BOE Enkai

Last night was the Board of Education welcome party for us new ALTs. At 6:30, we all met up at a place called Amigo. All the staff and senior ALTs were invited, so there were quite a few of us seated at a long table. There wasn't a seating arrangement, but new ALTs had to sit at a spot with a sticker on the table, I guess to keep us from all sitting together.

Of course, the evening started out with a few speeches. Tsutsui, our supervisor, also asked us to make short speeches as well. I wasn't expecting it but at least we were allowed to give these speeches in English. After the speeches came the toast, and we all set to work eating and drinking. This event was a nomihodai with food. There were several dishes, including raw fish (I think it was tuna), pasta, pizza (yay!), little sausages, salad, and chunks of chicken.

During the event, I talked mostly with the staff members immediately across from and next to me, but as the evening wore on people started trading seats. One of the BOE employees told us to call him "Little Bear". I don't know how he came up with that, but I thought it was pretty funny. They asked all of us questions about where we were from, where we had traveled in Japan and the rest of the world, and why we chose to do the JET Program.

When the time was up at Amigo, most of the staff and ALTs went on to a nijikai at a karaoke place. We fit a lot of us into a moderately small room and sang for I don't know how long. There were also drinks and snacks. I passed on the little shrimp with their legs and eyes still on. I sang "Alone" by Heart, and joined in on other people's songs as well. Kathy and I had fun singing backup on "California Dreaming". The Japanese employees put on a good show and some of the ALTs were able to sing a few songs in Japanese. It turns out that Jamie (Scotland) has a gorgeous voice. I think he was in a band back home; he plays guitar. We even got to hear our supervisor sing.

After karaoke, some of the ALTs went on to a club. I'll have to find that place again because it actually has a large dance floor. They played mostly R&B, which isn't my favorite, but it was great being able to dance. Some other local ALTs were there as well, and we had a great time. It wasn't until about 3:30 that the last of us left for home. Since Nelson and I live in the same building, I had someone to bike home with. I think it was 4:00 when I finally collapsed into bed. When I think about the fact that we were partying at varying degrees of intensity from 6:30 to 3:30, I am rather impressed. Today my legs are tired and I'm a little dehydrated, but I feel pretty good. Next up is a trip to the mall with Nelson and Kathy.