Day 132 in Japan - BON ENKAI!

Fairly uneventful day at school – finished up all of the last of my marking and started to organize some of the mess last in the aftermath of the last few busy weeks of the term. I took my time with the work, and actually stopped for a 20 minute lunch break where I deliberately did no work.

A lot of the teachers seemed to disappear after lunch – I’m not sure if they were busy with last-minute class preparations before the final tests, or if they were getting ready for tonight’s BON ENKAI (“Forget the Year Party”, as one teacher explained it to me). I left school right on the dot of 4:15 to sprint home, get changed into all the pairs of stockings I own (2 – both with ladders in them, for those interested), get changed into the dress that the teachers requested I wear, and head back out the door to catch the 5:07 train to Debauchery-ville. Bon Enkai’s are like Christmas parties, where you drink as much as you can, eat food, talk crap with your colleagues and wait until the principal leaves for the real misbehaving to begin. Or so I had been led to believe…

It was actually a pretty classy affair – the venue was a lovely hotel called Estacion de Kobe, which was right near Harborland (the classy, harbor-fronted “date spot” in Kobe), and had a freaking organ in it’s foyer! I was a bit early, so I killed time by going to a conbini and playing with all of their pens. Then I rocked up to the hotel at what I was told is Japanese “on time” – 5 minutes before the time published. And I was the only person there. It was just me and the 4 organisers. SO MUCH FOR YOUR RULES, JET PROGRAM!

Estacion de Kobe - the site of the party.

The view from the hotel.

The foyer of the hotel.

The party is cranking!

Looking out over harbourland. And ME (HI ME!).

Did I mention how long I sat by myself before anyone else showed up?

They had a very interesting was of seating us at the dinner. On the way in, I was told to pick my name from a bunch of katana and kanji cards on the desk. I spent about 4 minutes poring over them trying to find “ブリアナ” (Brianna), until eventually someone explained to me that they were all celebrities, and we were meant to choose a person we liked. Oh. Well, that exaplined why there were so many katakana names (those are names written in the version of the Japanese written language that indicates that they are foreign) in a school where I am the only gaijin. Anyway, once I chose my Charles Darwin card, I flipped it over, to find out I had been seated at Table C. I went and sat by myself for a few minutes, but I got bored and wandered around taking pictures of the view out of the window until more people arrived.

I was really lucky to be seated at the table that I was, because I was fortunate enough to have 2 English speakers at my table. First – Tananka-sensei, one of the first year English teachers that I teach classes with. Secondly, a younger second year maths teacher, who it turns out came to Australia when he was 14 years old on exchange to Grafton. He pulled out his iPod to show me some of the music he likes, and I instantly fell in love! His music taste is AWESOME! Radiohead, Bjork, The Flaming Lips and even Gerling! (who are a fairly obscure Australian electronica group from the late 90’s to early 2000’s, I guess) Also, he was a really good looking guy, and wearing a waistcoat with his suit who helped me read the Kanji for the game of “Celebrity Bongo” that we played, and poured beer for me all night. Seriously. What more could you ask for in a drinking buddy?

We listened to some quick speeches, shared a few plates of food, drank a lot of Sapporo, played some party games, and THEN… everyone went home. I thought the night was just gearing up, then there was a “OK, everyone let’s go”, and we were all standing outside. I wanted karaoke, and spilled beer, and that third year PE teacher that looks really sketchy to be vomiting in the corner and something really juicy and scandalous to happen. We went for coffee and cake. Don’t get me wrong – it was lovely coffee and cake and good company – BUT I definitely wasn’t ready to go home when the night was over. And this is ME – I would almost always rather be sitting at home with Harry Potter and a cup of tea. When I’m the one trying to coax other people to stay out, you know something is awry. The enkai turned out to be more like a conference dinner or a fairly tame wedding, when I was expecting the conference dinner after-party, or maybe a bachelor party (NO STRIPPERS. BOOOOO!).

Yeah, the after party got crazy! How crazy? Snowmen in my latte crazy! RAISE THE ROOF!

Anyway, it was a really fun night – I ate lovely food with good company, and ended the night with icecream and dirty jokes on the train ride home. No real complaints for me, no respect lost for or from anyone, and my mascara stayed fairly intact throughout. An overall success.

Food Highlight of the Day: One dish at the enkai was roast beef with honest-to-goodness beefy jus. No sugar, no mayo, no marbled fat – just a lovely piece of beef that my Grandma Mary would have been happy with.