Reggae a la Kyoto (& Egan’s)

= Update:  See Vids at Page Bottom =

At this writing, October 2011, it’s been almost two years since I posted the first edition of this piece.  I was in Japan on business, but took a night to go by Rub a Dub, a reggae spot in Kyoto I’ve known and visited for years.  I’ve been back a few times since. . .

I actually had serious meetings involving Serious Business while in Japan during the second week of November (to which my meeting counterparts could certainly attest).  However, I certainly made time to blow off steam and relax a little, too.  While in Kyoto one of the places at which I occasionally like to wind-down is “Rub-a-Dub”, a little reggae watering hole right there on Kiyamachi Dori (street), down the stairs from a great outdoor ramen shop and other like (traditional) restaurants.  It’s just a few minutes walk to Ponto Cho, one of Kyoto’s premier, old-time entertainment streets, built-atop an old sand bar of the Kamo River in the mid-to-late 1700s.  It’s right there on Kiyamachi Dori, facing the 400 year old Takase Canal.

The gallery below combines Black & White, heavily blurred and, occasionally, honestly crisp shots.  Well, they’re all honest photographs, some are just more straight-forward than others.  How metaphorical, how allegorical.  All photos were taken the same night, November 7, 2009.  Hopefully the swirling images will help the viewer to feel Rub-a-Dub’s kinetic, joyful atmosphere in its full, with foreigners and Japanese, locals and expats, regulars and stoppers-by, all being In the Moment.  Rub-a-Dub, when it’s really going, reminds me of Egan’s (when on certain autumn Saturday nights it’s time to play James Brown’s “I Feel Good”) or the now-but-a-memory, Chukker, both of Tuscaloosa.  Above all, there’s a sincerity to Rub-a-Dub for which reggae makes the perfect soundtrack, and catalyst.  And, of course, it’s fun.

Finally, at the very end, there’s a vid.  Taken a couple days later, in the early evening.  I had stopped in for one beverage after a meeting and on my way to Three Sisters Inn .  .  .

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From May 2010 . . .

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Here’s the Rub a Dub vid I did in November ’09. . .

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I’ve now found a real nice, clean studio version of Dawn Penn’s “You Don’t Love Me” . . . nice. . .

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F o l l o w  –  u p

At the very top of this I mention that Rub-a-Dub reminded me of Egan’s, a little Tuscaloosa, Alabama, watering hole.  I happened to be in Tuscaloosa yesterday, with a friend from college, and we dropped by Egan’s for a few minutes.  It was daytime and was actually a bit staid compared to how it can get on a Saturday night, but its altogether jolly atmosphere was still there, made and enjoyed by younger and older people, locals and out-of-towners, students and tradespeople and professionals and dropouts and PhDs alike. Here are a few snapshots, for comparison purposes:

Bob at Egan’s. October 8, 2011.

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