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!
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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.
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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.
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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