even teachers wanna have fun

my welcome enkai [code word for work party] was held at a sushi bar around the corner on wednesday night [8/25/04]. it was my predecessor and i along with the English teachers from minamishiro koko [my high school] and a young physics teacher who enjoys practicing his English, which is pretty darn good already. we sat in a tatami room and everyone took turns telling a bit about themselves as we were served plate after plate of incredible food. the meal started with a plate of sashimi including tuna, yellowtail, bream, scallop [my new favorite] and sweet shrimp. the presentation was top-notch; the colors were arranged well and the plate was garnished with little yellow and purple flowers. then came a prawn that was about eight inches long. i watched everyone else and then followed suit as they wrenched its head off and used the chopsticks to pluck the gooey white and green meat [brains?] from its head. then you cracked open the body and because this is such a classy restaurant they were nice enough to serve us all pregnant prawns. you ate the eggs along with the huge chunk of meat in the body. it was sweet and tasty. then a conch-looking shell that turned out to be a sea snail [after i checked my dictionary the next day] cooked with butter and herbs. very earthy and tender. a small basket of tempura was followed by an eggy, custardy, soupy mix with chunks of shrimp and fish in it. finally a plate of nigiri sushi- super fresh. i passed off my piece of ikura [the big fish eggs] to the physics teacher. the meal was accompanied by all the sapporo and green tea you could drink.
the party then moved on to another traditional bar where they ordered more food, including beef tongue, fish carpaccio and mixed root salad. we all drank draught beer and shochu drinks for a couple more hours. it didn’t get too rowdy but everyone definitely had a good time. impromptu karaoke broke out and teacher gossip was swirling. i can see these get-togethers fortifying the bonds between the teachers. too bad these parties are a bit costly, so they aren’t a regular occurrence.