役場の若者宴会 My welcome reception from the 30 years old and under workers at Town Hall.

So, August 4, Tuesday. I was making my errand rounds with Su at all the schools and banks and stuff when I met Sakurai-san. He was the coolest and cookiest teacher at the middle school. He`s my new favorite teacher cuz he`s so funny and laidback and treats me like his daughter or niece or whatever. Super nice man. Anyways he was wearing a blue jumpsuit and was on the side of the road doing some gardening of some sort on the school grounds. I wasn:t exactly sure what the school grounds. I wasn:t exactly sure what he was doing, but I think it`s cute that the teachers in doing, but I think it`s cute that the teachers in Japan do a lot of random things on campus besides just teaching. Anyways so we talked to him for a while and he asked us to eat lunch with him later. So we went to Seico Mart to buy bento and went to the school. A couple of the teachers were there as well and I met the English teacher who I will be working with at the junior high. And damn he was good looking. Immediately when I entered the room my eyes went straight for him because he was the hottest thing there. And then Sakurai-san introduced us and I was like "WHat!? Man, I`ll definitely enjoy teaching with him, that`s for sure." Seriously, I heard that all the teachers here are all in their early 20s and that I`ll be teaching with male teachers around my age for both high school and middle school, though for elementary I`m not sure what gender the teacher will be. I`m ｑｕｉｔｅ looking forward to being with them. Although I`ll be massively distracted in class. lol

So anyways I ate lunch with Sakurai-san and his best friend teacher Momo-san. They were the old men teachers that were young at heart. Such funny guys! I opened up to them immediately and they told me to come back the next day as they will be waiting. So far, I`m loving my job.

At 6:30 I came back to town hall for the 若者宴会 or the 30 years old and under people`s welcome reception. There were about 14 of them and we all sat down in a tatami room to eat pizza. Yup, Japanese style pizza. I had the curry one, which was amazingly good, but for some reason, these days I haven`t been able to eat very much. I`m not depressed or anything. Just not eating as much. Maybe that`ll be good for my diet. Anyways, I only ate one piece and was full. There were about an equal amount of boys as there are women in the group. It was a little daunting at first, but everyone`s so friendly and super nice that I became comfortable with everybody. Although everyone still thought I was nervous or something. Anyways we drank alot and I feel that even though I eat very little, the beer makes up majority of my calories. I`ve had a lot of beer lately and I dont think its good for me. lol =P The head of the young people enkai was a funny loud and perverted dude. And he would fart alot. It was a little unnerving for me to have someone pass gas so freely in front of everyone else, but I think I slowly started getting used to it just like everything else. The girls there were super awesome and really nice. They even invited me to join their 乙女会 Otome-kai, which is the women`s drinking gathering. It`s kind of hard to translate it. lol I became really good friends with the girl who sat next to me. She`s the daughter of the local Shrine priestess. So she told me that I can go and 'play' at the shrine anytime. Quiet and reserved, but really great girl.

Some of the humor and jokes said were a little confusing to me during this whole thing. I think I still prefer sarcastic dry jokes or some stupid American jokes, but they still try their hardest to explain these jokes to me and make me laugh. I did smile and laugh alot during the party though. Afterwards, some people went home, and the others and I went to the second party as they call it. We went to an izakaya and ate some more food and drank some more beer and alcohol. Man, Japanese people can seriosly eat ALOT!!! I couldn`t believe how much food everyone kept shoving into their mouths yet they`re all so slim!!! They kept shoving food at me too, but I really couldn`t eat anymore. I felt like I might`ve been a little rude refusing the food so I took small bites and couldn`t eat anymore. Some people were passed out and drunk so conversations went in wierd directions. =P I probably normally would never talk to them like this, but after drinking evreyone was like wheeeeeee. lol There is one guy that really enjoyed talking to me. I thought he was awesome, though he was a little odd at times. lol I believe his name is Keigo. He just got married and has the cutest wife ever! He`s so nice to me and he walked back home with me. I love the people here. And also, I`ve been invited to another guy`s wedding. ^^ I dont really know who he is other than he was one of the guys at the party, but he`s getting married and invited all of us to go. At 11 everything ended and we all went back home.

I think I might be getting second hand smoke or already have it. There`s just too much smoking that goes on here and I feel dizzy alot of the times during enkais, but I try to power through it to show people that I really enjoy being there. Anyways, I`m currently at work with nothing to do, so I`m typing away on my blog. I really should be studying Japanese or coming up with lesson plans, but my brain is really tired from last night so all i can do right now is just write this thing. So more blogging to come later, hopefully, not during work. lol