Every third Wednesday of the month, the Bull’s Head Pub on Sukhumvit 31/1 hosts a trivia night.  Tucked away behind the Villa Market, next to a Japanese bakery, the Bull’s Head is one of a half-dozen pubs in the mid-Sukhumvit area designed to cater to the expat Brits and Aussies who live in our fair city.

Stuart had previously invited me to attend the trivia night and this time the stars aligned and my schedule opened.  I discovered a scene much different from the smokey, crowded contestants-put-on-the-spot-by-a-witty-host scene that I had imagined.  This is in part due to recent legislation that bans smoking inside pubs and restaurants and also in part to the fact that Wednesdays are a slow night at the pub and they are trying to encourage, not discourage, potential customers.

Participants operate in teams of their own making, composed of as few or as many members as they choose.  Stuart plays with two other people, a British man named Richard and a Thai one named Jay.  Each team sits at their own table and food (and of course, drink) can be consumed as the match occurs.  When ordering, the waitress asked my name, which I thought was quite unusual and forward of her until Stuart explained that they did that so as to keep separate bills.

The match is composed of five rounds of ten questions each.  The host announces the topic categories for each round prior to the match and each team can select a “joker” round, for which they will earn double points for correct answers.  Last night we chose “Current Events 2007” as our joker round.  Other topics were “Music”, “Sports”, “General Interest” and “Sci-Fi Shows”.  As the host reads the questions, the team writes answers on a sheet of paper.  Afterwards, teams exchange papers and score the answers.

Questions favor British and UK references and on several political and sporting questions we would have been at a loss without Richard.  The music questions (in which snippets of each song were played with one point given for correct artist and another for correct title) were all about very contemporary artists so Jay’s knowledge of music was helpful.  The sci-fi show questions were actually a sheet of thumbnail pictures of different shows’ casts and we had to identify the shows.  Stuart and I were able to help with that although I was very disappointed that “Doctor Who” was not a correct answer.

We concluded the first round with a massive lead over the other six teams as it was our joker round.  After the second round we had a narrow lead.  By the third we were a bit behind and by the fifth we were in third place with the leaders (who apparently win every time) a good 20 points ahead, out of 120 possible points.  The winning team received a bottle of vodka.  Members of the second and third place teams received a warm bottle of Heineken each.  Lower-placed teams received a variety of useless crap.

Still, it was good fun.  We need to expand our team by at least one person to incorporate some additional general knowledge expertise.  If you have such qualifications and will be around the Big Mango on the third Wednesday of the month, please let me know.

In other important news, the Japanese Tourism Authority has announced that Hello Kitty has been signed on as an official ambassador for the Yokoso Japan! (Visit Japan!) campaign.  The cartoon feline, created by Japanese company Sanrio, is one of the world’s most recognizable characters and will be used to target potential tourists from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, where she is especially popular.

Kitty’s online profile indicates that she lives most of the time in London, so one wonders if she is planning on relocating back to Japan for the duration of her assignment as animated ambassador. 

Left: Kitty in kimono accepts this prestigious assignment.  As usual, Kitty was speechless as she apparently has no mouth.