Graduation and Enkai

This year, I got to attend graduation at TJHS. Graduation itself was a pretty standard ceremony, so I don’t have a lot to say about it. Still, it was a very moving experience. Even seeing the students only once a week, after two years I’ve become very attached to them. It’s hard to accept that I won’t likely see them again. I’m happy and excited that they get to move on to high school, but I’ll miss them a lot. I can’t imagine what it’s like for the teachers who worked with them every day.

The real fun, though, was the graduation enkai. The teachers, parents, and some administrators attended a private celebration in the evening. After everyone had some time to eat and drink, the parents and a few teachers gave speeches about the students. I couldn’t understand much of the speeches, but occasionally the English teacher translated bits for me. After the speeches, everyone mingled and talked. Y-sensei took me around to introduce me to the parents. I could only communicate with them a little, but it was nice to meet them. I think Y-sensei has come to like me a lot, because she was telling everyone how great it is that I get to stay at TJHS next year, and saying how well I danced. She praised me quite a bit to all of the parents. It was a little embarrassing and probably unnecessary, but it felt good to know she thinks so highly of me.

During the enkai, I’d been a little disappointed that I was seated at a different table from the math teacher (S-sensei). However, toward the end of the evening he came over to talk to me. He doesn’t know yet what school he’ll be at next year, but he’s hoping to stay at Tosayama. When it was time for everyone to pack up and head out, I commented that it was too bad there wasn’t an afterparty, and he suggested that we go get drinks together. I couldn’t believe my luck.

We started walking toward downtown and had gotten a few blocks when S-sensei got a call from T-sensei, the social studies teacher. I couldn’t hear one side of the conversation, but it turned out that that we were supposed to meet up with T-sensei down by Central Park. I was fine with that; although it would be a little annoying to have a chaperone, T-sensei is pretty fun, too. Something kind of hilarious happened on our way to the park; as we were walking along, the bus taking most of the parents back toward Tosayama turned in front of us, and everyone was shouting out the windows at us. Busted.

Anyhow, we met up with T-sensei and he took us to a bar. It turned out that there was, in fact, an official nijikai, and that’s where we’d been ordered to go. So what I thought would be something of an impromptu date turned into a drinking party with several of my coworkers and the parents of my students. But in the end, that was pretty fun, too. I still got to talk to S-sensei some more, and sang a few songs in English and Japanese. The parents wanted me to sing Lady Gaga songs for them, so I did. S-sensei also made me sing a song with him, but it was a song I’d never heard before and he doesn’t sing so well, so it turned out pretty awful. Even that was fun, though.

It was around midnight when the nijikai ended, and although I’m pretty sure T-sensei and S-sensei were headed for a sanjikai (after-afterparty?), I figured it was time for me to head home. S-sensei saw me to a cab, and we said goodbye. We had traded phone numbers and emails earlier in the evening, so I now have a means of contacting him outside of school. It feels like some sort of victory, that I finally got to talk to S-sensei one on one (while we were walking to the nijikai) and that he showed an interest in me (he was the one who asked for my phone number). I’m hopeful that maybe I can see him again outside of school. So, although the enkai didn’t turn out how I had expected, it turned out pretty awesome all the same.