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I'm on my winter break right now and it feels great!
Thursday night was the bonenkai (end of the year, or literally "forgetting the year") party at work. The first part of my school's bonenkai was the annual bowling competition. I was on one of the all ladies teams with Akiko-sensei, Shono-sensei, and Obara-sensei. Our bowling scores weren't that great because none of us were particularly good bowlers, but we had fun anyways. We also shared a lane with the men's team from the English department, so we cheered each other on and gave high fives all around anytime someone did a good job. After the bowling competition was the actual bonenkai, with food and (of course) drinks at a nearby izakaya. They had us draw numbers as we entered the room to figure out where we'd be seated. I ended up being the only girl at a table full of male teachers. They were all very nice though and Ogura-sensei and Amagai-sensei were seated near me, so they were able to help translate any Japanese that I didn't understand. The food was good and because it's winter there was nabe (hot pot). Nabe is so yummy. After we'd eaten a good deal of food and people were tipsy, it was time for a bit of entertainment. They announced the winners of the bowling competition and the winners were given random prizes that were lovingly bought at Don Quixote (a huge chain of discount stores in Japan) by Kuroda-sensei and Takatori-sensei. Then, Kuroda-sensei and Takatori-sensei did an amusing two person comedy act poking fun at some of the teachers at our school. After that, one of the older teachers (who's name I've forgotten) did a rakugo performance, which was a bit difficult for me to understand, but the other teachers really seemed to enjoy it. There were a few speeches given after that by various teachers, the principle, and the vice principles. This seemed to signify the end of the party. At the very end, Shono-sensei pulled me in as back-up in a semi-drunken argument she was having with one of the PE teachers about whether you should go drinking with other girls if you already have a girlfriend. I have to admit, I was pretty amused. It was a fun night! I'm pretty sure that office parties in other parts of the world aren't nearly as fun and amusing as Japanese office parties.
Yesterday, Kirsten arrived in Tokyo!![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meepalicious, corvae_regina, and I met up with her in Ikebukuro last night. We also met with Zandra, another Tokushima JET, that Kirsten knows. We all went to an izakaya for dinner and had a good time eating, geeking, and chatting. Kiri gave Leslie and I couple's charms that look like cute little sudachi fruits because we're "the biggest lesbian couple" she knows. (We're not actually a couple, though she is the Hakkai to my Gojyo, Issac to my Miria, and Miria to my Issac. XD) We ended our night by taking purikura. Yesterday was a national holiday because it was the emperor's birthday, so we naturally had to include that in our purikura.
And now today is Christmas Eve. We're going to celebrate by getting KFC and a Christmas cake, like the Japanese do. We're also spending the night at Leslie's apartment, so we can all have Christmas together tomorrow. It'll be different, but I think it'll be a fun way to celebrate Christmas.
Thursday night was the bonenkai (end of the year, or literally "forgetting the year") party at work. The first part of my school's bonenkai was the annual bowling competition. I was on one of the all ladies teams with Akiko-sensei, Shono-sensei, and Obara-sensei. Our bowling scores weren't that great because none of us were particularly good bowlers, but we had fun anyways. We also shared a lane with the men's team from the English department, so we cheered each other on and gave high fives all around anytime someone did a good job. After the bowling competition was the actual bonenkai, with food and (of course) drinks at a nearby izakaya. They had us draw numbers as we entered the room to figure out where we'd be seated. I ended up being the only girl at a table full of male teachers. They were all very nice though and Ogura-sensei and Amagai-sensei were seated near me, so they were able to help translate any Japanese that I didn't understand. The food was good and because it's winter there was nabe (hot pot). Nabe is so yummy. After we'd eaten a good deal of food and people were tipsy, it was time for a bit of entertainment. They announced the winners of the bowling competition and the winners were given random prizes that were lovingly bought at Don Quixote (a huge chain of discount stores in Japan) by Kuroda-sensei and Takatori-sensei. Then, Kuroda-sensei and Takatori-sensei did an amusing two person comedy act poking fun at some of the teachers at our school. After that, one of the older teachers (who's name I've forgotten) did a rakugo performance, which was a bit difficult for me to understand, but the other teachers really seemed to enjoy it. There were a few speeches given after that by various teachers, the principle, and the vice principles. This seemed to signify the end of the party. At the very end, Shono-sensei pulled me in as back-up in a semi-drunken argument she was having with one of the PE teachers about whether you should go drinking with other girls if you already have a girlfriend. I have to admit, I was pretty amused. It was a fun night! I'm pretty sure that office parties in other parts of the world aren't nearly as fun and amusing as Japanese office parties.
Yesterday, Kirsten arrived in Tokyo!
meepalicious, corvae_regina, and I met up with her in Ikebukuro last night. We also met with Zandra, another Tokushima JET, that Kirsten knows. We all went to an izakaya for dinner and had a good time eating, geeking, and chatting. Kiri gave Leslie and I couple's charms that look like cute little sudachi fruits because we're "the biggest lesbian couple" she knows. (We're not actually a couple, though she is the Hakkai to my Gojyo, Issac to my Miria, and Miria to my Issac. XD) We ended our night by taking purikura. Yesterday was a national holiday because it was the emperor's birthday, so we naturally had to include that in our purikura. And now today is Christmas Eve. We're going to celebrate by getting KFC and a Christmas cake, like the Japanese do. We're also spending the night at Leslie's apartment, so we can all have Christmas together tomorrow. It'll be different, but I think it'll be a fun way to celebrate Christmas.