Ichi Ni San!

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, the sushi bar at Formosa is transformed. As the raw fish and the fresh vegetables are cleared from underneath the glass windows, crowds of people begin to gather around the bar. Across the restaurant at the main bar, the bartender fills pitchers with Kirin beer. The bottles of sake have already been prepared. The anticipation is mounting. When the sushi chefs have cleared all the fresh fish from the bar and cleaned the now barren countertops, the bartenders bring the pitchers of beer and the warm sake to the sake bar. The crowd of people cheers. It's 10:30 p.m. $2 sake bombs.

The first rounds go slowly. The bartender fills the small glasses with beer and pours out each shot of sake separately, placing the shots on the rims of each of the glasses which are lined up on the bar. The bartender instructs the anxious drinkers, "1, 2, 3, ichi, ni san." The crowd of sake bomb enthusiasts screams "ichi, ni, san" and the bartender knocks each shot into the small glasses of beer. Each drinker grabs his or her respective glass and slams the drink to their mouth, chugging the liquid down as quick as he or she can. High-fives are exchanged between the men and women, and the bartender moves on to the next group of eager drinkers.

After the first rounds are consumed, the crowd grows ever drunk, with a combination of enthusiasm and alcohol. The bartender becomes less about the show and more about the sake. The shot glasses are thrown aside and the sake is shot directly into the small glasses of beer. "Ichi, ni, san." Another group of sake bombs is downed. 10, 15, 20 sake bombs at a time. The crowd grows larger and the bartender is filling glass after glass with beer, than sake, beer, than sake. The young men and women are now drunk and another night in Iowa City flows on.