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May 30, 2006
"Giving into Peer Pressure is a Good Idea" Friday!
It started with innocent intent. I went to a drinking get-together in Yokohama with some former classmates, with the caveat that I would not be drinking alcohol with them. Recently I've been trying to cut down on the alcohol intake, since I am beginning training for my 1000km pilgrimage in the summer through Shikoku.
Anyway, for the first three hours, I was clinking mango juices with the two year old baby in the tiki restaurant while hula dancers came out at intervals, rain came out of the ceiling, fake alligators roared faintly, a fake monkey swung lamely in one place, I got forced into dancing on stage for a bit, and there were little light shows on the stage. Huan, the baby, was so cute. He is so captivated by the ladies (never mind you, daddy) and he loves to toast his glass. Apparently he actually pours beer for his daddy when he comes home so that they can "kampai!" (Japanese word for "cheers") It was just me, Ry and the baby until everyone showed up. This part was just fine.
Then, at some point, the rest showed up (Ke, his girlfriend Ma and Mm) and Ry had to take his baby home. Ry had a drink left over that he hadn't gotten to yet which he offered to me and I politely refused, but the rest of them got to work on me about that. Something along the lines of, "Come on, you know you want to do it. Everyone is doing it." OK, I'm just joking.
I held out for a while, but I was no match for their persuasive powers, and boy, lemme tell you, that tall Jack Daniels and coke was starting to look real tempting. I started playing around with it, eyeing it, and finally, just gave in and started drinking it.
Then Ry, heavy weight drinker, comes back. We order a giant parfait that comes out with its own sound track. It's seriously taller than everyone sitting at the table. I hold it up and the big party across from up lets out a collective cheer. I'm starting to feel pretty good. The parfait has really long spoons, so Ke decides that the spoons are just way too long for self-feeding. Yes! We shall shove parfait down each others throats. Woo!
Suddenly, it's last order time and almost midnight. It's about time to catch last trains, so Ry has a good idea about how to end the night. He orders five shots of whisky for the "Game of Death".
The "Game of Death" is a Korean drinking game where, after chanting some stuff and clapping (Shinanda, clap clap clap, Jeminanda, clap clap clap, the Gaaaaame of death) you point at someone. Whosever’s turn it is, they yell out a number between 5 and 15 really quickly and you follow the arrows for that number of times until you get the victim who has to down a (in this case) half-shot. If everyone points at one person, everyone but the pointed person has to drink.
Mm gets victimized four times, and so does Ke. The rest of us drink about two times. We pay the bill, which is pretty high at 5000 yen (about 50 US bucks) a pop. I'm starting to feel pretty tired and ready to go home to sleep. I'm really not looking forward to the crowded train, though. This thought may have helped me to cave in to peer-pressure again, and agree to stay out all night and pay 3500 for all night, all-you-can-drink, all-you-can-karaoke.
At this point, I think to myself, rather incorrectly, I might add, "Alright, I'm going to need a whole lot of alcohol to make it through the whole night." So, I order a cheap whiskey on the rocks (which tastes like turpentine), and down it in about 15 minutes. I order another one. I drink that... I think. At this point I am really getting into the karaoke, getting kinda raucous and then...
You know how, when you get really drunk, you experience everything on a sort of subconscious, "floating outside of your body in a midnight dark space" sort of way? Well, my next memory comes in that state. I am now, I think, in a toilet, not feeling very good. I really don't know how long I've been there for, but I think Mm is trying to pull me out, but I'm not ready to go. Some time passes, I think, and Mm comes back in and asks me if I am alright, which I of course say, (groan) "yuueesss". And then the next question was something like, "Do you feel sick enough to go to the hospital? Should I call an ambulance?" To which, of course, I responded (groan) "Yuuueess. Take me to a hospital."
At that point, if someone had asked me, "Hey, do you want to go to Thailand and be held as a sex slave for some crinkly old man with STDs?" I probably would have agreed.
In the next memory I have this vague feeling that I am in a hospital. I think one of the nurses says, "She can speak Japanese" and starts asking me questions, to which I answer, very helpfully, with intelligent groans. They stick something into my arm, they make some comment about the fact that I have a tampon in and then stick a catheter right in so I don't pee on myself. Sexy, I know.
My next memory is of everyone coming in a rubbing my back and legs, saying encouraging things in their half inebriated states. I was very encouraged by this, but it also made me feel very nauseated. But I was too busy shivering and trying not to puke to really say anything, so I just groaned.
Finally, around 7 in the morning, I woke up, hair in a mess, rather embarrassed and another 5000 yen (50 bucks) in the hole. The IV, which was duck-tapped to me, I swear, was ripped out. I still have the tape marks on me. The catheter was pulled out and I was sent on my way to catch a few hours and go film a video for class. And that was my "Giving into Peer Pressure is a Good Idea" Friday!
Posted by Emarrific at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)