True Lies

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: Nice to meet you
Japanese: Hajimemashite ( 初めまして or はじめまして)

Back at the beginning of my working I was adamant that I was going to stay on top of blogging as things came. Obviously that didn't happen, though in my defense a lot of stuff happened all at once and quite fast. It was like a typhoon of interesting, blog-worthy things which sapped my energy and time. I did diligently take notes about things I wanted to relay but now looking back 2 months later the note “stairway goblin” is a little confusing. Maybe I shouldn't have used shorthand.

So, in lieu of a more in depth summary of my chaotic first days at work you’re getting the sparknotes of anecdotes worth remembering.

Friday, August 29^th; Ikkokan JHS – “Swim, English teacher, swim!”

My first day of actual teaching involved 5 classes. There are 6 periods in the school day. 5 is the absolute max number of classes I teach in a day and I had to do that my first day. It was a little rough.

Fortunately for me, the first classes I went to were the 2^nd years (8^th grade) who are taught by the amazing Motonishi-sensei and Suigioka-sensei. I had met Motonishi briefly before school when tutoring some of her students for an upcoming test. Allen had told me that she had the best sense of humor of the group and over the last few months I've learned that to be true. She’s a slightly older woman who does things like play English hangman with the word “stupid” to tease her class. I like her. Sugioka-sensei, on the other hand, is a rather young teacher who is new at Ikkokan as of last year (or so I’m told). He’s still plenty nice but doesn't have quite Motonishi’s humor.

Each grade at Ikkokan has 3 classes so I went to each of the 2^nd year classes that Friday and gave my self-introduction, which consisted of a powerpoint, question and answer portion, short quiz, and small activity if any extra time remained. The powerpoint was basic stuff like where I’m from, my family, what I like to do, and also a completely pandering slide on video games I like. Becca had told me many students like video games and can relate better once they know the teacher does too. This didn't work quite so well in JHS. I got a few smiles and comments but not a particularly wild reception.

Another thing that didn’t work well was question and answer. I think in JHS kids get a case of the withdraws and refuse to be engaged. I thought they might genuinely be curious about something about my life and allocated a bit of time for questions and I think I got maybe 2 or 3 my entire first class. I later learned, the kids are curious but too shy to actually ask things. Opps.

My self introductions with Orihashi-sensei and the 3^rd years went largely the same except that she forced them to get in groups and come up with 2 questions in English per group. This resulted in me getting asked the same question twice by a student who wasn't paying attention and honestly not much else of interest. There was a slight misunderstanding when introducing Seth and Katie. I introduced Katie as Seth’s fiancée and Orihashi misheard and thought I was saying Seth was marrying Beyonce. Enunciation is good.

Monday August 1^st  Ujitawara ES  – “I’m sorry, you want to know what?”

Have I mentioned yet that I had to make a speech at each school? ‘Cause I had to make a speech at each school. In Japanese. Motonishi-sensei was wonderful enough to translate the speech I wrote but I was still reading words and a language I’m not that familiar with. I’m reasonably sure in at least 2 of the speeches I barreled through some words incorrectly and probably changed the meaning to something random. But I did my best so I have no regrets.

So between all the speeches, I had another set of introductions at Ujitawara ES on Monday. Elementary schools in Japan cover grades 1-6 though only the 5^th and 6^th grades have regular English classes (once a week). This meant I only had 4 introductions on Monday, since there are 2 classes in each grade for ES.

My day started with the 5^th grade classes in first and second period and the 6^th in 3^rd and 4^th. The introduction went like normal except that I abandoned the activity at the end for more question time since the ES kids actually wanted to know some stuff about me. Actually, they wanted to know a lot of stuff about me. Some of it really oddly personal, like how much money I had. Here’s a collection of some of my favorite questions.

• How old are you? Are you married?
• What do you think of Sugioka-sensei?
• Who’s your ideal man?

