On Sunday evening, around dinner time, I got a call from Tatsuya. I was pretty surprised as we usually communicate mostly by text message, and also because I had just seen him on Valentine's Day, so I wasn't expecting to hear from him for a while. Although it was very difficult to understand over the phone (mostly because of his teammates being loud in the background), Tatsuya invited me to come to a nomikai (drinking party) with his softball team.
I've been to a few enkais with Tatsuya and the softball team, and it's usually pretty fun, so once I figured out what Tatsuya was actually saying, I agreed to go. They had already started drinking, so I had to get myself most of the way there by taxi and then someone came to pick me up from a nearer location. It turned out that the party was at a team member's house. The living room had a low table, a TV, and about seven men crammed into it. I knew most of them by sight, but could only remember one person's name. Our hosts, Uoi and Miyo, were in the kitchen getting some food ready. While waiting, my attention sort of wandered back and forth between the group's conversation and a movie that was on TV. The conversation was fairly difficult to understand, but Tatsuya said they were mostly talking about softball.
A little while later, Mr. Uoi brought out some food. He had asked me in the car whether or not I'd eaten yet, and since I said I hadn't, he told me he would make something for me. It turned out to be horse sashimi, that is to say, raw horse meat. He brought out a plate for everyone to share, but at first set it in front of me. I sat for a few minutes looking at the meat, which was very, very red, and tried to assess whether or not I could get myself to eat any of it. At this point I don't have a huge moral qualm with eating horse meat, but I still have hang ups about eating raw meat, so I was concerned I might gag. In the end I decided not to risk it. When Tatsuya noticed that I couldn't eat it, he started eating it instead. Eventually the plate got passed around to everyone. Although the other guys had seen that I wasn't eating the horse sashimi, they didn't make a big deal of it, which I really appreciated. And Uoi didn't seem upset about it either. A little later he brought me some curry, which was delicious.
Sometimes at these events I start to wonder if I'm actually supposed to be there, or if maybe Tatsuya wasn't intended to invite me. It's not that anyone is rude or cold to me, but I usually can't understand most of the conversation, and sometimes I end up just sitting quietly for a long time. Occasionally people will address questions directly to me, and then I can usually get the gist of what they're saying. But it can go a long time without me being part of the conversation. For a while I thought maybe I wasn't actually supposed to be there since I was the only woman and non softball player, but then Uoi's wife Miyo came back. It turned out she was the one who suggested inviting me. She's very nice, and I enjoyed talking with her for a while. We talked some about her dogs, and my trip to Korea, and various other things. I was surprised to find that she likes the singer Bruno Mars; I'm not so sure that he's super well-known here.
Toward the end of the evening, everyone but me had drunk a good quantity of beer. I was being careful since it was Sunday night and my stomach had been mostly empty when I started. One of the team members started a hempai, which is where you take turns pouring beer for each other and drinking it all at once. He wanted to hempai me, but very thoughtfully only gave me about a thimbleful of beer. I can drink more than that, but I figured it probably wasn't a smart time to mention it, so I drank my small quantity of beer and then refilled the glass for him to drink from. He did the hempai with a few other people, and with me again. It's something people only do in Kochi, apparently, but it's kind of a friendly social ritual. Still, I feel like under some circumstances it's done a bit passive-aggressively, as it is effectively a way of forcing someone to drink more. But this time it all seemed quite friendly.
Miyo brought out some chocolate cake and gave me the first piece. It was very delicious, but I could only eat about half the piece because it was so sweet and rich. Fortunately, Tatsuya was only too happy to finish it for me. He really likes chocolate. I thought it was rather endearing how pleased he seemed that I gave him the rest of my cake. Once we were done with the cake, Uoi called taxis and daiko for a few people. Daiko are like taxis for people who have driven their car somewhere but can't drive it back home afterward. Two people come; one to drive your car for you, and one in a separate car to follow behind and take the driver back at the end. I don't know if they're expensive, but they're very handy since in Japan you can't drive after having even a sip of alcohol. Tatsuya had the daiko driver swing by my apartment to drop me off, so I didn't have to get a taxi home. All in all, it was a pretty nice evening. Miyo and Uoi told us to come by again sometime to visit. I'd be happy to, since they seem like very kind people, and also their dogs are cute. Anyhow, once Genki is done with, maybe I'll start going to softball practices and games some of the time.
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