The Enkai

Okay people this post will be much shorter than the last one.

So lately I've been having more and more of those days where you catch yourself and realize that life is just about perfect. Even when the off-days come and you just want to go home and sleep, I find that there's absolutely no room for complaints. I wake up and go to work where I get to hang with great kids. When 5pm rolls around I head out, ride my bike to wherever I need to go and do whatever I darn well please for the rest of the night. Hanging out with friends, studying Japanese, hopping on my scooter and getting groceries down the street. It's just great being here and finally getting to the place where I can't imagine things being better. I know days will come where I'll be ready to jump on a plane and head back to America, but life is good when where you are is where home is. Being out on my balcony (yeah, I've got a balcony on the 4th floor with a great view!)looking around at everything going on is wonderful. Even though there's nothing spectacular to see. It's just good.

That being said I had one great day this last Saturday. I had to be at work this Saturday at 7:00 am because my Jr. High had the annual sports festival. This is basically like the field days we american's have in elementary school with fun events like the 3-legged race and relays and races only it's for Jr. Highers. The days started off pretty boring, but around lunch time there were some events that teachers got to take part in. Two to be exact. One was tug of war: teachers and parents against the students. The other one was a relay with the teachers from each grade competing against each other. I had a blast! My team got last, but it was SO much fun.

Here are some pics of my students from the sports fesitval.


9th graders with Ms. Lacey's shades


One of my english club girls getting her announcing on. I was so proud of them. They are only 7th graders and they did a GREAT job of making announcements for each event all in English. Way to go girls!


This is one of the 7th grade classes. Gotta love the kids! This was taken after the festivities at the end of the day.


I thought Pocahontas was long gone, but come to find out she was just hangin in Japan as a 7th grade girl. It was funny, so I took a picture.

These are pics from the Enkai. An enkai is a really expensive party that all the teachers go to. It takes place in a Hotel conference room and there are speeches and food and drinks, and people getting crazy. Do I condone even getting a little buzzed? NO, I don't, but Enkai's are a part of a teacher's life over here and a great opportunity to build relationships with your fellow teachers. You all come together to talk and relax and just get to know each other outside of the school setting. At school you constantly have to be professional and enkai's are where teacher's let their guards down. I can't deny it's a great time to find out who actually CAN speak english. They relax and sure enough english just starts coming out. I work with really fun people, but I rarely get to see it and they rarely get to see it in me. After the enkai was over, a 2nd enkai took place at a karaoke place.
Here are some pictures from that.



One of the two guys singing here is my 2nd grade English teacher. The guy in the striped shirt is the 2nd grade PE teaching assistant.
They were getting into the music as you can see.


The man standing up "conducting" is my vice-principal.

I had a great night. Mostly because of the karaoke-ing. At first I was really shy and didn't want to sing. I'm perfectly happy bursting out in song in the privacy of my own home, but not in front of people I know and certainly not people I work with and have to face in the near future. HOWEVER, there was one teacher that, oddly enough, doesn't speak english, yet knows every single word to Jon Bon Jovi's "It's my life" WELL, this teacher wanted me to sing it with him and I really didn't want to because I know how I sound. I didn't want to leave him hanging though so I stood up with him in the room surrounded by my co-workers and was just about to pee my pants when the room started clapping and cheering b/c they were about to hear the white chick sing. This actually helped me to "feel the mood" and in no time Mr. Sato and Ms. Lacey were belting out the words to "It's my life" with all the heart and soul only found in the church choir on Sunday mornings. This guy was good. I couldn't believe that he knew every single word to this song and I had an absolute blast singing it with him. After that the gloves were off and I was ready to go a second round of whatever Jon Bon Jovi song Mr. Sato had memorized. I can't remember what else we sang, but there were at least two more. Oh to connect with fellow Japanese teachers through the awe-inspiring lyrics of Mr. Bon Jovi. With all of my heart Jon; I love you.