Actually that last one was translated strangely. The first time, Sugioka translated it like I wrote it and the second he just asked who my favorite actor was. Japan is big on ‘types’ and he was hoping to convey my ‘type’ through favorite actor. Unfortunately, I answered Jennifer Lawrence since he removed the gender requirement in his second wording so I thought it was a different question. This led to many confused faces before I understood and changed my answer to Stephen Colbert. This led to many more confused faces and I just said I liked comedians. Then a boy next to the boy who asked the question told him the equivalent of “oh well, good luck bro!” I was so, so very confused.

After an exhausting but thoroughly fun morning it was time for lunch. My schedule at ES is that I do my classes and then eat lunch on a rotating schedule so I can visit all the classrooms. My first lunch was scheduled to be with…. The first graders. Fantastic, they don’t speak a word of English, this is going to go great.

Actually it kind of did. Well, once they abandoned trying to ask me things. After an awkward lunch filled with “wakarimasen!” (“I don’t understand!”) it was time for recess. The kids had claimed me as theirs so I followed them to put up our lunch materials and play. Possibly the best part of the day was walking out of the lunch distribution area to a scowling pack of first graders reprimanding me for trying to go out the “in” door. They proceeded to lead me around to the proper exit, all while scolding me like a child. It was very humbling.

After my lecture, I followed them outside to the play area for recess. The kids decided we should play Oni-Go-Go which fortunately Allen had told me the rules of before. Basically, it’s tag with the people being “it” rotating once they tag someone, as best I can tell. I had a fun time running around with the children who acted like getting tagged was life or death serious. Ahh, the naivety of children. We adults all know real life or death scenarios are things like almost burning your pizza.

After lunch I went back to the teachers room where I found a collection of my teachers from 5^th and 6^th grade all clamoring about my lunch. You see, during question time in each class someone had asked what a food I didn't like was and I had honestly replied cabbage. At lunch, we had had soup with cabbage mixed in. Every single teacher who had heard my dislike of cabbage had apparently gotten worried about me not being able to eat (for the record I ate it no problem) and had wanted to check on me. Sometimes I feel like a really expensive pedigree dog that everyone fusses over. It’s kind of nice.

After recess, the vice principle approached and asked if I’d like him to drive me to the BoE office or the JHS now that I was done for the day. I asked for the JHS knowing I could at least get work done there and so began a trend. Whenever I sit down for more than 2 minutes at Ujitawara ES the vice principle rushes over to ask where I need to go. I’m not sure he realizes the school technically has me all day but I’m not complaining since I don’t have a desk or computer there. Also he speaks maybe a few words of English so the drives are rather awkward.

…I don’t know what else to say there. Awkward transition to the next school stories!

Thursday August  4^th; Tawara ES  – “I so got this”

By the time I visited Tawara ES for the first time I had been going to school for a week and doing my self introduction lessons for several days. I had given up my hopes of perfectionism for a much more realistic acknowledgment that I would not only make mistakes, I would probably make an absolutely ass of myself no less than 2 times an hour. Needless to say I was much better prepared to be in an Elementary School. I read in one of the teacher guides I consumed my first few weeks here that you absolutely should not bring an ego to Elementary school but just act like a clown and go with the flow. It was seriously some of the best advice I've gotten so far.

I started my day with incredibly over dramatic high fives and janken (rock, paper, scissors) matches with the kids and wouldn't you know it, they seemed more comfortable with me! I even managed to make a joke with the kids. Each student had their surname written on their PE uniforms on the front. They were almost always kanji but I could read bits of a few of them. For the parts I couldn't read I’d just say “nani” (what) along with what I could read. The kids got a big kick out of me reading their names as “nani-yama” or “ta-nani” or more commonly “nani-nani”. At one point I was surrounded by a horde of kids all laughing hysterically as I dubbed them all nani-nani-chan. Things were going better than JHS.

