The Enkai ...

An Enkai is a traditional Japanese party. A book that I read defined an Enkai as follows:

"An Enkai resembles a Western night out in the same way that a garden sprinkler resembles Niagra Falls! The Japanese have a reputation for being formal and straight-laced at work, but the office night out is when they let their hair down and really come out of their shells. The tradition is that you eat and drink your fill, gobble down as much sake as possible, and behave anyway you like. Conversely though, to protect all involved, there's a tradition that what happens at the Enkai, stays at the Enkai, and doesn't effect relationships in work the next day."

I've only been to one Enkai, and it wasn't anything too wild. It was actually a lot of fun. We ate what seemed like a 42 course meal, a traditional Japanese one of course, drank Kirin biru (be-roo), which is beer in Japanese, toasted sake, played games, and sang karaoke. Of course I took a lot of pictures, and even a karaoke video or two.

This was the first part of our meal. Everything was pretty much raw and cold.
It was also never ending. When you finished something, they brought something else.
I can imagine you would be incredibly full if you ate everything.
I tried almost everything and I liked about 1/10 of it. I'm getting better.

Up close shot of one of the 28 dishes. And yes, that is a dandelion.
And yes, people ate it.

And Amanda & I were pressured to sing a little karaoke.
As embarrassing at it was, it was quite hilarious.
I love the fact that I can laugh at myself, because I cracked up over this for weeks.

We took some videos too. Mostly of people singing karaoke. It is so different here than it is back in the states. Take a look for yourself. (WARNING: You might possibly get nauseous from watching my video taped clips. I'm horribly at recording, not to mention I was trying to act as though I wasn't recording because I didn't know if it would be considered rude or not. Maybe take some Dramamine before you watch. Sorry!)

Three teachers singing what I thought was a Japanese rendition of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'.


One of our head honchos singing some sort of love song.



This man is the principal of one of our schools and is quite hilarious. He dedicated this song to Amanda and I and improved half way through to change the words so they would fit. He was pointing at us and smiling.



This was one of our games. A Janken tournament. AKA - Rock, Scissors, Paper. It's like a sport here.

much love,
-tara-
xoxo