Nomihodai 飲み放題

Nomi-hodai. Key word for the weekend. Nomi-hodai is the “all you can drink” option offered at many Japanese establishments. We did it two nights in a row and paid for it dearly after day one.

Friday: Went to lame ass Japanese Law class and then headed over to our new favorite restaurant, some Korean BBQ spot. Can’t tell you the name of it because it’s in Japanese, which I cannot read, duh. Anyway, it was our second night in a row going there and the waitress who served us was totally surprised that we came back so soon. We had to though. We’ve been craving some really spicy, seasoned food. I’ve got to be honest with you, Japanese food isn’t that good. There are but so many noodles and so much rice you can eat, ya know. The meats are all boiled and soupy. Not very good. You can hardly find vegetables to eat in anything! So finding the Korean spot was great because they have the meat you can grill at the table and very spicy, flavorful stews and soups. Anywho… since we went back the second day, the waitress brought us out some complimentary kimchi style pickles and then finished off our meal with green tea and chocolate ice cream! We’re so going back. Wonder what she’ll give us next time?

After the restaurant, we made a pit stop at home then headed out to Ebisu where we met folks from school for an all you can drink deal at a place called Zest. We walked in and the restaurant was HUGE. It was kind of like bizarro world though cuz there we were, a bunch of Americans in Tokyo, at a giant Mexican restaurant. FYI, we’re totally going back to Zest for dinner because I’ve been craving Mexican like you wouldn’t believe. Realizing that we only had two hours to cash in on our nomi-hodai special, we set to work ordering whisky, scotch, tequila, pitchers of beer and margaritas. Let me be clear, okay… these servers at Zest did not play. When we ordered shots of tequila, they just brought over like 10 glasses and two ice cold bottles of tequila and left them on the table. NO WAY would they do that in the States. Just leave the entire bottle of liquor on the table for you? In a restaurant? That’s against most liquor laws because there’s no way to regulate how much folks are drinking, ya know?

About an hour into it, we were a spectacle in that restaurant. We were treating it like a bar or a club, dancing, standing up, walking around our long table (about 20-25 people). Think about eating at Ruby Tuesdays and seeing a bunch of foreign people dancing around like fools. That was us. It was a good time though. Well… We did get totally wasted but not before I literally carried a girl out of the bathroom and put her in a cab. Carried her out like a baby in my arms. People were like, damn, that chick is type strong, LOL. Another friend puked in a cab so now I’m sure that JPN cabbie will never pick up an American or a Black man again. Way to move the movement, B.

After leaving Zest, we headed to Shibuya with the thought to go Karaoke-ing but ended up gorging on Whoppers at the Burger King (which were freaking awesome, BTW). The next morning, the three of us had pounding headaches. I swear, I haven’t been hungover like that in a very long time and I’m going to try to avoid that for the rest of my trip. Try. Then again, we did it all over again on Saturday.

Saturday: Slept all day just to make it through the pounding headache. I felt like I wanted to pour water directly on my brain after realizing that I hadn’t had a single sip of water in the midst of all that tequila boozing. :(  Me and the team just chilled around the apartment doing laundry and such until about 7pm when we headed out to catch this Japan cultural presentation bullshit put on by the TUJ undergrads. They were featuring a sake tasting which consisted of a boring lecture by some dude who goes by “The Sake Guy” . I guess we were expecting something more like a wine tasting where you’ll taste the wine and then discuss the actual thing you’ve just tasted. Instead, we listened to homeboy get hype over rice wine and then drank about 5 different types of sake. I now know for sure that I hate sake.

After a couple of lame music performances and a crazy fashion show, we grabbed an Italian dinner (Mmm, shrimp risotto) and then bizzounced to Shibuya to hang out with my new buddy KJ. Since word got around that we were going to another all you can drink spot, about 2/3 of the law program ended up tagging along to the club with us. It was cool though. The night ended with us looking all kinds of sweaty and pleasantly drunk (not super wasted like the night before). Before heading home, the team stopped at a gyro-type place for spicy beef wraps. There really is no joy like late night drunk eating, is there?

Sometimes I think we should have more all you can drink specials in the States. Then I come to my senses and realize that you can’t just give folks entire bottles of tequila. You can’t just bring them as much as they can stomach (or not stomach) for two hours straight. Why? Because we don’t understand moderation. We want more for our money. We try to drink as much as we can, while checking the clock to make sure we get sauced before time runs out. And if you’re like some law students, you might end up needing a near stranger to carry you out to a cab and rummage through your pockets to find an address!

KOMPAI!!!!!!!! (cheers)