So, if I haven’t mentioned it before, the
reason I am currently in Japan is for a required internship for my school
program. And don’t get me wrong, this is what I was looking forward to the most
for school. Who wouldn’t want to go to Japan? Even if it was for work, I didn’t
care. I was going to Japan!
So before leaving, one of my friends who
had gone to the same company that I was going to, told me a little bit of what
to expect. One thing that he mentioned to me was the welcome party that would
be held for me and one other fellow intern a couple things in. For most people
this would sound amazing! But for me, it wasn’t that simple.
I was excited and nervous all at the same
time. Being excited made sense, but nervous? You may think that I was just shy,
but that would wrong. The reason was, I knew I would be expected to drink…
booze. And in Canada, I never drink. I mean, it’s not liked I’ve NEVER drank
any alcohol EVER, but I don’t normally do it willingly. I think the extent of
my drinking before that was the odd wedding, or the few peer pressured times
with friends. My lack of interest in alcohol is due to the way I’ve reacted to
it in the past; instant migraine. Migraines suck.
That said, going to a place where drinking is
the social norm worried me. Teachers and students assured me that I would not
be forced to drink at the party, but I knew it would be rude not to. I knew I
had to drink, I was not a girl (it is more acceptable not to drink if you are a
woman, or so I’m told), so I was expected to be able to drink.
So the day of the party came a week and a
half in. The location was the Sapporo beer garden. By that time I felt a little
more at ease about the whole think, but I was not looking forward to drinking
at all. But of course, it was unavoidable. As soon as I sat down, a large glass
of beer was placed in front of me. I hate beer. As soon as the welcome speech was
over, everyone cheered, drank, and started eating.
The party was all you could eat and drink,
and the food was genghis khan (kind of like yakiniku with lamb). I think I
would have had a better time if I actually ATE anything. I was told to eat and
then visit all the tables to drink with them, but I kind of missed the eating
part. Every time I would see a piece of almost cooked meat, I would move it
closer to me so I could grab it when it was done. But someone would snipe it
when I was in the middle of a conversation. EVERY TIME. I think I had 4 pieces
of meat.
Anyway, someone at my table noticed that I
didn’t seem to like my beer, so he asked what kind of drinks I enjoyed. “Sweet
drinks,” I replied in terrible Japanese. So he called someone over and ordered
something sweet. What came was a dark pink drink, and they called it something
that sounded like “Cassie’s orange”. It looked super girly, but that never
stopped me from enjoying a Shirley Temple, so I took a sip. I actually liked
it! It was really good at washing the taste of beer out of my mouth for sure.
So, with pink drink in hand, I went to go mingle with the rest of the people.
That was the easy part. I went from table
to table, introducing myself, talking about whatever. There was one table I
really enjoyed, that talked about things that were NSFW. But all in all I was
having a good time. So good in fact that I was already on the fifth glass of
that pink concoction.
By that time, I had returned to the “fun”
table, and was ready for a good time. Unfortunately for me, my stomach did not
agree with me. I had never been drunk before, but I’m sure that at that time, I
was. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was past that. Shortly after sitting down, I
began to feel queasy. I was up almost as fast as I had sat down; destination,
bathroom.
I was okay for about five minutes, and then…
Well, you can probably guess the rest. At least I didn’t waste any meat. I
staggered out of the bathroom, and everyone asked if I was okay. A girl was
kind enough to get me regular orange juice, but that little incident kind of
put a damper on the rest of the night. That was until… KARAOKE!!! Awwwww
yeaaaaaah!!!
So what have I learned? I learned a couple
of things. I learned my limit, I learned what it is to be drunk, and I’ve
learned not to drink that much again. Unless of course puking rainbows is my
desired result.
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