I celebrated my 24th birthday recently. I wanted to keep everything kind of low key so I celebrated by having dinner with some friends at a newly discovered curry place in town and taking a trip to the gym. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!

Labels: birthday, party

We recently held a new teachers enkai. This is basically the welcome party for all the new teachers who started working at the beginning of the semester. While other enkai's have had games and what not, this one was pure business. The principal welcomed all the teachers and gave a speech, then all the new teachers gave a speech, then we ate. This enkai was also held in Isawa, like most all the other ones, but one significant difference was the food.

The food at this enkai was the best yet! All the other ones were set menus that were pretty much all traditional Japanese food. This one still had your sushi and soba, but everything was serve your self rather than a course meal. So I got to pick and choose what I ate. There were also several non-Japanese plates to choose from like a chicken and potato wedge dish. Overall, this was definitely the best, at least food wise, enkai yet.

Labels: enkai, food, party, work

This month I will be helping to host a Winter Party that the city hall is putting on for elementary school students in Yamanashishi. We'll basically be playing games with the kids, watching a storybookesque video about Hansel and Gretel and then making gingerbread houses together. Below are some pictures I took of our gingerbread house making test run with the women from city hall in charge of the party. Should be interesting to say the least. I do worry a bit though as, at last count, there were only 4 families attending the event. I hope more people sign up soon!

Labels: party, work

I was invited to another enkai by my base school. This time is was the end of the semester, start of winter break enkai otherwise known as the bonenkai. Pretty much the same deal as the first enkai. It was even held at an an onsen in Isawa just like last time. This time I skipped the onsen bit though and just went for the food and drink. Once again, I partook in my fair share of sake and ate what seemed to be a never ending array of various traditional Japanese dishes. Also, as it was so near Christmas, we did a secret Santa exchange. I brought a blue plaid patterned scarf as my gift and received a bottle of wine.
















One special note about this enkai. Somehow, I ended up sitting next to my principle! Plus, Ryoko, my JTE, was on the opposite side of the room. Thus, I had quite an interesting evening of gesturing and trying to keep the principle's beer glass full. Also, this time, rather than sports festival games, we did a few eating based games and some, 'guess who' types games based off of personality profiles we filled out prior to attending. I was no good at the guess who games as all the hints were in Japanese, but the food games were pretty fun. The first was one where everyone on a team had to eat a piece of sushi. The catch was that one of them was loaded up with wasabi. The game was for the rest of the group to figure out who had the one with the wasabi. I had a normal piece, thank goodness, as I rather dislike wasabi. The next game though was with tomato sauce and hot sauce. And guess who ended up with the hot sauce? Funny thing was that I almost didn't realize it was even hot sauce. At first I thought it might have just been funny tasting tomato sauce or some crazy Japanese version of tomato sauce. But, nope, it was the hot sauce. No one ended up guessing that I was the one who drank the hot sauce so I got an extra prize! And, in all truth and honesty, the hot sauce didn't taste all that bad. I told everyone this and, after they tried a bit themselves, decided I was crazy for liking it!

Labels: enkai, party, work

Immediately following the International Center Christmas party, I went to the Yeti Winter party that was also being held in Kofu at the Italian restaurant I ate at for the Group A welcome party when I first arrive in Yamanashi. Well, not immediately after, as I would have been an hour or two early. I just wondered around Kofu and looked around some stores during that time. I ran across a band playing in this outdoor shopping district area and sat around listening to them for a bit as well. Still got to the party a bit early, but I had a nice chart with some of the older JETs who were in charge of the event.

The party was nomihodai (aka. all you can drink) and we had several courses of food including salad, rice balls, spaghetti, pizza, and ice cream. The older Yeti members also did a little gag degree awards ceremony which was pretty amusing. After the Italian place, we went over to the Vault to for some after party drinks, but they had a band playing, which meant a hefty cover charge, so we all went over to the Rink. Didn't really have much fun there and I probably should have headed home on the last train, but I didn't. It was just really crowded with all of us there and I started to feel a little claustrophobic. As for getting home, my ride into Kofu was drinking that night, so we ended up using this service where someone drives your car to wherever you want to go for you and another guy follows to bring the guy driving guy back. This is a service that's offered by a few companies in Denver, but it's really expensive. Makes sense as its like taking a taxi, but with two drivers helping you instead of just one. Here, though, it was actually cheaper than taking a taxi. And the taxi guys were wearing these great, super shinny, coats that amused me to no end!

Labels: party, Yeti

In Kofu there is an International Center. They hold various international events throughout the year, and of course, as Christmas draws near, they have a big international Christmas bash and donate the proceeds to various local and international charities. They have a bunch of performers and also holiday crafts and food vendors from various countries and Fred, a JET who works in my city, dressed up as Santa to pass out candy to all the kids. I did my part as well and volunteered to be part of the Christmas carol choir.









After the singing and eating, there was a raffle. I didn't win anything, but the guy who bought his tickets right after I did ended up winning two things! But, I did go home with some goodies as they held a charity auction right after the raffle. I bid on and won a fold-able bike and an electric space heater. Both are things I was planing on buying anyway, in particular the folding bike as you can take them onto trains with you, which you can't do with a regular bike. While the heater was about the same price I could get it at the store, I got the bike for about $40 cheaper than I was expecting to have to pay! Plus I got to help out well deserving charities as well. I also bid on a printer, as I don't have one at home, but the bidding went to high and I can always print things for free at school.

Labels: Christmas, international center, party

I was invited to an enkai by my base school and decided to take them up on the offer. Basically, an enkai is a work party and they are quite common in Japan. Lots of food, drinking, and coworkers having a good time together. This was my base school's end of sports festival/end of the semester enkai and thus a pretty big one. It was held at an onsen in Isawa and there was even a bus to take everyone! Only problem was that the day of the enkai wasn't the day I worked at my base school, so the bus made an extra stop to come pick me up!



The onsen was really nice and the party started with some optional spa time, which I opted to do cause going to this enkai was expensive (about 6,000 yen) and I wanted to get my money's worth! Then we went to our private room to get the actual party started. The setup was really fancy and everyone drew a color and number to determine where they sat. Well, everyone but my JTE, cause they made her sit next to me.



Once everyone was seated, the food started to come, and come, and come, and come. It never seemed to end! I also ended up with quite a few glasses of plum sake too. The alcohol they were serving was beer, which I don't drink, so all the teachers who weren't drinking, and even some who were, gave me their sake so I could have a good time. And once I was done with those, the principal ordered me some more! I was really nice of everyone to do that for me and I felt a bit embarrassed, but the sake was really good, so I sure wasn't going to turn it down.












After all the food, I was stuffed. In between all the eating and drinking, we also did a mini version of a sports festival including a three-legged race, tug of war, and a catch things in a basket game. Quite funny watching ones coworkers run about while tipsy. Sadly, my team came in last, but we got some nice consolation prizes, so it wasn't to bad. I personally got a pair of red banging stick noise maker type things. At the end of the night, and after finishing all my sake, they then asked me to give a little speech on what I thought about the school festival and enkai. Luckily, I wasn't too drunk, so I stood up and said a few words. After the onsen, there was another bus ready to take everyone to another bar, but I ended up going home as my ride wanted to head out. Plus, I had to go to work the next day! All in all, a good evening out and something I would totally do again.

Labels: party, work