"Two men on the subway, both middle-aged and a bit the worse for wear, were reminiscing about what it was like in the furuki yoki mukashi (古き良き昔, the good old days). It made me realize how rare it is to hear anything so positive today. "Yoruto sawaruto fukyōno hanashi (よるとさわると不況の話, Where there are people, talk is of the bad economy)," grandma used to say in the late 1970s.

But these starry-eyed ojisan (おじさん, middle-aged men) were talking about how, as daigakusei (大学生, university students) at posh private institutions in 1988, they used to go to shanpenkyabia bā (シャンペンキャビアバー, champagne and caviar bars), located in what was then the Tokyo hotspot — Shibaura Futo (芝浦埠頭, Shibaura Pier). A glass of pink champagne and one tiny helping of caviar at such a place cost ichimanyen pokkiri (一万円ぽっきり, exactly ¥10,000, taxes included). And when that was consumed, they ushered their dates into cabs and on to swank hotels or a late supper at some upscale dainingu bā (ダイニングバー, dining bar) in another fashionable area, most likely Hiroo.

It was rare for them to go home before dawn and rarer still to warikan (ワリカン, split the bill) with a date. Men were expected to dress up, pay for everything, give expensive presents, coddle and flatter women and generally behave like haburi no ii otoko (羽振りのいい男, men with plumed feathers). Never mind that they were still students and much of the dough was supplied by their parents.