Koto Chugakko Enkai

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Friday night was the Koto chugakko enkai (drinking party). Fujita sensei was supposed to meet me at Mr. Donut to take me to the place where we were having the enkai. He ended up being late, but at least he texted me to tell me he was on his way. This is something I don’t understand about the Japanese. We were warned about how they like to be on time, yet I have definitely encountered many times when people have been late. I am getting used to showing up to places early, mostly because I don’t have anything else to do. Another thing was that Fujita sensei originally told me it was casual dress, but when I saw him he was wearing a tie! Thank goodness I didn't believe him. I dressed as if I was going to work so at least that worked out.

Anyway, we head to Takumi which was a Japanese style restaurant. Sasaki sensei was the only one who was there already. Again, so much for people being on time! I thought all the teachers would be there, but it turned out that only 8 people total would be going. Once everyone got there, I noticed it was only the group of people who sit at the same area where my desk is at Koto. We were welcoming back another woman who was just getting back from maternity leave and also welcoming me as well. I was prepared to do a little speech so I just introduced myself and said I was looking forward to meeting and working with everyone. I sat next to Sasaki sensei who is the chief of our group. He speaks really really good English, he is also an English teacher, but sometimes I can’t understand what he says because he is very soft spoken. He’s in his 40s and loves talking, he basically interviewed me throughout dinner and really just wanted to find out more about me.

It was a pretty chill evening actually. The food was good, though in very small portions. There were a few kinds of fish: sashimi, hata hata, and one more that I forgot. I also tried snails. Dessert was delicious; I had kind of a raspberry tart thing. Of course there was beer, it is customary to do the kampai (cheers) before starting so almost everyone had a drink. A lot of the women were rocking the green tea though.

It was fun to talk to the teachers. The softball coach was sitting next to me and it was cute how he tried to talk to me in English. I think he got pretty drunk though because after awhile he just didn’t make sense. Another teacher, Murakami sensei, mentioned that she knew some Spanish and I got excited because we could communicate a little after that! We both spent some time in Spain. She went to Madrid and of course I’ve been to Barcelona. She mentioned that she like Juanes and Ricky Martin and I asked her if she danced salsa or merengue and she said she wasn’t into dancing.

The enkai ended pretty early, around 8:30-9pm. I ended up meeting other ALTs at the restaurant Shanghai afterwards and then we went to Bistro Iori where we got to see Tomokun (bartender) do more tricks! He is my favorite, so fun to watch!

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Comments

[deleted_22762]

lol, maybe the casual dress code is different in Japan XD Oh and may be japanese are on time for events other then drinking parties :D And eewwe for snails!! ..were they good? ^_^ u are so brave!!!