Archive for category Drinking
December 31, 2004 – Epic New Year’s Bongo Battle
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Return to Canada, Shenanigans on December 31, 2014
I got a call from Junk to go for lunch at Dirty Ken’s restaurant downtown (not the real name). Junk picked me up, and we tried to find a parking spot downtown that wasn’t completely filled with snow. After we braved the snow filled streets and got parked, we found that the restaurant was closed.
Our backup plan was Stella’s in Osborne Village, which was excellent as always. After breakfast we hung out for a few hours watching Simpsons, and then I returned home to prepare for the New Year’s Party at the fraternity house.
Due to the crazy amounts of snow and the fact that I was planning on drinking too much to safely drive home, I took the bus to the frat house. Winnipeg Transit is not the best form of transportation, and it doesn’t even come close to Japanese trains, but it sure beats driving in the winter.
The party was pretty good, even though only about half of the expected people showed up due to the snow. The people who did show up enjoyed a typical evening of alcohol fueled mayhem. Highlights included a live band in the basement, a sad female singing in Portuguese in the shower, communal baby duck, a cool projector, and getting to hang out with Hippie, who some of you may remember as one of the people who came to visit me in Japan in the summer.
My good friend / drinking buddy Triple D showed up late from work, and we recreated some of our wrestling night stupidity by attacking each other with plastic champagne glasses. It seemed like a fun idea at the time, but we both ended up with cuts on our foreheads. Fun fact: non stick cooking spray in an open wound stings like crazy.
Later in the evening Hippie, who was living in the fraternity house, retreated to his room with his girlfriend Sunny for some “alone time”. He left her alone in his room to have a shower, so Triple D and I (after way too many beers) decided to hang out with Sunny and interrupt their plans. When Hippie returned and found us hanging out, he was less than pleased. After much pleading and several threats, Hippie thought we were finally about to leave. At that moment, Triple D picked up some bongos and initiated an Epic Bongo Challenge.
One of the cardinal rules of being a Hippie is that you must own bongos. The related rule is that you are never able to turn down a bongo challenge at any time for any reason.
Triple D picked up Hippie’s bongos and played a pretty good beat, considering his blood alcohol content. Hippie took the bongos and responded to the challenge. I encouraged them both, and took the picture above. I honestly can’t say how long the epic bongo battle continued, but it probably seemed like hours to poor Sunny.
Eventually we did leave the room and I ended up crashing on one of the many available couches long after most people had gone to sleep. It was a fun New Year’s Eve with friends that I was going to regret in the morning.
(Updated Jan 4 – changed Hippie’s girlfriend’s from “Hippie’s girlfriend” to “Sunny” by request)
December 30, 2004 – Non alcohol karaoke!?
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Return to Canada on December 30, 2014
Today it started snowing, and the snow didn’t stop. By the end of the day, some parts of Winnipeg had received more than 30 centimeters (about 12 inches) of Snow. Since I was only back in Canada for a few weeks, I didn’t want to let the weather slow me down. I had a full evening planned with friends.
The first venue of the evening was Smitty’s lounge for their famous wing night. My friends and I all gorged ourselves on chicken wings and beer. Sometime around 2000 or 2001, my friend Grog and I discovered the joys of Smitty’s Tuesday and Thursday cheap wing nights. We invited more people, and wing night became a regular event. I am proud to say that the wing night tradition survived even after Grog and I both moved away from Winnipeg. Tonight’s wing night was the first time we were both back in Winnipeg for wings in over a year.
After wings, we drove to Osborne village to find something fun to do. I was staying in my old apartment (now shared by my sister and a roommate) in the neighbourhood, so I was able to safely park my car and meet up with the group at a new karaoke place. It was Asian style private room karaoke, but they weren’t licensed to serve alcohol. I hadn’t realized before how important alcohol was to karaoke. We still had fun, however. My group had a few people who had been in some local bands, so the quality of karaoke was above my usual drunk English teacher level.
