My Second Enkai

Tonight marks my second enkai with the folks at my little mountain school. All in all, it was fun, but not quite what I expected. This time around there were a lot fewer people. Only 9 of us came to this enkai. I was a little disappointed that the only male teacher my age was not present, but what can I say. There were still two fairly young female teachers for me to talk with. It turns out that one of them is actually a year younger than me. Which I find kind of embarrassing, as she is a real teacher and I am a confused gaijin completely dependent on my Japanese Teacher of English. But she seemed really nice.

Anyhow, this enkai took place at a different restaurant than the previous one. This place was called Konyamachi Sakaba, and it was a Japanese restaurant. We even had to take our shoes off to go inside. The nice thing about having a smaller group was that we all got to sit at one table. The men were on one side and the women were on the other. I'm glad Y-sensei pointed me to the correct side of the table, or I'm sure I would've sat with the men and disrupted the group's balance, haha. We started off with a toast and then began the process of eating and drinking. This was also a nomihodai (all-you-can-drink), so there was plenty of alcohol involved.

As for food, none of it was really what I wanted to eat, but I ate at least a little of most of the dishes. The meal started out with an appetizer of a snail-type creature, fish livers, and tomato slices. I ate the snail, and it wasn't so bad. I only tried one fish liver; I didn't like the texture much. It tasted sour, but that might've been because it seemed to be seasoned with lime juice. And I even ate the tomato (gasp!). After that there were a number of things including sashimi, cooked pork, whole shrimp (shell, eyes and all), chicken on a stick, rice with fish in it, seaweed tempura, and... whale. Yeah. When the whale on a stick was brought out, Y-sensei put one on my plate before I could even say anything. She at least went to the trouble of explaining what it was, but she didn't really give me the option of refusing. And the principal asked me if I knew what the Sea Shepherd was. If you are not familiar with Whale Wars, it's the boat belonging to a rather poorly thought-out anti-whaling group. They make fools of themselves and piss off the Japanese without really accomplishing anything useful. Anyhow, I thought that was just charming of him to mention it. I figured this was one of those passive-aggressive tests, so I went ahead and ate some of the whale. Which, prior to coming to Japan, I had said I would not do. So much for that resolution. I was rather annoyed when, after putting some whale in my mouth, I discovered that two of the male teachers declined to eat it. I'm pretty sure that had I refused, there would've been some intense discussion. But no one batted an eye when they turned it down. By the way: whale is not that tasty. It looked kind of like beef, and it had a rather unpleasant texture. I don't know why the Japanese would hunt them other than stubbornness and the desire to show at least some tiny bit of defiance against the Western world.

However, the unpleasant taste of remorse was gradually washed away with more beer, chuhai and ume-shu (plum liquor), and I cheered up a bit. The discussions at the table were suitably inane, at least the parts that I understood and/or were translated for me. At one point one of the old men was talking about how Y-sensei (who is in her 50's, I believe) would look lovely in a kimono, and I would be beautiful in a wedding dress. He went on to talk about lighting and whether women should pose with their chin up or down. I couldn't figure out which one he considered better. And I'm pretty sure one of the other teachers was flirting with me. Probably not in any serious way, but in a way that probably wouldn't fly in an American company. He asked me a bunch of questions about various things, and whenever I said that I liked something, he enthusiastically said that he did, as well. At one point he said I should marry him. I told everyone the story about the creepy guy who might be following me, but said that I was okay because I would punch him. Then the flirting teacher offered to give me karate lessons every Thursday. If I had been less drunk, I might've been uncomfortable, but as it was I was just entertained.

During the meal, everyone was asked to give a short speech on one of several suggested topics. The options I remember were winter vacation, our hopes for the new year, and juicy secrets. I briefly discussed (in Japanese) what Mom, Brett and I had done over the break. I didn't really understand everyone else's speeches, but I could usually tell when someone made a joke, so I knew when to laugh. It's kind of weird how I involuntarily find myself laughing whenever the people around me laugh. I don't even know what's going on, but I can't help smiling.

Once two hours had passed, the time for drinking was up. We closed the enkai and started making plans for the nijikai (afterparty). I was in a good mood and had no plans for the evening, so I decided to go along for the nijikai despite the fact that no one else who was going spoke English. I really don't mind not understanding what's going on around me, but it is kind of risky going into situations knowing that no one else can help me if I get confused about something important. Still, I figured I'd give it a shot. Last time I didn't go to the nijikai because it was just a group of men, and I didn't know any of the teachers well enough to guess if they would end up trying to grope me. But this time I felt comfortable with the group. I thought the principal was coming along, but it turned out that there were only four of us; the flirting teacher, another male teacher, one of the friendly young female teachers, and myself.

When we first left the restaurant, it hadn't been decided exactly where we were going. As we were walking down the street, the flirting teacher asked me where I wanted to go. Since I didn't really know where the other people would enjoy going, I said, "Dokodemo ii" ("Anywhere is fine"). To which he replied: "How about your apartment?" I just laughed. Then he asked if I had beer, and I said that I didn't. Tea? No. "Well, we can buy some". I laughed some more. In the end, we went to karaoke at Big Echo. It was pretty laid back; we didn't opt for nomihodai, so I had an ice cream and milk drink (not actually a milkshake as it wasn't blended) and sobered up a bit. Singing was plenty of fun. I sang the only Japanese song I knew, and everyone was suitably impressed. I also sang some songs in English, and enjoyed listening to the others sing Japanese songs. They all sang well, I thought, especially the female teacher. She knew some of the English songs I picked (Take Me Home, Country Roads; All My Loving) and sang along with me. I was glad when I found something that she could sing with me because then I felt like less of a microphone hog. I also picked a Japanese song that I don't really know the words to, but could kind of follow along on the karaoke screen. Everyone else knew it, though, so I didn't have to worry about singing it well because I wasn't alone.

After two hours, our time was up, and the nijikai ended. I was a little surprised to be done so early; it was only about 11:30. I had expected to party into the night, but with such a small group I guess that was rather unlikely. I was offered a ride home (flirting teacher lives a little further out along the tram road than me), but by that point it was perfectly safe for me to ride my bike. Probably illegal, since I still had at least a little alcohol in my bloodstream, but safe nonetheless. Since it would've been inconvenient to have to go back and pick up my bike the next day, I decided to just ride home on my own. Now I am back in my apartment, reeking of cigarette smoke and contemplating getting ready for bed. While I would've liked to stay out longer tonight, I'm not too disappointed because one of the ALTs is probably having a birthday party tomorrow evening, and those tend to get out of hand. Which is exactly what I look forward to.