Yosakoi Enkai

Last night, the International Yosakoi Team had an enkai (an eating and drinking party). Since I was having trouble understanding Yamanaka-sensei's instructions over the phone, we decided to just meet in front of Hirome Market and walk to the izakaya together. An izakaya is sort of a bar/restaurant. They serve a lot of small dishes rather than one big meal for each person. While waiting for Yamanaka-sensei, I also ran into Nelson and Jamie, who were meeting up for dinner.

Once Yamanaka-sensei came to find me, we went to the izakaya and met up with the rest of the group. I tried to keep up with the conversation, and occasionally succeeded. It got easier when Sayaka arrived because she speaks English very well and was willing to translate for me at times when I just wasn't understanding. I mostly talked with Sayaka and Jun, two of the girls closest to my age.

I'm not sure how many dishes were brought out over the course of the evening, but there were quite a few. There were rice dishes, croquettes, meat on a stick, thin slices of fish, salad, a kind of Korean omelet/pizza thing, something that looked like egg rolls but seemed to be full of meat, and I forget what else. I ate a little bit of most of the things that came out, but eventually was too full to try anything else. I also didn't drink a lot, which the rest of the group noticed; some of the guys at the end of the table sent the drinks menu my way and encouraged me to order more. It was kind of funny. Kaze pretended to be jealous because her drink was getting low as well, but no one was worried about her drinking enough.

After about two and a half or three hours, our time at the izakaya was up, and part of the group split off for an after party. I decided to call it a night. Sayaka and Jun were also done for the evening, so they walked with me back to Hirome, where my bike was parked. On the way we stopped at a purikura machine, which is basically a photo booth with a lot of added functions. Before printing out the pictures, you can add in all kinds of decorations and special effects. We took a bunch of pictures and added in sparkles, hearts, flowers, stars, bows, crowns, and all kinds of random details. Sayaka added in a few poops. Yes, poop is an option for decorating photographs.

We split up at Hirome, and I rode my bike home. The next time I'll be seeing the Yosakoi group should be on the 25th for another practice. I recently discovered that in addition to Yosakoi Festival, the group performs at various other festivals in the area. I'm glad that I'll get to dance with them again. Maybe next time I'll get a few more pictures!