We finished up with some beverages at Toad in the Hole, a popular pub style watering hold that has become a landmark in Osborne Village. It was a really fun night, and despite me being away for a year, my friends made me feel like I had never left at all.
December 23, 2004 – Extreme Tactics + Extreme Chair Destruction
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Return to Canada, Shenanigans on December 23, 2014
The aftermath of a man vs. chair grudge match
I started my day in Portage la Prairie with a visit to my old employer. I had worked there for several years during University, so it was good to drop in and say hi to my old coworkers. Naturally I brought donuts. I missed Canadian donuts.
In the afternoon I went to Winnipeg to hang out with the fraternity guys. I joined them for a group outing at a place called Xtreme Tactics. For the rest of the afternoon we chased each other around an indoor maze shooting each other with Airsoft pellet guns. I had played paintball before but never done indoor Airsoft, which is why I was not appropriately dressed for the occasion. I ended up with some nasty welts on my arms.
After spending the afternoon shooting each other, we all went to Boston Pizza for dinner and then returned to the fraternity house for the Brotherhood Bottle Exchange.
In Delta Upsilon, new members are assigned a “big brother” when they join. The big brother is an existing member who is supposed to guide the little brother in the ways of the fraternity. At the brotherhood bottle exchange, big brothers and little brothers exchange bottles of alcohol and then everyone hangs out for some beverages and brotherhood. It was a great chance for me to catch up with my friends and hear some fun fraternity stories.
During the course of the evening, the following events may or may not have happened:
- People mixing shochu in their beer (a very bad idea).
- A centurion – this is a beer related challenge where participants drink one shot glass full of beer every minute. While one ounce of beer seems like a small amount, once ounce of beer every minute works out to about standard bottles of beer every hour. Centurions usually don’t end well.
- Vomiting in a holiday themed hat.
- A poker game which started with low stakes and ended up resulting in people losing part of their next month’s rent money. The big winner, who claimed several hundred dollars from other players, decided to tear up all of the IOUs and return the winnings.
- A stripper was hired, but since you can’t discuss prices over the phone, a long negotiation about money occured inside the front door. Both sides at times threatened to walk away from the deal.
- A WWE style wrestling match pitting man vs. wicker chair. After a long battle, the chair eventually lost after several Hulk Hogan style legdrops. It ended up being thrown over the balcony into the snow below.
It was a good time for everyone except the chair.
November 13, 2004 pt2 – First student party
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Shizuoka on November 13, 2014
This is a story that did not appear on my original blog, for reasons which will soon become apparent.
One of the teachers in Mishima NOVA was leaving to return to The US. When teachers leave, there is almost always a farewell party. There were signs up in the teacher’s room stating that the official farewell party was on Sunday November 14.
I was working the Saturday late shift with one of the experienced teachers, let’s call her Veronica. Veronica was a bit unusual because she was likely in her 50s, when most English teachers were in their early to mid 20s. She was easy enough to get along with, and therefore a fun person to be stuck on the Saturday late shift with.
Near the end of the shift, she asked if I was going to the farewell party after work. I pointed out the sign and asked if she meant after tomorrow’s shift. She explained that after work was the “unofficial” party that a few students might be attending.
One of the cardinal rules of NOVA is that teachers are not allowed to interact with students outside of the classroom. There are several reasons for this rule, but the main reason is to keep teachers from doing anything that would prevent students from wanting to buy more lessons. I don’t know if it was technically possible to get fired for meeting students outside of the classroom, but it was a great way to get a reprimand or not have your contract renewed.
Veronica told me not to worry because teachers and students in the area frequently hung out together, and it wasn’t a big deal as long as nobody openly talked about it in front of the supervisors. Since she was a more experienced teacher, I decided to stop worrying and agreed to go to the farewell party.
