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The next show was located five and a half hours north, but it may as well have been on a different planet. Charly's Lemon Country in Sendai is a 30-year-old honky tonk devoted to live country music. The walls are covered in posters of everyone from Johnny Cash to Billy Ray Cyrus and even the liquor bottles wear cowboy hats.

The owner, Charly-san and most of his clientele belong to a graying, yet still kicking, subculture of die-hard country music fans in Japan. The fan base was born after World War II when American GIs introduced Hank Williams via the radio. Today businessmen living in crowded Japanese cities associate country music with an appealing image of cowboys drifting through wide open spaces.

On stage at Charly's, Foster greeted everyone, introduced himself and said thank you in Japanese (arigato gozaimasu). Other than that, almost no one understood the jokes or anything else he said between songs. That didn't seem to matter though. Everyone got quiet to listen to his music. A few even closed their eyes, probably picturing Foster (who lives in North Hills), leaning against a tree, with his boots crossed, after a long day of roping cattle.

The final show was at the Ha' Penny Bridge Irish pub in Sendai. Japanese honky tonks may only be popular with middle-aged salary men, but judging from the Ha' Penny crowd's diversity, everyone loves an Irish pub.

Near the end of Foster's last set there, a big group of Irishmen filed in. They had been attending a conference at the nearby university. They gulped their beers and stood around the stage, listening to Foster's songs about things from long ago and faraway. His traditional sound (and alcohol) inspired the group of Irish academics to scramble for a guitar, Irish flute, and the spoons off the tables in order to visit their own roots in song after Foster finished.

Though many Japanese people appreciate old American and European music, it's difficult to find Japanese musicians exploring their own traditional styles. Foster tried to find someone who played the shamisen, a three-stringed instrument native to Japan, but never could. He did however find some good street musicians singing songs in Japanese about their home.

These budding musicians work a different system than Knoxville bands. They try to recruit fans by playing in live houses, which are businesses where money is primarily made when musicians rent the venue. There is usually a set number of tickets the musician must sell for the live house, then he gets to keep a percentage of any additional tickets sold to attempt to break even. Many live houses also sell drinks and food as a secondary source of income. With this pay-to-play system anyone with the yen to rent a stage can feel like a rock star for the night.

But with proof of his talent and repertoire from his work with MBRC and a contact in Japan, Foster was able to by-pass the live house scene and was instead paid for his performances.

Nightlife in general also operates differently in Japan than what we are used to. It is normal for bars to tack unmentioned table or entry charges onto bills. They are set up more for a nightlong drinking binge than for having one or two beers after work. This system can be frustrating at first. But once you get accustomed, it can provide really cheap alcohol-soaked evenings. Japanese-style establishments called izakaya often have all-you-can-drink offers for under ¥2,000 (about $16). They usually have a time limit of two to three hours and require each person to order food. The service is fast and good and you don't tip.

Izakayas are almost as good as the dirt-cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon deal at Pat Sullivan's Backroom BBQ where you can catch Foster and the rest of MBRC two Wednesdays a month. They will be at the Backroom June 6th and at the Preservation Pub after Sundown in the City on June 7th.

--Brooke Everett, guest contributor