Was Tokyo's best party the very last snort of the bulls?

So there it was. A Friday night that should, on paper, have been bleaker than a Philip Roth novel.

The end of one of the most hideous weeks of Tokyo trading anyone can remember. Everywhere you looked, stocks were in freefall and this time it wasn’t just Japan that was slitting its wrists. Hong Kong was in a muddy, stinking ditch, the US was looking as shaky as some of those subprime mortgaged houses, and even that oh-so-persuasive story about the Chinese economic juggernaut looked in need of a trip to Kwik-Fit.

But, ahhhh…thank Bacchus for hedonism and the unrelenting drag of excess: at least there were still some bars where the champagne was splashing around like a coke-fuelled sailor at a Playboy pool party. The question is whether Friday’s insanity – one of the biggest bar bills ever amassed in a single night’s Tokyo boozing – will mark the last hurrah of a global economy on the edge.

Picture the scene: Geronimo Shot Bar, Roppongi Crossing, Tokyo: a bar that has seen a good deal more than its fair share of money boys and girls on the lash. Most nights in there, it’s like Nero’s palace the day before Rome caught fire – and I use the analogy deliberately. Urban Dirt is proud to call himself a regular in this bar, and has had some of the happiest moments of his life beneath its aggressive décor: brass plaques that speak bluntly of nights where too much was consumed too quickly and by too many.

But I know a market proxy when I see one.

In its 14 years of existence (Friday was its birthday), Geronimo has found the perfect way to monetise  the bravado (and booze-addled generosity) of its clients. “Bang the drum, buy everyone a shot” is the simple rule of the game. Each shot is priced at Y1,000 ($10, GBP5) and, at absolute straining capacity, the bar will hold about 80 people. You get the picture. Acts of cocktail-fuelled public spiritedness cost the average drum-banger around $500, and each champion’s monthly tally (of shots bought for everyone) is chalked-up on a blackboard behind the bar. Around bonus time, it is not rare to see weekly tallies of 200 shots ($2,000); “Big Chiefs” often go far, far higher.

But engraved on the wall for some years has been the seemingly unbreakable one-night record of Jason – a hedge fundie who bought a spectacular 2,096 shots ($20,960) before the bar closed at 5am. It was achieved when markets were far stronger, and when the global financial system was drenched in a seemingly limitless wash of liquidity. To any customer with even half an eye on the Nikkei recently, Jason’s astonishing record has looked increasingly bulletproof.

But on Friday it was broken. By an out-of-towner over from Hong Kong: the Executive Vice Chairman, in fact, of an AIM-listed company and a man I understand to be the nephew of Macao casino legend Stanley Ho. A plaque in this benefactor’s honour has not yet been inscribed, but when it is, it will stand in the top-right corner of Geronimo. The legend will be simple: Tom 2,097.

Now, it is true that Tom Hall is the founder of Playtech and general guru of online gambling. He is not hard up for a few quid and gambling does not seem under quite so much threat as the monoline insurance industry. As such, the miseries of the stock markets are considerably less important to him than the quite staggering global popularity of the sort of software and consultancy services he’s peddling. He is also fresh from floating AsianLogic on London’s AIM: a fundraising effort which he said at the time “will enhance our leading position in the Asia-Pacific region”. I’m not clear whether that includes breaking Asia-Pacific drinking records, but there you go…

I was there as the wombats, flatliners and mind probes were dished out, and I bow long and deep to Mr  Hall. It was, quite simply, one of the best parties ever held in a bar full of strangers.

What bothers me, though, is the fin de siècle feel it all had. This was the last run of the Flying Scotsman, the last flight of Concorde and the handover of Hong Kong all rolled into one joyous night. The bears are gathering and the world is changing, but every shot slammed down screamed in desperate hope that it were not so.

Comments

[Lutter]

Dear Mr Lewis
thanks for your excellent article on Geronimos. A place I sometimes frequent, but often my younger colleagues spend an awful amount of time and money in, emerging like bats in the early hours.
One of them sent me this story and I at first thought you were an Asian based correspondent day tripping to Tokyo. I was surprised to see you have been here since 2003. You should know better!

Having lived here since 1994, (my doesn't time fly) as an equities broker we have been through much worse than the recent market turmoil. Battle hardened Japanese brokers see this global move as long overdue, and most likely not done yet.
A recent business trip two months ago to HK found me at a busy restuarant with six hedge and institutional Japanese investors. We all moaned about how awful our stock market is, and argued who was to blame.
We ordered decent food and moderately priced wines off the menu and had a great time. Around us we were all aware of the roaring Asian broker bulls ordering vintage champagne and caviar. It was a sobering experience, and one which only one elder at the table could remember from the late eighties in Japan.

All good things come to and end. We see this global market rout as an opportunity to point out just how cheap quality Japanese companies have become globally. Its taken nearly 20 years to get there from its 1989 peak, and there are of course caveats, but financially Japanese business feel in better shape than many of their Asian peers with enormous amounts of cash on the balance sheet.
Geronimos has been busy every weekend and weekdays, through Japan Incs darkest hours.
I would not be surprised if there are many more big nights in Geronimos come.

[Fraser]

I believe the shot record of 2096 was for the most shots by one person in a month, not a night

now i understand the meaning of the gong...that is why everyone was looking at me sometime ago when i banged it before leaving the bar....:)

[Malcolm]

To the anonymous poster:

Well everyone was probably thinking what a nice guy you are buying them drink as you left the bar!

Now you know where that several hundred dollars on your bar tab came from .....

[Wombat]

Good to see the bar doing so well. Everyone loves a shot of the wombat

[Tom]

Cheers leo it was a very funny night. I have to add that my japanese business partner sponsored the marathon drum ringing session so can't take all the credit here.

[FOARP]

Brilliant, but I doubt something as simple as straight forward expat boozing is going to stop just because of the recent turbulence in the market.