My classes were similar to the other ES in that the only part with mentioning was the question section which was again highly entertaining. This progression of questions was my favorite:

• What do you think of Sugioka-sensei?
• Do you have a boyfriend?
• ….Sugioka-sensei do you have a girlfriend?
• [The next question wasn't translated for me but I could see the cogs turning in the little boys head and I knew exactly what he asked. “Hey, you aren't married, new English teacher lady isn't married, why don’t ya’ll get married?” Sugioka said something to the boy and asked for the next question rather quickly.]

By this point in question answering I had also learned a very important strategy; lie. Sort of. When a child asked me what my favorite game is the correct but rather obscure answer of ”聖剣伝説 Legend of Mana” was not what they wanted to hear. They wanted me to say “well… I like (insert well known Japanese games here)”. That also meant I usually had to change their questions slightly from “what’s your favorite band?” to “what bands do I like?” so I could safely avoid actually lying; it was a delicate verbal dance.

The schedule was very similar to my other ES school so after a morning of the older kids I found myself with a different class for lunch. Instead of the 1^st graders though I was with the Himawari (Sunflower) class which was special needs. There were 3 boys in this class and 2 teachers so it was pretty intimate. The boys didn't seem to speak any English so I mostly tried to speak little bits of Japanese to interact with them when I could. During lunch we heard a quiz over the intercom system though the teachers only translated the answers for me so I didn't get to enjoy it much.

When recess time came around I expected to stay with the Himawari class based on the precedent set in my other ES but the teachers had other plans so I was let loose on the school. Because it was rainy that day all the kids were running loose around the school as well. A ground of children found me and claimed me as theirs and I followed them around for most of the free time. Apparently there was a goblin who lived in an abandoned hallway and all the kids were gathered around it screeching and flipping the lights on and off. It was a strange recess.

After recess was cleaning time. I had missed out on cleaning time at Ujitawara ES because I didn't realize when it happened. I was determined not to let that happen this time so I asked an English speaking teacher and was given my own broom and area to clean. I had way too much fun cleaning and even convinced a few kids to broom swordfight with me when no other teachers were around. I am an amazing role model.

Unlike Ujitawara ES, it was very clear that I was staying at Tawara for the duration of the day so after cleaning I found I was scheduled to observe a class. Everyone was out of the teachers room so I ended up walking down the first class hallway I got to and finding the 1^st graders rooms. I showed the teacher my schedule and was invited into her room to watch. I did my best not to distract the kids but I think I was more so a distraction to the teacher. She seemed rather flustered that someone was observing her and I managed to understand her say to the kids once that they should do better to make a good impression on me.

The class was a Japanese language class so the kids focused on reading a story in the book. It turns out that my Japanese level is apparently on par with 1^st graders as I could understand bits of the story and I knew the few kanji that were used. I borrowed a book from a student at one point and flipped through it and was quite surprised by the contents. Later in the book there was a story about a boy getting hit by a car which seemed to me a bit heavy a subject for 1^st graders! In fairness, maybe if I had read that as a 1^st grader I wouldn't have been so reckless around roads, so maybe it’s a good thing.

After that class I thanked the teacher and praised how good her students were (mostly so she’d relax and not think I had a bad impression of her) and went back to the teachers room. Again there was no one here so I decided to just walk around until I found what I was supposed to do next. I actually learned that after 5^th period the 1-3^rd graders got to go home so I stationed myself by the exit and bid them all farewell with more epic highfives.

Once they were all gone I decided to find the committees that I had been told were meeting during this period. I ended up following voices to the library where I found a bunch of kids running a committee and hey, I like libraries! I decided to stay.

I had no idea what was going on other than the kids were coming up with reading comprehension questions from some books but I enjoyed looked around the library and ended up staying to chat with the librarian after the committee ended. Librarians are the best people in Japan, seriously.

