Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Pa-ti Pa-ti Pa-ti
As is common here, there were parties for pretty much every event. On March 15th I went to Yoshika Junior’s graduation party, on the 17th I went to Kakinoki Elementary’s graduation party, on the 24th I went to Kakinoki Junior’s end of year/goodbye party and as I was leaving I saw the Kakinoki Elementary staff having their end of year/goodbye party & crashed it , and on the 29th I went to the BoE’s staff goodbye party. I this upcoming Wednesday Kakinoki Junior will have a welcome party for the new staff members and this Friday Kakinoki Elementary will as well. I suspect the BoE will have one too, but I haven’t heard anything yet. There will also be a party this weekend in Tsuwano. A lot of foreigners are getting together for a festival in Tsuwano that features archery. In the next week or so Hanami season will begin. A Hanami is a flower viewing party where you have a picnic and get drunk under Cherry Blossom trees. I have one planned so far, but may end up at 2 or 3.
Japanese teachers work very hard (often not very efficiently, but hard) and they really like to blow off steam. The Japanese are also masters of building up a group. They learned long ago that employees feel much more a part of a group after doing activities together outside of where they work. So, the standard thing they do is get drunk & sing together. I enjoy going to the parties and watching everyone relax and play around.
My only real complaint with these Japanese parties is their food selection. In America when we have a party we think of food like pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, barbeque, chili, nachos, potato chips, and so on. In Japan when they think of party food they think of eating raw stuff, mostly seafood related. Sometimes they start with something alive and then cook it, apologizing to the creature as it writhes about in agony. Yes, yes, it is much more healthy than American party food, but I don’t care how healthy food is at a party; I just want it to taste good. When I pay $50 (the average price for these parties) for a dinner, I want to have some really good food. The Japanese do really enjoy the stuff. Sometimes they look like they are going to fall out of their chairs in ecstasy because they enjoy the food so much. To me it’s just a bunch of smelly and slimy raw fish or whatever. Sometimes the restaurant staff will be kind and bring me something that isn’t seafood, but often what they bring me is slices of raw meat.
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