After work we left Mishima NOVA together and walked down the street towards one of the many izakayas in the area. The whole back room was reserved for the farewell party. I expected to see about 10 teachers and one or two students. When I got to the back, I found about 30 people in the room, with at least half of them being students from Mishima NOVA and some of the nearby branches.
Drinking pro tip: when you shop up late to a party, some people may feel the need to “catch up” to the level of drunkenness that everyone else is currently experiencing. Although a nice social gesture, this is a challenging thing to get right. It’s very easy to overshoot and end up finding yourself more drunk than the rest of the party in short order.
Since I am writing this 10 years later, and because I tried to “catch up”, I don’t remember all of the details of the evening. I do remember that it was a lot of fun, and it was great to interact with students outside of the classroom. I got to know some of the students better, and they got a chance to practice their English in a real world setting.
We all settled up the bill and left just before the last trains of the evening. Through the whole party, one of the female students was flirting with the departing teacher. On the group stumble back to Mishima station, she suggested that her apartment was too far, and maybe she would like to stay “somewhere” in Numazu. The departing teacher said “you can come back to my place, but we’re going to be f**king”.
Unsurprisingly, drunk English teachers are not known for their romantic skills.
Knowing that it would be an experience that both sides would have regretted the next day, some of the female teachers and other students made sure that the drunk flirty student got home safely. Azeroth and I enjoyed our long walk back to City Plaza together. It was a fun night, and the first of many nights out with students.
Note to readers: The legal drinking age in Japan is 20. I worked at a conversational English school, where most of my students were adults. If I ever write about one of my adventures hanging out with students, I am always referring to English students of legal drinking age.
November 2, 2004 – This karaoke looks familiar
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Karaoke, Shizuoka on November 2, 2014
I slept a lot during the daytime to catch up on my recently lack of sleep. I was planning on having a quiet evening at home, but Palmer invited me to go out with a few of his friends that were visiting. Realizing this would be a good way to get to know my new roommate better (and have beer), I agreed and we were on our way.
Our first stop was a small izakaya on the main street that runs by Seiyu. It was a small izakaya where Palmer and friends have been several times, so the service was really friendly. Notable on the menu was whale sashimi. Yes, raw whale meat was available for purchase. I was curious, but one order cost nearly 2000 yen.
Raw whale meat – controversial and possibly delicious
After beer and non-whale pub food, we went to a karaoke place called Uta Club which is conveniently located across from Numazu station’s south exit. Uta Club is popular because it is one of the cheapest karaoke places in Numazu. One hour of all you can drink karaoke costs 780 yen, and there is a special cheap price after midnight. After a short time, I realized that I was in the same place that The Penpal took me for my first karaoke experience in Japan.
From Numazu station to my new apartment is about a 15 minute walk. It seems much, much longer when you are full of cheap beer. I don’t know the way perfectly yet, so I am very happy that Palmer knew where he was going.
So far I have been in Numazu for two days and had two fun nights out. Hopefully this continues!
October 31, 2004 – Packing all night on Halloween
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Hello House, Life in Japan on October 31, 2014
Zoe, me, and Okonomi at Halloween. My costume was “English teacher”
Today is Halloween! It was also my last day living and working in Kawasaki. After work I went out for a final beer at Kiosk with Anzac. I thanked him for all the good advice he gave me as a teacher and wished him the best. It was good to have one last Kiosk beer, but it only served to start my packing later.
Every time I move I realize just how much crap a person can accumulate. I spent a few hours packing by myself, then Okonomi joined me. We packed and worked on a bottle of shuchu. In retrospect, the shochu probably didn’t help productivity very much. The end result of packing was:
- 2 large suitcases
- 8 moving boxes
- a computer
- one futon mattress
- a TV
- my awesome floor couch
I also made some donations to the dozo table of things I just had no room or reason to bring with me. By the end I got two and a half hours of sleep. I hate packing!
