Alcatraz +ER & Scottish Highland Games

Perhaps the most interesting bit of the evening was the Otaku drink (an otaku is a geek).

What a complete letdown Alcatraz +ER ended up being. I was anticipating being handcuffed to one of my compadres and having craziness ensue. Handcuffs were involved very briefly at the beginning when one of the guys had his wrists cuffed together, but they didn’t stay on him long. We were led into a small room with uncomfortable metal chairs and a too-small table. The drinks weren’t fancy and the food was mediocre (I think the cashew chicken was supposed to look like vomit, but it was too dark to tell). The whole time we were there I felt like we were waiting for the show to begin, but there was no show to be seen. Sure, there were waiters running around in junior high school girls uniforms and one of the waitresses looked like a cross between Miffy (who is a rabbit) and a French maid, but it just came off as lame. The place had potential: the décor was prison-like, parties were sitting in cell-like rooms, the place was darkish, and the costumes were interesting. But the staff just wasn’t into putting on a show for us. It was like it was just another food server job. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as expensive as I had been expecting and we had a decent time anyway.

This guy has been attending the games for a few years.

On the other hand, the Scottish Highland Games were much more fun. All of the usual components were there: bagpipes, caber tossing, hammer throwing, kids’ games, tug-o-war, dancing, and the like. I ate lamb stew with huge pieces of tender lamb and potatoes and real brown bread. It is impossible to find decent brown bread. I was so thrilled to finally have some! Unfortunately, the bread was imported special for the event, so there’s no chance of me buying it any time soon. I also had a mere taste of haggis. Even though I only dared a small bite, it took a few sips of beer, a slice of shortbread, and two pieces of gum to get rid of that taste of offal. Blech. I shudder just thinking about it. The best part, though, was the country dancing. One of my colleagues is Scottish and she gave a brief demonstration of what we were to do. The Japanese dancers were so measured, so well-choreographed, whereas the rest of us laughed our way loudly through the dance cycles. It was fun, but because the Japanese were so quiet and serious about the whole thing I felt really out of place.

And at the end of it all, one of the Japanese bagpipe bands played Auld Lang Syne.