Enkais, a great Japanese tradition

Well, it is the end of the school year here in Japan. They go from April to March here. Over the past 7 months Ive learned a lot about the Japanese education system. I pretty much think the whole thing needs to be thrown out and re-written, but that is a story for another time. But, to add to my frustration of already being bored and lonely, I find out that 5 of my teacher-friends are being moved to other schools. In Japan it is required that teachers transfer schools in certain situations --

1. If you are a part-time teacher you can only be at one school for 3 years max.
2. If you have been at one school for a long time, maybe around 10 years, you are usually transferred at that point.
3. You put in your grunt work time at a school you don't like or is far away from your family/base, and then you are able to switch to your area of choice.

I am really upset about all this. Two of them are English teachers, one which is my best friend at this school, the other who speaks English great and we had an awesome class last year and I was hoping to continue on with that class and her as my co-teacher. The other three are males who comprised 1/2 of our soccer team and the "boys club" that I have pushed myself into. And they are all moving far away ... which sucks. One of them I am quite close with him and his family, and they are moving over an hour away ...

...And I was told all this the day after Dan left.

But, to make up for part of it, I got to go to 2 enkais this past week. Enkais are after-school traditional eating/drinking parties. It is acceptable to get shit-faced at these events and then come to school as if nothing had happened that previous night. They were really really fun - especially the "young teachers" enkai were we had loads of Chinese food, I chugged beer with Kazuma sensei, and I got a great video of Mayagawa, Honma, and Ueda sensei imitating me with a little dance. Priceless.


And after that night, I felt great. I felt like I was on cloud 9. Look at all these Japanese friends I had! Despite not being able to speak much English or vice versa, we laughed for hours, play soccer together, and have a great time. I really felt connected.

Sometimes the little things about Japan creep up on me. I like it when they do, because it makes me feel happy. Being accepted in the Japanese young teachers clan? Alright! Talking to ladies about how they have traveled the world and one has been to Africa 10 times? She is forcing me to re-think my lame-Japanese-woman theory. Watching a man with a cane salsa-dance in a Japanese club? More power to you!

Here is one more small thing - not understanding what is goin on in Japanese, but still laughing your ass off at the situation. This happened after my English-teacher enkai were we went to a sushi place. By the end of the night all the males were goners ... too much to drink ... so we all piled into Yamakita-sensei's car with his wife at the helm. She had drove about an hour out there to pick him up and ended up with 5 other people to drop off. So began our vomit-inducing twisty-turning car ride through god knows where in the middle of no where. Two of the male teachers are acting like children during the car ride. Freakin hilarious. We get to first teachers house -- rather, street, as we dropped him off because he couldnt remember which house was his. On our way to teacher #2 house, teacher #1 calls teacher #2s cell phone saying he is reading for the nijikai, afterparty, and misses us terribly. Could we come back to hang out with him? Maybe this doesnt seem as funny when I type it out now ... But it was hilarious. We had just dropped him off and he was calling asking for more!!

I hope the small things come in big bundles soon ... before I lose more of my mind in this lonely rice town village ...