Bonenkai

Yesterday I taught three classes to substitute for a teacher who couldn't make it. And in one of the classes I taught a little girl the ABC's. I felt like Mr. Rogers.

Then last night was the Bonenkai for my work. Bonenkai (忘年会) means end of the year party. Actually litterally translated it means a meeting to forget the year. Which probably happens because people just get really drunk. None of the native english teachers could go to the party last night, so it ended up being me and a bunch of middle aged Japanese working people. The adult students of the school were invited. At first they asked me to say something to everyone in english since I was the "star of the party". So I just introduced myself and when I got to my age, all the women said "ehhh?". I'm not sure what was so surprising about me being 21, but it sure got their attention. After I introduced myself, everyone went around and asked me a question to practice their english. It was like, what do you like about Japan and such. But then one guy couldn't figure out how to say it in english so he asked me about my "好きな女性タイプ". (the type of girls I like) Mind you I was with people probably no where near my age group. And then I said something about liking women who are easy going and fun, and the women all said "we are all like that". So if I ever wanted to date some older Japanese women, I know where to go. We had a full dinner course with all sorts of Japanese food. They all would watch me when I ate something to see how I liked it. Everything was good except for this horrible lie of a dish. It looked exactly like peach cobbler with different berries and fruit. It looked like a dump cake sort of. But when I ate it, it was fried fish and strange vegetables. I have no idea how they got it to look like peach cobbler, but it was a cruel cruel joke. Then they wanted me to try 日本酒(nihon-shu), what we call sake. I had never had it before so they were all anxious to see how I liked it. It basically tastes like water with rice flavouring. All the women "ehhh?"'d at me again when I drank it without any problem. Sake has about the same amount of alcohol as wine, but apparently it's really strong to Japanese people. All in all a good time. I'm glad I got to go to a real end of the year party for a Japanese company. You don't get those chances everyday!