By this point my work day was about over and I had sat down and rested for probably 10-20 minutes the entire day, so I was feeling a bit tired. What better way to rest than to bike home uphill! Wait…

So ended my first few days of mass introductions. I had some more introductions with the first years of JHS and various lower grades of ES over the next few weeks but none were particularly noteworthy. I actually still have one last introduction to do next week, woo-hoo. After the Greatest Wedding Ever™ I added a few pictures of the wedding to my introductions to let the kids “ooh” and “aah” over how beautiful it was and brag on my family a bit but mostly the introductions got simpler with time. Turns out, after giving the same bio about yourself somewhere around 30 times you get a bit bored of yourself.

So on to something more interesting! Like uh…

Sports day! Yeah! My notes from sports day are cluttering my floor so let’s talk about that next time. I mean…

~*~*~*>                    <*~*~*~

ON THE NEXT EXCITING INSTALLMENT:

Bravery! Passion! Students passing out from heat stroke!

School Sports Day!

Russia on Ice

Japanese Word of the Day:

English: Party or banquet (though usually drinking parties)
Japanese: Enkai (宴会 or えんかい)

So yesterday I was making my weekend to-do list and suddenly remembered “oh shit, I have a blog”. So if you’re wondering why I haven’t been posting lately it’s because I’ve been quite busy and in my scarce free time I’ve been doing thing other than writing. Sorry! I’ll try to do better but no promises if things stay busy for a while. On to your regularly scheduled entry!

Let’s talk about Japan’s problem with drinking.

Specifically, let’s talk about how Japan doesn't see it as a problem but a Westerner like myself would.

To better explain the cultural divide I’ll start by explaining today’s word of the day, enkai. An enkai is usually an office party at a restaurant where there is a lot of alcohol and drinking. If you are a Japanese businessman (or woman!) and you are looking to move up in your business ladder you will attend every enkai you can. Please bear in mind that I don’t work in a position like that so all my perspective is from outside looking in, but I have been told that enkai are a very important bonding event for coworkers and essential if you want to move up in the world. That means after work ends at late-o-clock you will go out with your boss and coworkers to a restaurant where you can pay anywhere from 3,000-10,000Y (~$30-$100 USD though I’d say ~$50 is average) at a venue specifically for this type of party. Usually enkai restaurants have unlimited drinks and food or set meal courses for the larger price tag and getting drunk is entirely acceptable if not encouraged.

Wait, you get drunk with your boss? That sounds like a terrible idea!

Herein lies another key difference between Japan and America. In America if you get completely drunk or are regularly out drinking it is viewed as a problem you don’t have control of. In Japan, it’s viewed as being fun or the life of the party to be completely drunk and there doesn't seem to be the same stigma attached to alcoholism. In the words of my very perceptive friend in Niigata, alcohol is the Japanese’s way of saying it’s ok to loosen up. Bear in mind that the Japanese people work some of the most hours in the world and get the least sleep of most developed nations. From what I can tell, being Japanese is incredibly stressful, busy, and full of protocol. Enkai are a chance to break that rigid structure and let your hair down

Despite being a rather relaxed social event Enkai still have very specific social rules you need to keep in mind. For example, you should never take a drink before the kampai, or toast, has been made. In the case that someone is struck by the overwhelming desire to make a speech you will have to sit and stare at your glass patiently waiting for the word “kampai” so you don’t miss the toast. This happened to me except the people at my table were all holding our drinks expecting a quick kampai so we had to slowly put them down. At least I wasn’t the only one!

Another important rule of enkai is that you shouldn't pour your own beer. Usually, large bottles of beer are brought to the table and placed between individuals. If you notice that your neighbors glass is getting low then you snatch up the beer and refill their glass unless they specifically ask you not to. Failure to do so leaves your neighbor sad and drinkless and probably makes you seem self-absorbed to not notice their need.

There are still a few more rules to enkai. Reaching across the table or even your neighbor is considered entirely acceptable for some baffling reason. This led to a bit of confusion with me  when people were encouraging me to take food but I kept waiting for it to be passed nearer to me. It is also entirely illegal to drive a car or even ride a bicycle if you have had *any* alcohol. As a result, this leads to many intoxicated people on public transit and as a result public drunkenness is tolerated far more than in the states. It’s also possible that public drunkenness just sticks out more in Japan since normal life is so orderly and polite so one drunk on a train gets a lot of attention.

