Drinking, Yabu-chu Style!

Last night was the end-of-term enkai (drinking party) for Yabuchu and although I wanted to save money (SO POOR) and not go, I was coerced by Morita Sensei and others! Bastards! Anyway, I’m glad I went as it was fun! We always have enkais in fuck-knows-where Kiryu (I swear every street in that city is as wide as me) because I am the only teacher who lives anywhere near Yabuzuka, sad. Fortunately Ms. Kimura picked me up!

Drinks were very much needed that evening, as a 3nensei beat up some 1nensei students with an umbrella after school?!!! Um, yeah! I enjoy drinking with Yabuchu teachers, as I am convinced they drink 10 times more than teachers at good schools! Many schools have boring enkais with only a few teachers, or if they all go a lot of them don’t drink. Almost all of the Yabu teachers drink, and drink a LOT! Woot, my kind of people.

Enkais are abunai, as it is custom to never have an empty glass (or half empty, or even a sip empty, for that matter), so people pour each other beers constsantly. So it is impossible to know how much you actually drank by the end of the night! Abunaiiiiiiyo! They are also abunai because you are given approximately 200 pounds of food (mostly all meat and fish (yes, fish is meat, but not in Japan))!

But yeah, it was a good night! You learn some random shit about your teachers when everyone is drunk! For example, there is this new 1nensei teacher who is always super formal and high-strung and I KNEW he would be a huge lush. A half hour into the party I look over at him and he is the reddest Asian I have ever seen! Not only is his face bright red, but his arms and eyes are, too?! Scary! Anyway, we were bitching about being tall in Japan (he is 185 cm) and I don’t know how we started talking about it, but his dream is to be in the world Monopoly championship?! Crazy! He plays it all the time and wants to be in the next one (apparently it is like the Olympics, as it is every four years, hahaha), but it is in English so he is worried about needing a translator. Dude, that is the most random dream I have ever heard of!

After taking a microbus (damn, we’re organized drunks!) to the 2jikai (second party) we all drank and ate some more, then the night was done. I was dreading calling a cab, as it would be at least 5000 yen, but my gay-as-hell-but-married-with-child teacher offered to drive me home, even tho he lives in the opposite direction! Dude, he is officially the nicest man in the world! I was totally willing to blow him for the ride…..does that make me a slut? I think it just makes me polite!