house party...

japan is a relatively small country, abounding with people but lacking in space. this is evident in the city planning, which stretches vertically not horizontally, and the countryside’s layout, where rice fields are carved as steps down mountainsides. since room is a commodity here, homes tend to be small and space efficient. the design and close proximity of abodes, often crammed into ‘mansion’ or apartment buildings, doesn’t allow for one of the intrinsic rites of passage in american culture…the house party. well since it is my charge to bring foreign culture to the Japanese people at the grassroots level, I’ve taken it upon myself to throw a few shindigs at my apartment recently, sometimes to the dismay of my neighbors.
friends assuming the quiet position when we thought we were busted. luckily it was a false alarm.

First was an impromptu get together following a friend’s wedding party. After we did a couple hours of all-you-can-eat and drink, we headed to a local izakaya for a few beer towers.

then we retired to my place for dancing and games.

we met these guys at the local coffee shop/cafe, nest. they are all into really great music and have sharp senses of humor. unfortunately they all also have girlfriends. the fellow on the far left, with the goatee, is on my list of crushes. actually, it should be called 'list of unattainable crushes' as they are all married or involved. i'm discovering my bad habit of falling for off-limits men. i've recently decided it's not because i was born to be a home wrecker, instead it's the fact that i'm getting older and as such, all my peers are aging too. and at this age, being married isn't so abnormal. i can see this problem getting worse as i continue to age. maybe that's why so many single older men want to date 18 year olds; they're the only ones not hitched yet. or maybe i'm just rationalizing cause recently i've met a lot of men younger than myself.

my neighbors weren’t so thrilled about this little soiree so I had to spend the next week dodging them. although they don’t party till 5 am, they do do other annoying things that get on my nerves. for instance, once I was awakened at 8 am on a Saturday by this bizarre, repetitive clanking on my glass balcony door. ching, clang, chink, chink, clang… I finally roused to see what the hell it was. this crazy woman had tied a big metal hook to a string and was attempting to fish for a bunch of her laundry that had fallen onto my porch. maybe not a bad idea if it didn’t involve clangle dangling against my door while I’m sleeping. but I just wound her clothes around her grappling hook and didn’t yell at her for being inconsiderate like I really wanted to. I call that even.
next was the Mexican fiesta. I was dismayed/appauled/flabbergasted when I learned that kodama sensei and uchiyama sensei had never eaten a taco, much less a proper Mexican meal [when cooked by a non-native, is that an oxymoron?] I invited them, along with Liz and Carrie over for a little cenar [isn’t that how you say dinner in Spanish? it’s been way too long.] Carrie made nachos, which almost sent uchiyama sensei into cardiac arrest when she chomped down on a jalapeno. we had guacamole, standard tacos and improvised chicken enchiladas. we don’t have any mcormick seasoning packets in this country and I do love the kitchen wizardry involved in whipping up stuff [although I’m not always so good at it] so…i used cream of onion soup, cream cheese, sour cream, mushrooms, milk, garlic, tomato sauce, cumin, cayenne pepper for the sauce and stuffed the previously frozen tortillas [not like the ones at home but not so bad if smothered with enough cheese and sauce] with green onions, mushrooms, chicken breast and jack cheese. we drank so much beer before dinner no one had the motivation to attempt margaritas [considering there was no mix for this either and it would require chemist like concentration]. I regret I didn’t get any pictures from this night although they wouldn’t have revealed the truly interesting part of the evening; honest and enlightening conversation.

the next mexican house party was by request. I had met this group of guys through a few different friends at parties here and there. we were sitting at a bar one night chatting, and one of the fellas inquired about my plans for the following night, I told him about the teacher's fiesta and he quickly invited himself to the next one, noting unbelievably that he too had never eaten mexican grub. [maybe that’s why the japanese can be a bit anal retentive…they don’t drink enough tequila or take enough siestas.] as I had already developed a crush on this boy’s friend, I was quick to organize fiesta parte dos. they all wanted to bring friends so I ended up with a houseload.

as is Japanese custom, they all arrived with gifts of food or wine or nihon shu. I was even more charmed by the boy I’m crushing on when he showed up with a big bottle of tequila, how apropos. he's the one in the bottom right corner, to my left. hot.

working only with one electric burner, a microwave and a half-busted toaster, things turned out pretty well. timing is definitely one of the more difficult things about planning and pulling off a dinner party. the girls voted on the same main courses as they had enjoyed them so much the previous time [go me!!]. I chose the appetizers and opted for chili con carne dip [thanks for the cheez wiz oma and opa], fresh guacamole, and a cream cheese, salsa and black olive dip rolled in tortillas. a smash everything was!

those boys lined up for me to scrape the crusted enchilada sauce of the sides of the pans onto their plates. I’d downloaded a ton of latin and hispanic music for the occasion and all the tequila we consumed meant our salsa and tango didn’t actually look all that bad. we drank, danced, chatted and played until the wee hours.

I’ve decided these theme parties rock and the next one should be mediterannean cause I’m longing for some of that cuisine… although hawaiiian would be fun cause we could wear grass skirts and leis… thai would mean we could drink those crazy whiskey buckets they sell by the beach there… alright, we’ll just keep having house parties till we run out of ideas…
**some photos credited to orenji san. domo.