoid him