So the enkai right?

I didn't take any pictures! Hooray! But the reason I didn't take pictures was because it wasn't at a traditional japanese restaurant with traditional Japanese food. It was just at a "bistro" and it was a buffet. Nothing real interesting going on, but I thought I would give you the run down.

Chris and I showed up to the enkai and were imediately separated. We had to draw letters from a sack and then sit at the table with that letter on it. I got "C" and Chris got "G". So, aparted! At first I was bummed out because I was the only foreignor at my table. Chris got to sit with Hannah and one of the perky guys from the Board of Education. But it turned out, the one guy sitting down already used to be an English teacher and the other man who sat down at my table was the 'oficial translator' of the enkai. Now, don't be fooled by his title that I just made up...he couldn't speak English well. But they were both very gung-ho to try!

The food was pretty good for once. They had yummy roast beef, ok meat loaf, good doria (cheesy rice caserole thingy), weird sandwhiches, and other things. I filled up on doria. I think it was this type of enkai because of all the foreigners or something. So no pictures.

I don't know if you remember, but I have mentioned before about the purpose of an Enkai. The purpose is to get together with your co-workers, let your hair down, and get drunk. Since I don't like the taste of beer, I was drinking ginger ale. Over the dinner, my two table-mates kept asking me why I didn't drink. I cheerfully explained that I didn't like the way beer/alchohol tasted so I just wanted to drink ginger ale. They would just nod like they understood. They were drinking though. Heh.

So anyways, after dinner, it became wander around and talk to people time. You could still eat and they would bring out more food but people were mainly just chatting and stuff. Somehow, it was discovered that I really enjoy learning about Shinto and Japanese mythology. I find it a fascinating religion and a beautiful one. So first, they taught me about Izumo, which is known as "ya (w)o ryozu" which means "the land of 800 gods (Something I learned recently is the ancient Japanese mythology use the number '8' to imply inumerable. So it doesn't mean there are only 800 gods in Izumo, just that there are too many to be counted). Then they chattered about Dustin Kidd and how he visited every principle shrine in Japan. Now this is kinda amusing because no matter who I am talking to, or what I am talking about, Izumo residents ALWAYS somehow ask if I know Dustin. He's a bit of a legend around here. Everyone likes Dustin, the foreigners always just roll their eyes when they get compared to him. Heh.

Someone then remembered that there was another enkai-er who lived at a shrine!! Not only did he live at a shrine, but he was a shinto priest. By this time, I should mention, there were about 5 older men sitting around me, drunk, and intently discussing and teaching me about Shinto and asking questions. The were amusing. So they brought the priest over and we talked a little about his shrine. Now, I have no idea where he lives, what his shrine is for, or what he does when he's not a priest (being a shinto priest is not always a full time job!). They were explaining to me how he has the ability to purify people when they come to his shrine and can perform ceremonies.

Suddenly, people started asking me about my studies in Japanese religion. I had to admit that I had no formal education in Japanese religion but I did study Confucianism in college. Oops. We were having problems communication because no one knew what I meant when I said 'Confuscianism'. So, to solve the problem, they called over a tipsy Mihara-san to translate. Heh. Mihara-san, always the go-to-gal for translation difficulties! She really is very fluent in English, however, when tipsy, she has more difficulties. She wasn't drunk, just on her way to becoming drunk. Anyways, she perked up and ran to find a dictionary. They decided that the priest wasn't a priest, but he was a Japanese Pastor. Now this was really funny because Japanese people pronounce 'pasta' and pastor' the same way. There was also pasta sitting on the table. So when Mihara-san came back to say 'Confuscianism' in Japanese, she heard them say 'pastaa'. So she giggled and pointed to the pasta on the table. Well, everyone got a huge kick out of the pasta/pastor confusion. So someone said that it was priest. Then someone else giggled and said "pleased!" because it sound the same. Oh lordy. I promise, it was really funny but it was a 'you had to be there' sort of funny I think.

