A "Märchen" evening

I would have had no idea what "Märchen" was had it not been for the Japanese langauge's use of the word (pronounced "meruhen" in katagana). Funny what Western and foreign words Japan picks at to decide to use.

For those of you unaware of the meaning in either language, it means "fairytale". Yes, I had a very Cinderella-esque evening out in Sapporo last Friday. I met up with my mate who I learnt has a fancy for all things cute, sweet (both in terms of taste and metaphorically), and well, rather feminine, perhaps. He's male. And straight. But he's also Japanese. That could explain a lot.

The first place he took me to was this amazing bar which sold soft serve ice-cream and had over a hundred different liqueurs. You could choose up to 3 each, depending on what "set" you ordered on the menu, so we had a delicious selection of 7 liqueurs between us as they gave us an extra one free (hurrah amazing Japanese customer service). The liqueurs were brought to us in adorable tiny plastic wine cups with tiny little spoons, and you poured the liqueur over your spoonfuls of ice-cream. Then, for dessert, they brought coffee and hand-made just baked tiny cookies. Could a girl ask for more?! It was wonderful. And the shop itself was adorable with all it's décor. Most definitely will go there again. Either with my girl friends or other misleadingly gay-but-not-really guy friends.

It didn't stop there. He had actually seen a bar which he'd like to go to on TV and wished for me to join him, as he felt that he couldn't go there alone. I realised this was most probably true, not so much when we stepped into the bar, but when we were given the 'Alice in Wonderland' themed menus. All the drinks and desserts giggled and sang songs of candy cane and fluffy clouds. It was my kind of place. We shared a donut, with a lot of cream and a biscuit which greeted us with big eyes and rosy cheeks, and drinks that tasted like rainbows. But all at 1am in a bar, noting that the drinks were actually alcoholic beverages. Another new favourite to add to my list of places in Sapporo.

Friday night was more of a "light refreshment" in terms of drinking, with more sugar highs than Hansel and Gretel could ever imagine, as it was Saturday night where the real liver-poisoning began. Originally, it was supposed to be a snow filled fun day of making an igloo (not my idea), though by the time my mate Je drove us up to N's place, they'd packed it all in, leaving the remains of what looked like the base of an igloo and were inside eating hot dogs. Luckily for us, the only efforts we had to put in was to drag ourselves to the hot, relaxing onsen, a restaurant for dinner and then getting plastered in a tiny snack bar. The night ended with other drunken arms reaching out to pull me up onto my feet in my paralytic state (result of bruises up my arms the next day), and putting me to bed as I sang repetitions of "There were 10 in the bed" with another giggly N beside me, with Je giving me spooning love cuddles. Headache persisted the next morning. Worth it, as per usual.

Yesterday was the dreaded "V" day, where singles back home would cringe at the consumer markets for reminding them of it. It is much worse here in Japan, though the situation is slightly different in that only the single men cringe. If they are not given a gift or chocolate from a girl, they are somewhat considered a loser. Then there's the whole "friend chocolate" saga to get more sales up. I could relate it a little to a Western Christmas, but with less thought and variety to the gifts.
In my case, I had to chip in to get chocolate for my boss as my "duty" of being a female co-worker (not that I minded too much, seeing as I like my boss, but the ideal annoys me a little). Other than that, I decided to celebrate this day of "love" but taking the opportunity to send out personalised messages to my close friends by praising them, telling them what I admire about them and showing the love, really. Wonderful thing was, I was given the love back by the return of grateful messages.
Might've actually been the best Valentine's Day I've had in my life.

Oh, and seeing as I've ended every last entry on this note; result of a sexy slim body? Zilch.