Nemo is much more appealing in the sea

Tuesday is the closing ceremony for the summer term at school; and last night was the teachers' end-of-term enkai. My first enkai back in April, the welcome one for new teachers and the start of the school year, was a great experience socially and gustatorily. (For tales from my previous enkai see this post.) While I can say the same about the social aspects of last night's celebration, I cannot even begin to say the same about the evening's gustatory aspects. (I wanted to take pictures of last night's dishes; but I left my camera at home and then forgot to use my camera phone. So my apologies that I don't have pictures to speak my 1,000 words. But trust me when I say that last night's dishes would have been quite the sight for you to see.)

Socially, I had a good time. Our tables at the first party of the evening (just as last time, there were two parties - one in a hotel dining room and another at a restaurant) were assigned not by grade-level as they were at April's enkai but by matching the package of candy or gum that we drew out of a box with the identical package placed at one of four dining tables. So I ended up sitting with the third-grade teachers, one fourth-grade teacher, and the principal. What began as polite conversation about our summer vacation plans, what cuisines we enjoy, etc. ended with me getting asked about my dating life and perhaps my principal making a pass at me. I have no idea how it happened, as the conversation that had been occurring prior to that point in Japanese and I had stopped paying attention. But after I got drawn into a flow of conversation that is too long to write about came to a close, I think my principal asked me if I would get a Japanese boyfriend and then told me that he is single, which I later found out that he's not. What is it with older, married men making (possible) passes at me? You're not my target demographic! But I digress. Back to the events of the evening.

The entertainment during the meal was BINGO; and I had the opportunity to experience some of what my students feel when I play it with them in English class, since, of course, last night we played it in Japanese. (The students do have the advantage of having studied 1-10 since first grade, 1-20 since second grade, etc. However, once you know how to count from one to ten in Japanese, numbers from 11 to 99 aren't hard to figure out, e.g., eleven is said as ten-one, 20 is said as two-ten, 39 is said as three-ten-nine.... ) But I did get a BINGO and win a Hello Kitty toothbrush, though I was slightly envious of the ninja mask that one of the special education teachers won and the punching cat ballpoint pen that the principal won, since both would have been great gifts for my nephew.

Gustatorily, I had a horrible time. It was heavy on the seafood, which I already struggle with eating, having grown up in the land-locked state of Kansas. But the seafood from the first enkai was really good whereas from last night's enkai it was really bad. Strangely enough, once again I liked the sashimi. It was everything else, including the Beef-Wellington-esque course, that I wish I wouldn't have eaten, especially since between the first and second enkai the evening will have cost me around $70 when I pay my share of the first enkai at school next week. But I was adventurous in my eating, which impressed the teachers and administrators, since they know that I don't particularly care for seafood. So I'm glad that I made the effort to try the foods that they like, even if I didn't.

During the first meal, lying on top of a plastic green leaf in my cubed tuna and salmon sashimi bowl served with rice, ginger, seaweed, and some other shredded vegetable, were salmon eggs. (To give you a mental picture, if you don't know what a salmon egg looks like, think of slightly small peas that are pink instead of green.) I ate two of them since everyone had been watching me pick around my meal all evening. While I don't plan to eat them again, they weren't as fishy-tasting as I'd expected them to be, nor were they salty like caviar. But once bitten into, the liquid inside immediately dissipated into my mouth since they have no substance; so other than any possible omega-3 benefits, I don't know why someone would want to eat a salmon egg. Other food served during the first meal included raw and cooked shrimp with the heads and, therefore, eyeballs still attached; noodles made from puréed whitefish with sticky fishy-tasting sauce underneath; a gelatinous substance made from fish whose name sounds similar to the word "cognac"; and who knows what else that my mind is trying to forget. The only thing I liked from this first meal was the course with the three meatballs in tomato and vegetable sauce and the one-inch square of watermelon that came with the dessert course.

At the second meal, there was a salad that I was looking forward to eating, until I realized that mixed in with the daikon radish shreds were tiny, translucent white fish, whose backbones (or waste veins, not sure which) and eyeballs could be seen if examined closely enough. I ate one little white thing that may have been radish or fish, I'm not sure which, before giving my plate to the administrator sitting across from me to finish, since he proclaimed that it was very healthy. I was offered some raw oyster that I initially turned down and then tried despite my misgivings, since even the aforementioned administrator said he doesn't eat raw oyster. However, I don't have the hashi (chopsticks) skills that Japanese people have when it comes to cutting. So rather than getting a little piece of raw oyster to try, I pulled off a huge piece. It was without a doubt the most revolting thing I have ever tasted. Well, I take that back; it may not have been worse than the toilet-flavored liver that I ate several weeks ago. I couldn't chew it up and ended up having to swallow it whole, helped along by a generous gulp of Coca-Cola. Another "traditional" lettuce and tomato salad had seafood in it; and the piece of (raw? cooked?) octopus that was on my plate was crunchy and gross, which was nothing at all like the octopus that I tried at my last enkai. So when that same administrator offered me some fried squid tentacles that came from the tank just inside the restaurant doors, I turned them down. (On a side note, I pass by this restaurant every Wednesday during my walk to my once-weekly kindergarten. I've always wondered how the food tasted and what was in the tank. Be careful what you wish for, right?) The only thing from this meal that I liked was the french fries and the Coca-Cola.

Seventy dollars is a lot of money to drop on food, especially on food that isn't good. And while enkai attendance isn't required, I do like the camaraderie of the parties since I don't spend as much time with the teachers as they spend with each other due to their 12ish-hour work day expectations. So I most likely will go to the next enkai-like party in September after the school's sports festival. But as I hope to travel somewhere in December, and the end-of-term enkai will be held just a few days before Christmas, I highly doubt that I'll be present for that one. So here's to hoping for an enkai more like the first and less like the last. Kampai!

Until next time...