Since coming to Japan I have been to 2 enkai with different groups. My first was shortly after I arrived and was a welcome party for me hosted by my Board of Education. The second was a post-Sports Day celebration with the Elementary school whose Sports Day I attended. I’m going to try to give the highlights reel of each to give a feel for how enkai work.

Welcome Party Enkai; Timeline: August 29^th
For my Welcome Party enkai I was told what day to keep open but not much else. Allen assured me the restaurant that had been picked was good and my supervisor gave us both a ride a town over to where the enkai would be. I think my town may have one or two enkai style restaurants but the norm seems to be going a town or two over to a larger enkai establishment. In the cases of both enkai I’ve been to they’ve also been next to train stations which seems to fit in with the getting home safely while drunk idea. Anywho, Namba-san drove us to Kyotanabe and our group settled in to a separated booth area in a restaurant that specialized in yakitori (chicken skewers). I soon learned that the way this particular restaurant worked was you paid a set cover price and got to order as much food or drinks as you wanted. The food was brought in serving plates or bowls so they could be passed around for people to take what they wanted. Aside from the beers that were placed strategically around the table drinks were ordered for oneself and not poured by neighbors.

Over the course of the 2 or so hours we were there I tried many different foods, most of which I was pretty unsure what I was eating. Occasionally, I’d be encouraged to try something “delicious”, grab a skewer, and then right after I took a bit be told it was cooked chicken skin or chicken heart; yes I ate both of those things. Rather, I took a bite and couldn’t shake the image of eating a chicken’s actual heart from my head and abandoned the rest of the skewer to the edge of my plate. Waste is bad in Japan, so I really tried to eat what I took but a few times I absolutely drew the line.

For those worried, there were also lots of really, really delicious foods. Yakitori in general is basically chicken kabobs that sometimes has a delicious sauce in addition to the marinade and I ate quite a bit of that. I also recall some delicious edamame, cheesy potato bites, and even French fries.

Those of you who know my usual distaste for drinking are probably wondering how I handled a party specifically designed for drinking that had me as the center of attention. The answer is I impressed my coworkers with my apparently impressing ability to drink.

Wait. Stop. Just let me explain myself.

I strongly suspect that Japanese drinks are not as alcoholic as American drinks. Usually the biggest turn off for drinking for me (besides being a control freak) is that I dislike the taste of alcohol. I can barely taste any alcohol in the Japanese drinks I’ve tried and that includes beer (as part of the kampai). At this enkai I had 3 drinks though I can only recall the name of one since they were in Japanese and Allen teased me a fair bit for having a fuzzy navel to drink. What can I say, it sounded good (and was). As a result some of the people around me noticed I was completely and utterly sober and that apparently impressed them enough to call me a “skilled” drinker, literal translation. But honestly I just think the alcohol is a lower concentration and I don’t do silly things like chug drinks on an empty stomach.

One good thing about drinking with coworkers in Japan is it apparently causes them to develop the ability to speak English. I suspect that in truth they’re just shy about using a foreign language but damn, they could help me not look like an idiot from time to time by using English! I was seated between two of the library staff who also worked in the board of education. One was a very friendly lady who speaks perfect English (even when not drinking) and who helped translate a lot of what happened for me. The librarian on the other side was a nice guy I hadn’t had a chance to speak to much but had noticed some comics on his desk I liked. I actually mentioned this and it turns out he’s a nerd like me and we had a great conversation about the different games and animes we liked. He even gave me an awesome pen with Hatsune Mikumi on it! If you have no idea who that is, don’t worry I’m sure I’ll explain at some point in this blog.

Speaking of intoxicated educators, one of the BoE guys ended up going outside to smoke or make a phone call or something and ended up making faces against the glass window at us. Apparently Japanese people don’t hold their alcohol very well or they allow the placebo effect to let them let loose. Either way it was pretty funny.

