14. Rainbow Road Is a Killer
“I was visiting Kyoto a couple of years ago (I’m an American) and my wife and I walked into a tiny bar that had five people in suits laughing and talking in Japanese. We instantly knew that this was not a tourist bar and felt pretty out of place. The bartender spoke the most English so I asked him what his favorite Shochu was, and things got a little more comfortable as we drank and the whole bar tried to talk to us.
Someone mentioned Mario Kart and I said ‘yeah yeah,’ so the bartender points to an old Super Famicom in the corner and apparently I have accepted the challenge.
I smiled to myself and my wife thinks it’s funny because I used to have some skill at this game.
Bartender selects battle mode and…the guy is phenomenal. I haven’t played in a few years and he buries me in less than a minute. The whole bar is laughing and I’m a little stunned. We’re on to the second of three rounds.
I destroy him. 3 balloons to 0. Everyone cheers except the bartender. Two shots were put in front of me and I throw one down.
Round 3. We’re down to one balloon each and I swear it’s the longest battle round of all time. I’m sweating. Shell, dodge, shell, dodge. I have him in my sights and I fire.
I miss, the shell bounces off the wall and I self-KO. The crowd goes wild.
So that’s the story of how a self-proclaimed Mario Kart expert embarrassed himself and his country in a small bar in Kyoto. We drank a lot and made a lot of great friends that night that we’ll never see again.”
