It’s Wednesday night and I’m sitting in Churchill’s Pub on N.E. 2nd Avenue and 55th Street in Miami. It’s ran by Dave Daniels, a Brit expatriate and everything about it is British– including its interior which looks like something left over from the London bombings of World War II. Daniels describes the place on the outside wall as “sort of an English pub.” It’s got the Union Jack and a silhouette of Churchill painted on the walls just to confuse you. And let’s not forget the two derelict double-decker busses sitting in the unpaved, rock strewn parking lot. The menu includes the expected pub fare of shepherd’s pie and bangers and mash, but what brings me and my buds back week after week (besides Alex and Brooklyn the gorgeous tattooed barmaids) is Wednesday Curry Night. Done “London style,” it is the consensus of curry eating connoisseurs who join me that it is the hottest curry known to man.

I consider the regulars in my group members of the “Curry Eaters Club.” Only the worthy can sit with us at one of the plastic lounge tables scattered on the opposite side of the dark bar. On any given Wednesday night you can find the face of Miami in this bar: Haitian, Cuban, some variety of South American, WASP, and Jew. And the young and old too. If you’re not there to make your eyes water and your nose run from the curry, you’re there to drink, shoot pool, hang out with your friends at the bar, watch soccer on the TVs and, later, listen to live rock music (or jazz on Monday’s) around 10 pm. In fact, Churchill’s is one of the few places left in Miami where you can hear live rock and has become legendary for championing new bands. Many are young kid slammers and screamers who seem to be working out their anger management issues on the pub’s minimalist stage. Still, you never know what kind of band will play that night.

I remember a couple of weeks ago, a young Alabama girl carrying an acoustic guitar almost as big as she was, got up and sang songs she had written that were eerily reminiscent of folkie stuff from the fifties. If it hadn’t been for the crowd sitting around the bar cheering on some obscure soccer team’s goal on TV, I would have sworn I had been transported back to Greenwich Village at the height of the folk music era half-a-century ago (not that I was actually there, I only read about it). Of course, members of the Curry Eaters Club, could care less who’s playing as long as the music and the entourage that follows the bands don’t interfere with our mission and very little, even a drunken rowdy crashing into our table will cause us to pause from the club’s agenda. Oh, yeah, you’re more than welcome to join us at the table, but crybabies need not apply.

D.C. Copeland is a writer and award-winning artist living in Miami Beach. Visit Copeland’s personal website and blog http://www.miamivisionblogarama.blogspot.com to discover why the Patron Saint is Wayne Cochran and why it is considered by many to be “The Rodney Dangerfield of Blogs.”

Fukuoka isn’t that small of a place. Actual numbers bring the population to about the 5 million mark, with the city having roughly 1.3 million people. With that amount of people around, you know there has got to be something to do. On any day of the week if you look you will be able to find something that interests you. There are often festivals in one area or another in Fukuoka city. With a little help from a friend or the domestic foreigner magizines and information centers you will be able to find out where the festivals are being held.

The center of Fukuoka city will have to be Tenjin (though others may argue it to be Hakata). It is the shoppers haven of the prefecture. Feel you need to do a little shopping for some nice named brands from Italy or France? head on over to Tenjin. Want to blow off some steam and hit a bar (including foreigner bars)? Tenjin is the place to be. want to meet some new friends? Rainbow Plaza in… you guessed it, Tenjin, is the place to do just that.

Right next door to Tenjin is Nakasu. Nakasu hosts nightlife entertainment but tends to cater to the more affluent individual. However, Nakasu also has a huge shopping complex named Canal City which has so many shops that you wouldn’t be able to count them all. The complex holds many restaurants, two hotels, a large cinema and in the center of Canal City is an area called Sun Plaza where it is common to find street performers doing their acts.

Of course Tenjin and Nakasu aren’t the only place you can have fun. I live about 10 minutes away from Tenjin by subway in a town called Nishijin and I can do nearly as many things here as I can in Tenjin. Bowling, swimming, soccer, billards, game centers, and even a movie theater are just a few of the things Nishijin and the nearby area has to offer.

Yahoo Dome (formerly Fukuoka Dome) is located in Momochi which boarders the sea. Yahoo Dome is home to the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. The Hawks are a strong baseball team, beloved by the city and its residents. In fact, there are only two teams in Japan’s professional baseball league who attract more than one million fans to their home games per year, and the Hawks are one of them. When the Hawks don’t have a home game you can sometimes find other activities occuring in the Dome. Yahoo Dome hosts various flea markets and concerts throughout the year.

Food, food, food!

As far as I’m concerned, Fukuoka has the best food to offer in all of Japan (though I hear food in Sapporo is quite good). Fukuoka has its own well known dishes and of course the chefs here are well capable of recreating dishes found throughout the world.

Yatai

When night begins to fall on Fukuoka city you may suddenly notice many little street vendors (usually operating out of their vans) popping up all over the sidewalks. These vendors serve a variety of foods ranging from ramen to yakiniku to tempura. Yatais themselves are really a site to see.

Hard Rock Cafe Fukuoka

On the occasions when I miss American and Mexican food, I always have the option to head on over to Hard Rock Cafe right next door to Fukuoka dome in Momochi. Momochi is adjacent to Nishijin so indeed I am in luck. Hard Rock Cafe Fukuoka boasts the largest restaurant of its kind in Japan. The food is fantastic and of course the atmosphere is like all other Hard Rock Cafes out there. The staff is very friendly and since I frequent their establishment often I am treated extremely well with occasional benefits.

Izakaya

Though not only found in Fukuoka, Izakaya restaurants deserve a notable mention. Izakayas offer a wide variety of food and more importantly drinks at a low price. University students as well as business men can often be found in these restaurants chatting with colleagues and drinking up a storm. All Izakayas offer a different ambiance, and with some searching you will be able to find one that suits you.

Famous Fukuoka food

Fukuoka ramen

Have you ever had that cup O ramen or that freeze dried packaged ramen? bah! throw that out and try some “Tonkatsu ramen” (pork ramen) famous in Fukuoka and well know throughout all of Japan. First time I tried it I was instantly hooked and to this day try and eat it once every week or so.

Mentaiko

Another famous food which Fukuoka is renound for is mentaiko (very tiny fish eggs). To some people mentaiko may not seem very appatizing but please don’t knock it till you try it. Mentaiko spagetti, as an example, is a delicious treat around these parts. And there are of course many other recipes which have use for mentaiko.

Transportation

Unlike the nickname given to New York, Fukuoka does tend to get a little tired at night but usually not until quite late especially on weekends. One of the reasons for this in my humble opinion is the transportation shutdown at around midnight. Thats right, the subway, train, and bus system all but stops once you hit the AM. Which leaves the weary and, more often than not, drunk to either take a taxi home, walk, or I have even heard the “I will just stay up until the subway starts again at 6:00 before I go home” line used by those who just aren’t finished partying when its time for the transportation system’s last call. This isn’t just a Fukuoka special, for the shutdown happens throughout the whole of Japan.

Though the transportation system does shutdown at perhaps inconvenient times, it is a wonderful system. Perfectly clean trains, buses and subways (which are amazingly quiet) are the consequence of the shutdown for they are all cleaned during the wee hours of the morning.

Location

Fukuoka is found on the southernmost island of the four main islands in Japan. The name of the island is Kyushu. Fukuoka happens to be closer to Seoul, South Korea than it is to Tokyo. Fukuoka prefecture is located on the northern tip of Kyushu.

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