This guy was a principal, by the way. He's also a lot of fun!

After the party drew to a close we divided into groups to head home. The nice librarian man on my left was driving a few people back to Ujitawara and offered to drive me as well so I gladly went with him and the others. On the ride I found out that not only is he a librarian but also a priest at a shrine literally down the road from my apartment. I think it’s a family type role that you’re born into but I was still shocked and probably offended him by asking “…no, really?” a lot. In my defense I usually don’t trust people at drinking parties who tell me they’re priests.

Elementary School Undoukai Enkai; Timeline: September 27^th
My second enkai took place much later so I was feeling much more comfortable in general with being in Japan and trying to speak broken Japanese by this point. The people inviting me were also the teachers from my favorite school who I genuinely enjoy talking to so I went into the situation feeling confident.

Well, except for the part where the enkai took place the afternoon after a busy morning of having sports day (Undoukai) after which I felt pretty exhausted. The enkai was scheduled for around 7:00 in Nara which meant that I had to leave Ujitawara by 5:30 to catch the right bus to get there a little early and find my way to the restaurant. Sports day ended sometime around 3:30 so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to bike home, shower, change, and prepare.

I had actually realized a day or so earlier that because the enkai was taking place so far away in Nara I would have trouble getting home because the last bus for Ujitawara left at 9:00. After discussing it with a coworker at the elementary school she arranged for me to be able to ride home with another teacher who lived in town but who did not speak a word of English. So with that arrangement made I planned my trip to Nara knowing that I didn’t have to worry about the return. Yet fate conspired against me. A stop or two after getting on the bus and happily zoning out with some music I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw the gentleman who was taking me home smiling at me. Despite the fact that I had boarded the bus successfully he checked to make sure I knew when to get off and how much fare to pay and that I had taken a number ticket. I showed him my bus card and he seemed to understand that I knew what I was doing.

Here’s the thing; I think I've said before that I’m pretty confident with the public transit system in Japan. I can plan to go to Osaka and make it happen with little to no trouble just by reading the train maps.

My somewhat elderly companion did not seem to share this skill.

When we got off the bus and to the train station he told me to stand aside while he handed getting our train tickets. I watched him stare blankly at the map before asking another person what the correct ticket fare was and then attempt to use the wrong machine to get the ticket. Around this point I began to be concerned. Regardless, the kind old man gave me my ticket and we headed down to the train area. I had checked on my phone when the train we ought to take would come and after a few minutes it pulled up to the station. My companion made no attempt to get aboard which led to my attempts to convey through broken Japanese that we might want to get on this train. Eventually he smiled and agreed and we got on.

The trip took way longer than it should have and we ended up arriving in Nara only a few minutes before time for the enkai to start. We found another coworker in the ticket area and the three of us set off for the restaurant. One of the nice teachers near me had given me very specific instructions on where to go, telling me to take exit 3 and then go up to the 7^th floor. My companions didn't seem to get this memo so I pointed them to the exit and then stopped them from leaving the building  before pointing out a sign showing our destination next to an elevator.

Eventually we arrived and we ushered to a private room where 3 tables were set up with the teachers seated around them save a few open seats. Upon entering, I got to pick a paper crane that told me my assigned seat number and I sat at a table of teachers I didn't know and whom didn't have a lot of English knowledge. This was shaping up to be fun!

Actually it was. Communication finds a way and one of the teachers had seen my self introduction and told the others little things about me to spark conversation. At one point she told them I was an artist which prompted another teacher to ask to see something I drew (which I pulled up on my phone) and then begged me to draw a banner for an event in the future. I agreed and he was quite pleased and acted like I had made his night. Feels good to be appreciated, man.

The restaurant itself was a fancy Chinese type restaurant that brought out large dishes of food from which we could all take servings. At the first dish I furrowed my brows as I tried to place the strange looking food in front of me. By the second dish, someone was kind enough to tell me I was eating shark fin soup and I decided I should stop trying to figure out what I was eating because it would probably save me some mental images of sad sharks with tracheostomies because they lost their gills.

