Undoukai: The Japanese sports festival

Yesterday, I was asked to attend one of my elementary schools sports festivals. From the word go I was playing the clueless foreigner card, as I had no idea what was going on for the majority without asking a few questions.

The day was a mixture of the usual races, dance performances, and other events that were only comparable to something you’d see on Total Wipe-out. The second graders at all of my elementary schools have been wandering around with flower basket hats lately, and I finally got a chance to watch this schools rendition of hanagasa, or “flower basket dance”, which melted my heart.

One thing I absolutely loved about the day is that only certain grades compete in a designated race for that year. That meant all of the students got a chance to compete, and despite being split into the “red phoenix” or “white dragon” team, the amount of enthusiasm, teamwork and comradery was something I’ve never seen at sports days back home. It was lovely to see how the children also consider themselves one big family, with the 6^th graders taking it upon themselves to comfort the little ones if they came last or fell over.

Did I mention I got roped into racing 4^th graders in their 100m dash? God forbid a child is sick and their race has one less participant. At least I showed willing, and if anything, gave the kids a slight panic attack amidst their exclamations of “eh? Keito sensei?!” at the start line.

Along with bumping in to a few teachers from my other schools, who were pleased to know I was teaching their kids, I found a British companion. She has been living here for 15 years after coming to teach English, and found out about me thanks to a rather large picture of me in the school newsletter; one I was completely unaware of might I add. It’s nice to know someone who’s got their life settled in Kumamoto, but can also relate to the position I’m in. I’ve already been invited to afternoon tea too!

In the evening, I was invited to the schools enkai celebrating their successful day. This was hands down the liveliest enkai I’ve been to, as the teachers had the day off today. The highlight had to be everyone dancing to the music from the festival earlier, and I’m not sure what I loved more; the cute hanagasa by the 2^nd graders, or the drunken rendition at a Chinese restaurant using seat cushions in place of a flower basket. Once the words nijikai (second party) were mentioned, I had to put my foot down before being bullied into karaoke by my principal. He wanted to perform “Bridge Over Troubled Water” for me, something that will have to wait until next time, as I’m not usually one to turn down a bit of karaoke.

All in all, I had a great day, despite wallowing in self-pity at my desk now. I’m pretty sure I hallucinated the smell of a bacon butty earlier, which helps explain my current state, but here’s to regretting drinking a bottle of plum wine, and waiting for 5pm to come. Happy Monday!

Enkais- The ins and outs of Japanese work parties

I’ve been to two enkais now, one for my junior high where I spend most of my days, and one for an elementary where I’d spent only one day prior to the enkai. This should have been a precursor to what I was getting myself into in terms of their desire to use me as an excuse for a party, but they were both very different experiences.

There’s some enkai etiquette that first needs to be mastered:

• NEVER let anyone pour their own drinks, and never pour your own.

• When clinking glasses, always clink lower than your superiors

• Never take a sip before the “kanpai” (cheers)

• If you’re a girl, don’t sit cross-legged

With all these in mind, I headed to my first enkai with my junior high school. It was at an Italian restaurant, and I spent the evening with my five fellow JTE’s (Japanese Teachers of English), with a very informal conversation and environment. I could tell that it was really helping them get to know me better, we shared a lot of laughs, and now in school I have much more banter in the staff room. Just this morning, I got a playful slap from a teacher for taking the piss out of the shrine on her desk of a Japanese actor 20 years her junior.

One of the JTE’s is newly qualified and is the closest teacher I have to my age at any of my schools. We’re bonding too, with her sending me cute LINE stickers asking about my weekend, bitching about her boyfriend and only afterwards discussing lessons plans with me for the following week. I guess you could call her my first friend in the workplace.

My second enkai couldn’t have been more different. At this elementary school, barely any of the teachers speak English. It was held at a super fancy Chinese restaurant, providing free-flowing beer pitchers and lots of tapas like dishes. This was much more formal, as I was told to sit next to the vice-principal and await the principal’s arrival. Many speeches given at various interludes and I also had to give a little speech myself.

My night was spent trying to decipher slurred Japanese, mainly from my tantosha (supervisor), who told me in small terms he loved me, couldn’t wait to work with me, and proceeded to try to set me up on a date with one of the other young teachers. My principal is also super enthusiastic for me to practice calligraphy with her during my free periods as we did it last time I was there.

All in all, while enkai’s can get pretty expensive, and I barely had time to eat my food since so many people wanted a conversation with me, I got to experience two very different ones. Hopefully the enkais in the future, will be just as, if not more, entertaining.