The last 24 hours brought to you by: Awesome and Win!

Evening Ladies and Gents.

Well, that past 24 hours have proved to be more eventful than I had anticipated. What was supposed to be just one quiet drink after work turned into a saga that spanned several train rides and a lot of money. It all began with a hostess...

I had noticed the bar a few streets behind my workplace only last week. It was a small building and didn't seem to be a hostess bar (of which we already have enough of in Anjo). So, after a hard day's work I decided to investigate the place and 'wet my whistle.' On the surface it seemed nice enough- there was a small Christmas party going on in the back and a few people at the bar. So I sat down, ordered a pint of Yebusi and started answering the bargirl's questions in my mangled Japanese. I'm only about half way through my glass when I got a call from my friend John, asking me what I was up to. We decided to head to Nagoya and have a few drinks at an Australian bar, so after I hung up I asked for my bill.

When they gave it to me and I saw how much they had charged me for just one beer, well, that's when I knew it was in a hostess bar.

An hour later and I was in Nagoya. John and I headed over to Sakae, which is the main bar district in these parts. The Red Rock bar was actually full for a change- it's Christmas party season and there was also an after-wedding party being held there. After a few pints (and after I realised that the uni-sex toilet was actually the Ladies- there was a Men's one hidden around the corner. That was... embarrassing to say the least), we headed onto another bar where we found a New Mexican brew that was John's drink of choice. After that we decided to call it a night and caught the subway back to Nagoya station.

Alas, we had both missed our last trains back to our respective cities. Thus began the all-nighter. Since we had time to burn, we walked back to Sakae. Only we way, we found a small little ramen stall set up around a guy's truck. At 12:30 in the freezing cold morning, there's nothing better than street ramen- it was as tasty as it was awesome.

We got back to the bar district by 1:00, but by that point we were both pretty tired. After a pint of Guinness we decided to call it a night, and started to look for a place to sleep. All the Internet cafes were booked out, and a hotel was out of the question. We wound up renting a karaoke booth for four hours, two of which was spent trying to block out the Japanese girl shrieking into the microphone next door.

We headed back to the train station at 6 AM, and went our separate ways. I caught the slow train back to Anjo, debating whether to go straight home and go to bed or wait in the freezing cold outside a department store for three more hours to get a Nintendo Wii. I choose the one that gave me the chance to get a video game console. I was also still semi-drunk and not quite lucid at the time I made the decision.

Well, I was the first person in line by more than one hour. The next person came around 8:00, a mother who was trying to get a Wii for her video game addicted kids. I normally don't strike up conversations with strangers (especially those who can't speak English), but I gave it a go. Despite the language barrier, we managed to get quite a lot across. Mostly about how cold it was.

At 9:30 there was only half an hour to go before the store opened. There were 13 Wiis to be had, and already 50 people behind me. That's when a little Japanese man came out of the store with a speaker phone and started giving a speech for what seems like 10 minutes. At the end of it, he turned the speaker off and asked me in English whether I understood. I said that I hadn't, so he took a moment to find the right words.

They were "random selection."

I had spent three hours that could have been better spent in bed in order to get a raffle ticket. When the store opened at 10 o'clock, there were 300 people in line behind me. So I entered my raffle ticket for the chance to buy a Nintendo Wii and went home. The draw was to be held at 12, but I decided that rather than staying around I should go home and get a shower. The odds were completely against me, as most people had come with family and friends to get the maximum amount of raffle tickets

I got back to the store around 12:10 and watched as a number of disheartened people left the store. Figuring I needed to by some silverware for my Christmas day party anyway, I headed inside and up to the third floor, only to be greated by my new Japanese friend who was congratulating me. Of the 300 plus people, I was one of the lucky 13.

I will say this though- when I went up to the counter, gave them my ticket and said "Wii kudasai," people around me actually stood back in awe

-Blake

Shogun Seph's New English Words for Everyday life!: Hostessed (verb) To be cheated out of a lot money.