It was something I never thought I would experience. 5 men, all old enough to be my father, sitting around my table, while drunk, and me the center of attention. Surreal, one my call it. But it was a good time. The best part I guess, is that 2 or 3 of the men were my boss in some aspect or another. One was the head supervisor, one was the section chief, and one oversees Saturday English. That's what enkais are for though, getting drunk with your boss and having fun. When its not enkai time, it's like the partying and friendships never happened. It's so strange.

Anyways, after that I decided to go sit with Chris for awhile. Just to take a breather. I sat with him for about thirty minutes and talked to him and Junya (sounds like your saying 'junior' is how I remember his name!). Junya is a really nice guy. He's younger and one might call him portly. He's very funny though. Always cracking jokes, even when not drunk. We actually saw him at the beach last weekend. He was playing soccer with some friends. Or something. I dunno. While sitting with Chris, they brought out this fancy meat thing. I ate it and it tasted like...pot roast! It really did! It was so good. I might have had a second piece (Chris didn't eat his so I wouldn't have felt bad), but I was so full. It was really fancy looking though. All arranged nicely on the platter whith sauce poured over. I did drop my last bite in chris's watermelon juice and that was kinda disappointing.

About 30 minutes after I sat down, I decided to go back to my table with my 'ojiisan' (means old man or grandpa, thats what they called themselves). When I sat down, my ginger ale had been moved. In it's place was a glass of beer. They decided to play a joke on me. They tried to convince me that it was ginger ale and not beer. Heh. They were holding back giggles and staring at me like you do when waiting for someone to fall for a prank. I called them on it though. Beer is yellow. Ginger ale is almost clear (looks like champange really). However, I shurgged and said 'kampai!' (Japanese for 'cheers!') and took a sip. I made a horrible face, because beer is not tasty and they all laughed hysterically. After that, someone brought me a ginger ale.

Then the questions started. Now, this is the first time I have been questioned about my marriage by men, so it went in an odd (and telling) direction. At first they asked when I was going to get married to Chris. I laughed and said I was already married and my 1 year aniversary would be in October. After I round of applause and congratulations (I kid you not), they spotted chris getting something to drink and waved him over. They then congratulated him on his aniversary. After that they started asking about being married. Where did you get married? ("Oh, Izumo...yaaaaay! Kampai!") When are you having a ceremony? Susie, are you going to be mama? *sound of a record scratching* Er...mama? So I turn pink and explain that we want to wait until after we move home and Chris goes to grad school to have a kid.

And then the question I never expected came out. "You don't want a baby? So...why did you marry him?" Uh...excuse me? That was completely bizarre and unexpected. And all the men around the table were curious and wanted to know. So I laughingly (and even more pinkly) explained that I loved Chris. They just blinked at me. So I said that he was a good man. Still staring. "He's hot?" That brought them out into a burst of laughter and congratulating Chris in that 'aww man, you DAWG!' way. Heh. So weird. Then they asked Chris what my best feature was (embarassing!) and he said just went "uhhhh" and eventually they settled on everything (yay, Im awesome!). They were like, "so you love him?" And when I nodded they simply said "ah, of course...wow...I am so jealous."

It was kind of a telling conversation though. I'm not kidding when I say that you get married in Japan to have babies. That's it. If you want to smooch someone, or date someone, or whatever...you just do it. You only get married to start a family. And when I say that I don't want to start a family yet (come on, we can't afford a kid, it's so expensive!) everyone is really confused about why. Why I don't want kids. Why I got married. It's a very strange mindset to me.

After that conversation, Chris took off to his table and the Enkai wound down. They anounced that the first party was over and they would be doing a SECOND PARTY! Woo! They decided to go to Karaoke. Chris and I decided to call it a night though. Anyways, another interesting Enkai fact is they are often tiered. They will have the first party which is dinner. Then they will go to the second party (and they call it a second party). Sometimes there is even a third party (and so on and so forth) but apparently there was only one last night. They did go karaoke-ing and they actually went to the Karaoke parlor attached to our building. How fun! Like I said, we didn't go and just stayed in and watched a movie.

So that was the enkai. I hope this wasn't a terribly boring entry. I had a lot of fun last night. It was really interesting talking to the ojiisans and seeing everyone so relaxed. Plus the food was really good. That's always helpful!