Are You Ready For GAME SHOW?

It wasn't quite like this, but it could have been.
When I was first dating my husband, I liked how he would drop everything at a moment’s notice to see me. I used to test him, coming up with really weird places to go, just to see if he’d be game. I found this sushi place in San Diego, a not-so-nice part of town, that announced on its strip mall sign, “TUESDAY NIGHT GAME SHOW.”
This, I had to see.
The owner was a tall swarthy looking Jap, in make-up with a booming voice and a penchant for the Japanese Game Show- which if you have ever seen any of them- are incredibly bizarre.
( see the ass one here)

We were seated in tall booths overlooking a wide floor dotted with tables. The place was full, including a long sushi bar manned by the first female sushi chef I had ever seen. We ordered sake and were quite ready when our host stepped onto the floor, swiveled around an AV cart holding a large TV and VCR and announced, “Are you ready for GAME SHOOO-OOOW?” like someone had scored a goal in Mexico.
We ate our sushi, drank our sake and played the show with the other couples. Our job was to guess- before the real Japanese contestants on the TV game show- what was being manufactured in the video clips he was showing us. The host/MC would show part of the game, then pause the action. He was a pro with the remote control buttons.

We visited a chalk factory, a cigarette rolling area of Marlboro and someplace else equally long and cylindrical. We won.

But we were tied with another couple and we had to send someone up to break the tie by drawing a playing card from a stack of oversized cards.
High card wins- announced with a dramatic pause and whisper from our host.

I may not seem shy to most people, but I get stage fright- bad- in front of strangers-
so I sent my husband, who managed to draw a King and win us dinner.

That’s only one reason I married him.