Rampage of Randomness

Back in Hiroshima City it was time for some dinner, but while this proposal seemed simple enough on the surface, we ran into language problems every time we picked a restaurant and walked in. After being turned away time and time again for over an hour, we unanimously decided that the next place we entered would be where we ate whether they liked us or not. Turned out they liked us and had beer on tap, so faced with the non-english menu I used my Japanese phrase book to ask "what do you suggest?". He pointed straight at the most expensive dishes available, so we decided to take a different tack and go a little crazy instead. That's right, we declared the night would be a "Random Rampage" - all decisions would be determined through an uncomplicated system of pure randomness. First step was to all take turns pointing at one random dish from the menu. We repeated this until we'd had enough to eat, and did actually encounter a few strange dishes that we're never likely to identify. We also encountered plenty of beers, which naturally were to be excluded from the randomness due to their importance.

Karaoke action

We were enjoying ourselves a little too much, but stayed conscious of the time with the 11pm hostel curfew looming over us. Just one more beer. Still time for just one more. This will be the last for sure. That one went pretty quick didn't it? Oh shit, we have to leave now if we want to make the bus! Hmmm, we could do that, OR, we could just make a night of it and go back to the hostel at 6am when it reopens...

Ridiculously hot bargirl

The "borrowed" umbrellas were holding us back so we left them in the restaurant. Soon we were hitting the streets with a grin and a mission, out into the boozy unknown of Hiroshima nightlife. Tom lead the charge down an alleyway, trying random doors along the way to uncover what lay behind them. Locked, locked, empty... bingo! Some sort of party going on so we all piled in and looked for a bar. The music stopped, heads turned - we'd crashed a birthday party and weren't exactly inconspicuous-looking. Laughing it off as we retreated, we weren't to be perturbed as the night was young and we literally had nowhere to go.

Many of the bars are arranged in apartment style - several floors in a building, each containing a cosy bar or worse. Joe was up next, so he picked a building based on the radiant signs running up the side of it, found the elevator, then hit a random floor button to the sounds of squeals of excitement. He opened one door, but we were turned away by a pretty girl who was offering "hospitality" to a few businessmen obscured behind her. We went down a floor, opened one of the doors and struck gold. Karaoke. The bar was tiny, tended by an older woman who knew all the regulars before her. There were only about 8 seats in there, but enough spare for us to climb up and have a drink once the regulars shuffled around. They were a quiet lot. WERE. Tom and Joe started flexing their financial muscle (bloody english pounds) in the form of free-flowing whiskies and beers for the locals, then we finally broke through the language barriers using the wonders of Karaoke. You see, we had a gimmick. Tom stealthily plugged in his song request and reached for his ID. The music started as he smugly passed his ID over to one of the punters. A lot of ooohing and aaahing later we had made the breakthrough and insane international duets were just around the corner. The name's Tom, Tom Jones.

This much fun should be illegal

After our fill of Karaoke it was time to move on. I followed the standard random technique and guided us to a place called the Buddha Bar. Strange.. just like the one in Subi back home it was a slightly wanky setup with overpriced drinks. Not to worry, because the gorgeous bar chick, Suki, ensured we would not be heading off any time soon. And we didn't. In fact, other punters came and went but we remained steadfast - buying drinks for anyone who looked like they needed one (or not), and generally just losing track of the time.