Nomikai

A few weeks ago, my school had a culture festival (all the schools do it). That evening after it was over, I went out with all the teachers for a nomikai, or drinking party. It was my second time attending one. We went to an izakaya of sorts, a traditional restaurant, where all 20 teachers sat at a long table on the floor and ate nabe, or hot pot. We chose numbers when we came in. I ended up sitting next to the principal, across from the vice principal and next to one of the third year homeroom teachers, Nio-sensei, who is the next youngest teacher after me, Fukunaga-sensei (the judo coach who's three days older than me) and Yamamura-sensei, the first year English teacher, who's 25. 

There's a certain amount of ceremony involved in these things. The principal or vice principal makes a little toast, then we all do a toast (kampai). But once everyone starts drinking, the formality dissolves rapidly. At "formal" meals like this, no one fills their own glass. It is polite to fill someone else's glass for them. But what's weird is, they don't even wait for you to finish your drink. It could be 3/4 full, and someone will still pop up going "douzo, douzo" and holding out a bottle of beer or sake. Consequently everyone drinks copiously. It's a lot of fun for me because once the teachers have had a few drinks, they stop being shy about speaking to me in English (or Japanese for that matter). At one point the vice principal was talking to the judo coach, they were sitting across from me, and he grabbed the guy's pecs, turned to me, and said "Miriam-sensei, look, he has big muscles" and laughed drunkenly. It's really funny to see my coworkers outside school--it's a totally different atmosphere. 

I was sitting next to the principal, and he kept pouring me sake, so I got pretty tipsy. After dinner we went to a karaoke bar. There, Yamamura-sensei told me she's getting married in February. I was really surprised, she's only two years older than me. I didn't even know she was seeing anyone. I asked her how long they'd been dating, and she said since July. July! I asked her if it was common in Japan for people to get married so quickly. She said not really. In her case (as I think is often the case here) she still lives with her parents, and they won't let her live with her boyfriend until they're married, so she figured why wait? So that was a surprise, but it's quite exciting. 

So apparently when my teachers get drunk they love to sing karaoke. Both times we went for karaoke after dinner. And both times, they made me sing. I wouldn't really mind so much, but they make me sing bad English songs that I DON"T KNOW. Nio-sensei asked me if I knew the Backstreet Boys, and before I knew what was happening I was singing "I Want it That Way." And by singing I mean kind of mumbling, because I haven't heard that song since I was 13. My resolution is to come up with a good song to sing next time they thrust a mic into my hands.