October 24, 2004 – Singing Tupac for free drinks
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Karaoke on October 24, 2014
Somehow I had another special topic voice at Keikyu Kawasaki school. After work I was supposed to have my official office farewell party. Unfortunately due to lack of communication and the evil cold that is going around, only three people (including me) showed up. To make up for it, there will be an extra large crowd at karaoke on Thursday.
I went home, still in a party mood, so I Okonomi and I set out for food, drinks, and karaoke. Karaoke is better in larger groups, and can be awkward with just two people. However, after making liberal use of the all you can drink service, we didn’t seem to mind.
In the middle of one of Okonomi’s songs, a drunk Japanese guy walked into our room by accident. He looked around and realized that he was in the wrong place. He instantly started apologizing. We told him that it was no problem, and that he was our new tomodachi (friend). This made him happy, so he started dancing while we were singing. Suddenly, without any warning, he reached over, grabbed Okonomi’s chest with both hands and said “opai!” (boobs!). Normally getting groped by a drunk stranger would start a fight. Okonomi was surprised, but then started laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Our new friend and I started laughing too. He then apologized once more and left to find his original karaoke room.
Okonomi and I kept singing and drinking until our time expired, and then went to settle the bill. Before we left, one of us got the idea that we should see if our breast grabbing friends was still around. We peeked in the windows of the other rooms until we found him and his friends. We opened the door to say hi, and he quickly welcomed us in and gave us drinks.
Somehow we were part of their group now. The group picked songs for each of us. I can’t remember what Okonomi sang, but she did a great job at it. For my turn I had to sing “Changes” by Tupac Shakur. I had never heard the song before, but managed to follow along and got a standing ovation at the end.
On the way home we stopped at Family Mart for some food to absorb some of the excess alcohol in our systems. There is nothing quite like convenience store pastries after way too much fun at karaoke. Okonomi was in worse shape than I was, so I had to walk back with her arm around my neck to keep her stable. When we returned to Hello House I tried to take her to her room, but she declined and said that her room was too lonely. Uh-oh. We returned to my room, where I graciously offered her my futon while I crashed out on my foldy floor couch.
At some point during the night I woke up sweating with a large weight on me. No, it’s not what you think! Okonomi had woken up and decided to return to her room to sleep. In her intoxicated state, she mistook my futon for a blanket and put it on top of me before she left. Judging by how hot I was, I must have been sleeping under my heavy, warm futon for a while.
It was another fun and crazy night drinking in Japan, and one that I was going to pay for the next day.
October 14, 2004 – Phoala’s farewell – part one
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Karaoke, Yokohama on October 14, 2014
Phoala’s farewell party – part 1
Tonight was Phoala’s official farewell party. I traded for an early shift so I could go home and get ready for a big night out. Our plan is Thursday night karaoke in Yokohama, then staying out all night in Roppongi.
I met up with Phoala, Archie, and K-Lo, who used to work at Kawasaki NOVA but had been transferred to Hiyoshi to try to improve the school. K-Lo was slightly annoyed to find that Ruby, one of our karaoke regulars, had brought along a female student that she was interested in. Hanging out with students was an official no-no, but since it was Phoala’s last night, K-Lo decided to turn a blind eye.
In addition to Ruby’s guest, Jem’s sister was visiting from England. I have talked before about how amazing Jem’s singing is. Jem had been telling us that her sister had an even better singing voice than she did. Jem has always been the best singer in our group by far, so we couldn’t imagine anyone actually being better. However, she was right and we were all treated to some amazing singing by Jem and sister. We were seriously blown away by their talent.
The rest of us sounded extra terrible by comparison, but all you can drink karaoke has little to do with actually being a good singer. We all had fun badly singing along to our regular songs. Archie made sure to sing the entire Styx classic “Mr. Roboto”. The album version is five and a half minutes long, but somehow it seems much longer in a karaoke room.
After two hours of karaoke, Phoala, Archie, K-Lo and I headed off for Roppongi. We got there just after midnight so the story continues on the next post.
Drinking in Japan 
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