...there was too much beer

You know what I really love about Japan? Their all-you-can-eat/all-you-can-drink restaurants/bars. A lot of places have these offers: you pay a set price and for a certain amount of time there's no limit to how much food/drink you can consume. It's basically like a buffet with a set price. But also with drinks. It works in Japan because people don't drink as much as Europeans. Let's face it, most European countries are known for consuming a copious amount of some kind of alcohol. Germans and others of the sort have beer, France, Spain, Italy and so on have wine, Northern Europe has hard liquor and Eastern countries have vodka and anything else that helps them forget their misery. UK has it all and more, Iceland probably has some horrible death-juice made of lava and dragon-sweat (I have not seen or heard about it but I'm sure they have something like that) and the Dutch have weed so they don't need to drink. But I'm getting sidetracked here. The point is: all-you-can-drink wouldn't work in Europe because people would drink the place out of business in no time.

Anyway, the reason I started talking about it is that Japan also loves its beer gardens. Most of them are only open in Summer – they're outdoors so the weather has to be good for the whole thing to work. The last time I was in Japan I didn't go to a beer garden. I'm not that fond of beer and they're pretty expensive. This time, however, we (meaning me and two of my friends) decided to go because... Well, because why not. We were on vacation, only there for a little over a week and it was something that was only available then and there. The beer garden we chose was on the rooftop of one of the highrise buildings in the city center. It seemed expensive at first but considering we had unlimited food and drinks from the time it opened (about 16.30) until closing time (22.00), 4000 yen (or about... eh, let's say 30-something euros) was a bargain. The only brand of beer they served was Kirin (original, lager and dark) but that worked out great for me because I happen to love Kirin. Sure, for 500 yen extra I could've had a selection of foreign beers but I can get Belgian and German beer in Estonia too so there really was no point.

That being said, I'm not much of a beer lover. In fact, the only time I drink beer is when I'm either in Japan or Hawaii. For some reason I tend to avoid it in Estonia. Not that I hate Estonian beer – I just prefer to drink wine here. But in Japan wine is either watered down or tastes like moldy grapes and in Hawaii it's just too damn hot for wine. Beer is so much more refreshing. So yeah, I'm not that into beer... Still, I wanted to experience a Japanese beer garden and I don't regret doing so. The food was great! Oh yeah, and so was the beer. So, when we first came in they handed each of us a mug and showed us to our table. We were in the open air, close to the edge of the roof and it was really the perfect spot. It was quiet enough and we had a good view. The edges of the roof were lined with decorative plants and there was even a tiny shrine in the corner. Because why not. Our mugs would be ours to keep for the rest of the night: if we wanted anything to drink, we just had to take them to the bar where a server would fill it with our drink of choice. We could also get cocktails and other drinks but I decided not to mix – that never ends up well.

Remember how I said I wasn't a beer lover? Well, I realized why that is. After downing my third mug I already felt like a balloon, ready to burst. I'd forgotten how full beer makes you. I can drink a bottle of wine no problem but beer... that's tricky, especially when I'm also eating something. Sure, I could have stopped eating and left more room for beer... Oh, who am I kidding! I could never stop eating (it's becoming a real problem, tbh)! So after my third mug I started to slow down, hoping that if I give my body time to adjust (and digest) I can fit some more beer in there. Didn't really work – I was getting more and more full with every sip and at some point I had the sneaking suspicion that another sip would literally make me explode into horrible bloody chunks.

Thank god for Mary, who decided to give me a helping hand by finishing my beer... and getting me (and herself) another... and another one after that... I'm pretty sure she consumed almost a keg's worth of beer that night... and she was still going strong when they called last order. I was getting a bit worried... but then again, it was only beer. You can't get that drunk from beer, right? Sure, she seemed a bit jolly but not wasted. Tipsy, not drunk. In the meantime we managed to make friends with a group of three elderly Japanese men in the next table. And by 'we' I mean Tytti because she is the only one of us completely fluent in Japanese and managed to have a long conversation with them. Apparently they were childhood friends who met up every once in a while like this and had been doing it for decades, even though they had moved far away from each other, had families and separate lives... That was the sweetest story I'd heard in a while and we decided to keep that as a friendship goal.

We stayed until closing time and headed to the subway to get back to our hotel. The subway ride was uneventful if you ignore the fact that the car smelled like booze. All the salarymen who had been partying with their bosses were heading home as well. We got to our stop with ease and headed out of the station when Mary (pretty sure it was her idea) decided that she wanted a pizzaman (pictured on the right) – basically a pizza bun filled with cheese, tomato sauce, meat and god-knows-what. It seemed like a pretty good idea so we headed to the nearest convenience store... which didn't have them. Okay, on to the next one then.... and the next one... and the next one... As we were walking along I started to notice that Mary was... a bit more jovial than she usually was. I was beginning to feel that she had truly gotten drunk off of beer. My suspicions were confirmed when we stepped out of another convenience store and she went: 'Where are we?' even though we had not strayed far from the main road. Huh... apparently beer can get you drunk. Who would've thought.

Did we find our pizzamans? Nope, not at all. They had been replaced with donuts, which is terribly disappointing. But I did manage to snap some cool pictures of Nagoya at night... and we made it back to our hotel in one piece. How bad was the next morning? For me, not that bad. I was still full and felt all bloated and disgusting but other than that I was fine. Mary... did not fare so well... but she was a trooper and after a few painkillers and some fresh air she was... not good but surviving. Did I mention it was the day she was supposed to leave Japan? Oh yeah, she had to endure an hour long train ride and then suffer on the plane. I'm still amazed that she managed to survive that. I hate flying on the best of days, but with a massive headache... Kudos to her. What I learned from this whole ordeal is that beer gardens are amazing (even though they're a bit pricy) and I can't get drunk from beer because there's just not enough room in my stomach. And that there is such a thing as 'too much beer'. The more you know...