Daniel's Birthday

Oh my gosh! That is all I can say about Daniel's birthday party. Where do I begin this sordid tale of debauchery? Well...

Let's start with the dress code. Yes, Daniel had imposed a dress code for the night of festivities. It called for funny hats and or a cape. I repeat funny hats and or a cape. C-A-P-E. Someone suggested he just wanted to get more use out of his cheap halloween costume. He never denied it and he seemed pleased to be wearing his cape around Osaka, so you draw your own conclusions.

I had not the time to get a cape nor the ambition, so I opted for a funny hat. I went to the 100yen shop near work and, luckily for me, there was a selection of bonnets available. I know, who would have thought that bonnets were coming back? I guess the 100yen shop isn't the best indicator of high fashion, but I bought it anyway as it was cheap. This chain of 100yen shops is good but they break the golden rule of 100yen shops: everything must be 100yen or 105 yen after Japanese taxes. The bonnet was 210yen. My pocketbook was devastated.

Some of the revellers followed the instructions with more gusto than others; we had a pirate and a black cat. We joked that maybe some of the Japanese salarymen, who rarely left the office except for this night, may have thought they missed a month out of their lives and Halloween was upon them. Imagine if we had helped just one of those lost and overworked souls break out of their spell; the possibilities are endless! Some participants lost the memo but remembered the theme. Matt donned some sunglasses or goggles(?) and a fake kilt. Yeah, not even a real one. Well at least he was in costume.

But this was not the start of the story people. It actually started while I was busy at work. A group of people had made their way to Outback Steakhouse in Umeda. It seems like they had a great feast from the pictures. The wife got some steak while I worked hard. It hardly seems fair now does it? The world is shameful. You can see that Daniel is getting good use out of his cape and hat. There 'twas a pirate aboard as well, har!

I had missed out on steak so I wasn't going to miss out on the next event. Why? Well, who would skip out on Costume Karaoke?! They would be madmen, yes they would. This place wasn't like the one near where we live. This was all out and extravagant! They had more than a few different costumes. In our group we had a king, a maid, another maid, a schoolgirl, a tanooki which could have a been a dog or a monkey, superman and a student from house Gryffindor. I had to hide my wand to my dismay.

While the girls were getting changed I guess they made friends with some J-girls so a few minutes after we started the all night mixer package a bunch of Japanese people invaded our room. It was actually really awesome and we got a round of pictures with them. If you wanted to know, the mixer in the all night mixer package refers to the free softdrinks that we used to accompany the alcohol in our bags. A little after they left we in turn invaded their room. They wanted us to sing so Jamie did a rendition of Ayumi Hamasaki's Carols for them and they loved it. It's all fun and games until you lose an eye. Luckily no-one did, though it was a close call because of the Tanooki's sack 'o fun. You can see the glee in his face as he danced for us all. Yes, it's truly a sight to behold, in all of it's full motion video wonder:

So where can you take part in this gloriously delicious fun? Take the Midosuji Subway to Umeda, then find Whity Town Mall. Go to exit M5 in the East Mall of Whity Town, and go up the stairs. At the top make a U-turn to the left, look up and to the right and you should see 8F Karaoke(8F カラオケ) . The elevators are by the entrance to the Misty strip club.

The fun didn't stop there! The place is quite popular so they don't allow you to extend your time. After an hour we had to go. It was okay as some people had to work the next day and we needed to catch the last train to our next venue. As we headed back through the busy mall I decided to get some group action shots. I would choose a random time to turn around and instruct everyone to strike a pose. It worked out quit well and we drew some stares and even some snickers of approval. We managed to amaze this one Japanese girl who asked to have her picture taken with us. So we did. It was cute and we made it to the subway on time.

The hijinx continued on the Subway. Did you think it'd stop? There wasn't enough space so Jamie sat on my lap. The guy next to us moved over a bit but there wasn't enough space anyway. We had to pose for the camera, of course.

Jamie managed to get a few shots without the flash. Daniel looks so mysterious with the white light behind him. Mwah hah hah ha ha!

The plan was to revel all over downtown Osaka, but we ended up in Bar Kasuga for some cheap drinks and free karaoke. Bar Kasuga is the new place our friend Kouji, also known as Haku, is working. It's a neat little bar that's been around for a long time. Masato is the owner and his grandmother opened the bar originally. He runs it now on the weekends as he does have a day job, while his dad is running it on week nights. On the weekends it offers 500 yen drinks and free karaoke. On the week nights it is a private members only bar.

This is where we met up with Matt, who didn't have his costume on! We chastised him until he put on his kilt. He wore shorts underneath. I found out later that it was a towel that looked like a kilt. Daniel had invited some people at work and the usual crew came out to hang, sing, drink and well... be merry. As you can see the bonnet made it's way around the bar and Daniel had a good time.

We never made it to the next bar as the sun came up but I think the birthday was a hit. We know the funny hats and cape were well received. The End

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