Posts Tagged hangover
October 31, 2006 – 90% of the time it makes me sick every time
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking on April 13, 2018
Last night at my official farewell party I drank sake. I generally try to avoid sake, because in the eloquent phrasing of the great reporter Brian Fantana, “90% of the time it makes me sick every time”. This time did not disappoint.
Today I had a very low key day at home, doing my best to re-hydrate and sleep off a nasty hangover. Eventually when I felt less fragile, I spent the remainder of the day binge watching The Shield and playing Grand Theft Auto.
August 28, 2006 – Bad form
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Teaching English on November 24, 2017
Today is one of my scheduled days off. This morning I was woken up by my phone. I got a call from NOVA asking me to work an overtime shift in Fujinomiya.
Numazu to Fujinomiya (thanks Google Maps)
I was totally caught off guard by the overtime request and still half asleep so I almost said yes. Somewhere in the back of my brain an alarm bell started ringing, reminding me that Fujinomiya was about a 40 minute train ride away and that the school was full of group kids classes. I like extra money, but I needed the day off more so I declined and went back to sleep for a few more hours. I found out later that the overtime shift came available due to a teacher calling in sick the day after a party.
One of the annoying things about being a conversational English teacher is that everyone has different days off. This allows the branch to be open 7 days a week, but guarantees that no matter which night of the week there is a party, someone is going to have to work the next day.
Drinking is part of the English teacher culture – many of the fun events after work involve alcohol in some way. In time you either learn how to moderate your intake on work nights or how to work through a hangover. Calling in sick the next day is universally considered to be bad form among teachers, and will make you very unpopular with managers and branch staff (as I learned first hand).
It should be noted that “not drinking” is always an option, but then you risk truly hearing how bad everyone is at karaoke. I don’t recommend this at all.
If you are teaching English overseas, always make sure you can get into the office the next day!
March 18, 2006 – The wrath of St. Patrick
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Friends and coworkers, Teaching English on July 17, 2016
There were a bunch of sore, tired teachers at work today thanks to St. Patrick’s Day. Since it was Saturday, most of the teachers had to start at 10:00am. I started at 1:00pm and still felt rotten. I’m actually surprised that we didn’t get more complaints from students about pale, nauseous looking teachers on weekends.
During the day I found out that Azeroth and I were getting a new roommate at the end of the month. Since Palmer had moved to Hokkaido, we had been enjoying our 3 bedroom apartment between the two of us. Before anyone moves in to a new apartment NOVA sends out an inspector to make sure things are in order. My parents are coming to visit on March 25, which only gives us about a week to get things inspection ready. Azeroth and I are not the best housekeepers*, so we have a lot work to do in a week!
* When I say not the best housekeepers, I mean that we generally never clean anything.
December 31, 2005 part 2 – Hungover computer teacher
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Life in Japan, Uncategorized on December 31, 2015
I woke up on on uncomfortable futon, feeling like death. My mouth was dry, my head was pounding, and I was sweating. I looked over and saw Okonomi still sleeping like the dead. I sat up and waiting for the room to stop spinning, but it merely slowed down. This was the penance for an epic night out that had us returning to Okonomi’s apartment around 6:00am.
In addition to going out for drinks, Okonomi had wanted me to come and visit to teacher her how to use her new computer. I gulped down several glasses of water before starting up the PC and checking it out. My first step was to delete some unneeded software that seems to be installed on all new machines, and then to make sure that everything was updated.
After about an hour, Okonomi rolled out of bed like she was a zombie rising from a grave. We realized that we both needed some food and fluids. She got dressed and we walked outside into the blazing horrible daylight. Okonomi’s apartment was half way up a hill, with a small grocery store near the bottom. We walked carefully down the bright, loud, gently spinning hill, picked out some bread, onigiri, and sports drinks, and then lurched back up the hill to the comfortable, dark apartment.
We rode out the hangover exploring her new computer. I taught her how to burn CDs and how to use bittorrent software. It was a nice relaxing afternoon after a crazy night out.
I returned to Numazu in the early evening, fell asleep for a few hours, and woke up to watch New Year’s Eve TV shows with Azeroth and one of his friends. Since I had enjoyed myself too much the night before, this turned out to be one of my quietest New Year’s Eves ever.
Happy New Year!
December 9, 2005 – Christmas party aftermath
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Life in Japan on December 9, 2015
Everyone was hungover.
October 22, 2005 – Never drinking again
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Drinking, Friends and coworkers on October 22, 2015
Hurting…. badly…. hangover… drinking = bad. There have been way too many parties lately, and I have been enjoying them far too much. I am officially taking a break from parties for a few weeks to recover.
One of my roommates also enjoyed himself a little too much last night, causing him to sleep through his alarm and several phone calls attempting to wake him up. After several attempts to contact Azeroth directly, the NOVA staff called me to ask if he was still at home. It took me a few minutes of loud knocking on his door to get him to wake up. I told him that it was 10:20 and he was late for work. He literally jumped out of his bed.
If you have never seen someone jump out of bed from a deep sleep before, it is actually pretty entertaining. It’s more impressive considering he was sleeping on a futon on the floor. I did feel badly for him (and the student whose lesson was cancelled), but at the same time I could appreciate the humour in his reaction.
I spent the rest of the day recovering and looking forward to a few weeks with no beer.
September 4, 2005 – Get out of my room!
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Koalako, The Penpal on September 5, 2015
I woke up in the morning hungover and tired after traveling 9000km to attend Angie’s farewell party. My phone was buzzing – The Penpal had the day off and wanted to see me since I had been away for 2 weeks. I was looking forward to it, but the only problem was I was not alone in my room – Koalako was sleeping on my futon.
Don’t get the wrong idea friends, Koalako slept on the futon and I slept on my folding floor couch. Nothing happened except sleeping, and I assume some drunk snoring (likely from me).
Koalako was a good friend of Angie, and wanted to stay out at the farewell party as late as possible. However, the last train from Mishima to Atami is a lot earlier than the last train from Mishima to Numazu. Near the end of the party she realized that her only way home was a potentially very expensive taxi ride, so she asked if she could stay at my apartment. I agreed, not really thinking about how it would look if my girlfriend showed up to find my attractive female friend sleeping in my room.
I woke up Koalako and told her that she would have to be out before The Penpal showed up. While she attended to her makeup, I ran across the street to 7-11 to pickup some onigiris for breakfast and some sports drinks to aid with our hangovers. My beverage of choice for hangovers is Amino Supply! Yum!
I got Koalako out just before The Penpal showed up. The Penpal and I spent the afternoon together, hanging out and talking about my trip to Canada. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her while I was away. It was good to be back home in Japan!
(2015 Update) This was the first of a few times where I was Koalako’s emergency “I missed my train and need a place to crash” friend. Yes, The Penpal does know that Koalako crashed at my place on occasion.
July 25, 2005 – Unsurprising hangover
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Life in Japan on July 25, 2015
After last night’s celebration of surviving 11 days in a row, it was no surprise that I was very hungover today. I didn’t do much during the day. By evening I was feeling like a human again, and got to spend a few hours with The Penpal.
March 15, 2005 – Sake DOES give hangovers
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking on March 15, 2015
At some point in my year and a half of teaching English, one of my students tried to convince me that good Japanese sake doesn’t give hangovers. After conducting some field research last night, I completely disagree. I would also like to find that student to have some harsh words with him.
But later… not feeling well now.
January 9, 2005 – Poor choices
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking on January 9, 2015
Going out for 100 yen beer after a late shift does not make for a fun start to an early shift. Urgh.
Drinking in Japan 
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