Sports Day and The Enkai

Last Sunday, I worked for my seventh day in a row for the school's Sports Day. The work wasn't too bad at all really. I pretty much just had to be there and walk around while the students ran laps ad nauseum. During one of many smoke breaks, I met one of the parents and chatted it up for while. Most of the time though, I was just looking forward to the work party that night, which in Japanese is "Enkai."

I knew we were going to an Izakaiya which I was looking forward to since I really dig the dimly lit atmosphere and awesome food. However, we went to a Chinese Izakaiya apparently that was lit quite brightly and the food was not so awesome. The nomihodai, or all-you-can-drink was quite fun though. The cost, 5,000 Yen, or about $50 was quite off putting at first since I wasn't paid for about 2 months after arriving. Because of that, I missed a lot of the other Enkais and this was my first one. Here's me eating jellyfish for the first time at the Enkai.

I also drank Sake for the first time that night too which was pretty good. It's quite different from the hard liquor I've had before in that you sip it instead of shooting it all at once. Apparently in Japan, it's also customary to pour beer for your co-workers. The glasses are also very small so that you have an opportunity to talk to people you normally don't talk to at work when you refill their glass. This custom was very cool at first, but later when you want another beer and nobody is really refilling anymore it's a little difficult.

Later I had to give a speech in Japanese which was a little difficult all things considered. I manged to get by with only couple sentences, pretty much saying "I really like this school. The teachers and students are very good people. Everyday is fun. I'm done." I think it went pretty well.

From there, myself along with about 6 other teachers who were still down to party went to do Karaoke for awhile in what must have been the coolest looking place ever. The atmosphere was pretty extravagant and tropical with dark wood and palm trees everywhere. I sang "I Did It My Way" with the Japanese language teacher and then "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer with another English teacher who had lived in America for awhile.

We sang for quite some time and then everybody ran to catch the last train. Although a little expensive, the whole night was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I went. Thats all for now.

Brad

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