Japas 38, on 38^th and Madison is an all you can eat, all you can drink Karaoke bar. For just $35 per person you and your closest friends can sing, drink, eat and dance for 2-3 hours. While this sounds like a great deal, I highly suggest you stay away, not because it’s not fun but rather because it’s too much fun.

For some reason despite being able to afford my rent, groceries and my own metro card I cannot control myself when it comes to an open bar + food. Whenever the opportunity presents itself I will eat and drink like I’m about to cross the Sahara Desert. My friend recently turned 25 and decided she wanted to hit up Japas for her birthday. We had a lot of college friends coming from out of town and thought this would be the best way to save money and have a guaranteed fun night out.

Japas is a great meeting spot for large parties of people; they have private rooms, appetizer platters, beer, wine, sake and are even kind of enough to provide jugs of water for the drunk patrons. Party packages start at $35 per person for 2 hours and extensions can be added for an additional $15-$25 depending on how much longer you’d like to stay.

Our party package began at 7 and by 7:05 we were balls deep in sake bombs, sushi and French fries. We started off the evening with a sultry rendition of Birthday Sex to break the ice and celebrate the occasion. After several rounds of sake bombs a few California rolls, some spring rolls and white wine to keep it classy we were belting out Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, Eminem and Vanessa Carlton.

The thing about this place is that while it’s a great deal and a lot of fun, singing karaoke while drinking is kind of like playing a soccer game and hydrating yourself with mixed drinks, and instead of eating power bars to refuel your body you have sushi and French fries. It’s not cute. Beer + wine + chicken fingers and a hot room = a drunk group of people with no hope.

Logically we decided that we needed to continue drinking at a bar across the street and another one down the street and one more just for good measure, because a 3-hour open bar wasn’t enough for us.

I ended up on the ground after my friends decided to carry me out the bar on his back, I later regained my composure and tried to re enter the bar when the bartender kindly told me “I don’t think it’s a good idea if you come back in” – truer words have never been spoken and that’s when we knew the night was over.