One thing that differed about this enkai was that individual drinks could be ordered but for the most part everyone had a glass for beer and beer bottles were placed around the table. At one point I tried to explain to my neighbor about the cultural differences between enkai and American parties. For example, I said that generally people wouldn't pour you a drink or refill yours without asking and that reaching across the table or peoples plates was considered rather rude. I think my genuine attempt at cultural discourse was misunderstood as a cultural fence with a “do not cross” sign as my neighbor decided to not refill my drink again (which is rude by Japanese customs). Opps!

Since coming to Japan I have discovered that if there is one thing the Japanese like more than drinking it is giving speeches. So clearly, we should do both at the same time! This won’t end poorly at all.

Throughout the party there were various speeches. Before the kampai (cheers) there was a speech that was so long everyone around me set down their drinks they had picked up expecting a quick toast and cheers after. As the night progressed, more and more people gave speeches. I watched a woman break out sobbing uncontrollably talking about (as best I could understand) how moved she was by something someone did at the sports day. It was also apparently appropriate to stand up to make your speech with a full glass of beer and drain it slowly (or quickly) as you spoke.

Listening to everyone talk a tiny voice in the back of my head wondered if they’d ask me to make a speech. I concluded that no, surely I was safe this time since no one here spoke fluent English and it would be too difficult to translate. Yet… sure enough, once everyone else had spoken a few people began looking around to see if anyone hadn't spoken yet and their eyes landed on me. I was instructed that I could speak in English and someone would translate and I just needed to say something about sports day. I opted to express my amazement at the incredible feats of gymnastics the students had performed and how that would never happen in America (for legal reasons, I’m sure). Granted, I said all this in much less, simpler words so I’m not sure my point was conveyed properly. Either way, I was clapped for and I retreated back to sipping my beer (which was also not strong).

The speeches honest to god went on for at least 45 minutes to an hour after the food stopped. By then I didn't have much to entertain myself with since I couldn't understand a word of what was going on and there was no food to debate the nature of. Eventually all things come to an end and so too did the speeches.

Hurray! Now I get to go home with the old guy who speaks no English and doesn't understand the train sys- oh wait. Crap.

Actually it was really easy. The kind old gentleman had offered rides to 2 other teachers as well so they came with us and were much better versed with the trains. One of them was a bit more intoxicated than the others I think as he loudly informed the entire train out of the blue that I resemble the Mona Lisa. Well, at least he did it in English so I’m not sure anyone else understood him. Strangest compliment I've gotten since arriving in Japan, by the way.

We took the trains to a town near Ujitawara where nice old man’s wife picked us up in her car and proceeded to drop everyone off one by one. When it got my turn I quietly sat since neither of the couple spoke English until they arrived at my apartment. The nice older man actually got out to help me out of the car but saw that I could manage and we both said goodnight. I thanked him and his wife profusely before crawling into my house and immediately going to bed.

So there you have enkai in Japan. You know, because two anecdotes are clearly representative of the whole! But seriously, despite my not being a drinker they were both very fun and pretty interesting as an outsider looking in on Japanese culture.

I still think people here drink too much though. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have a Kahlua milk.

Suteki Da Ne

I'd like to interrupt your regularly scheduled blog about Japan for something much more important.

At 5:00 AM Japan time on Sunday October 5th...

MY BROTHER GOT MARRIED. Woooo!

Achievement Unlocked: Married!

I'm a little bit happy about the whole thing. Since I couldn't be there I skyped in and had a conbini fueled celebratory party the day prior.

But yeah, if you missed it the ceremony was completely gorgeous and screamed Seth and Katie through personal touches. The song I stuck at the bottom of this entry is what Seth and Katie walked in to and a personal favorite of mine.

Anyways, massive congrats to my brother and new sister! The blog will be back to Japan things in a few days.