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Okay, tonight riding home from the station was the second time I had to ask myself that question since coming to Japan. I really don't drink THAT often, but when I get drunk...
Duane invited Eri and I to come to the Urawa GEOS school bounenkai (end-of-year drinking party). I was a little nervous about it, but he sat us down at a table of older people who were mostly Headways level and there was a metric ton of spaghetti and other food served, and I had several drinks, and before long I was chatting in Japanese and English with a whole bunch of random people and not really worrying too much about it at all. (They had this sort of funny inside joke going about antioxidants, mostly for this one guy justifying how he literally downed a bottle of Italian wine.) Some other people came over to visit our table, including the current Urawa manager, a former Urawa manager, and even a former Urawa teacher, a tall skinny British girl with long blonde hair. She does Iaido and stuff and we exchanged email addresses and she's going to send me some links for "how to get involved in sports and stuff in your community". Awesome. Also we were talking to each other in Japanese and the Japanese people were all laughing like "Hahaha, look at the gaijin talking to each other in Japanese". I said "Okay, now you all have to talk in English!!"
About halfway through the party, after Eri left, I switched tables and talked to these other guys about sports and stuff. I should mention that I was wearing a Mariners t-shirt because I figured it would be a great conversation starter -- no need to say "I'm from Seattle and I love baseball", you know? So I was right. Anyway, these guys were fantastic. Even though they were only Sprint 6 they talked to me a lot, and were so funny, like "this girl is nuts! we've never seen any other foreigners who know so much about Japanese baseball and can speak Japanese and all! wtf!" The one guy said he hates the Giants and he loves motor sports and skiing and said we should all go skiing together sometime as a GEOS party! He was so funny and nice! Crazy! These people have such a great community!
One other guy came over and explained to me in Japanese that he didn't actually speak English, he was just there with his girlfriend. He told me I was really good at Japanese. I told him I was dead drunk and not worrying about speaking. He laughed so hard he literally almost fell out of his chair. Then he got up and gave Duane a big hug and pointed to Duane and said to me, "DUANE-SENSEI TEACH ME ENGLISHES."
In general the Urawa GEOS students were kind, friendly, open, funny, great people. The manager (who is one of those rare male GEOS managers) said "Please come to Urawa GEOS parties in the future!" I hope I can! It would be neat.
They were all heading off to karaoke after that -- at like midnight -- but since Urawa is kind of far to walk back from and it's so cold out, and I didn't want to miss the last train, I went home. So did Duane. We have an Akabane GEOS party tomorrow, but it's not going to be anywhere near as cool. I'm really jealous of Urawa, seriously.
The rest of my day was pretty good too. My students are pretty awesome. Maybe I need to figure out how to convince them to go drinking with me sometime too.
Duane invited Eri and I to come to the Urawa GEOS school bounenkai (end-of-year drinking party). I was a little nervous about it, but he sat us down at a table of older people who were mostly Headways level and there was a metric ton of spaghetti and other food served, and I had several drinks, and before long I was chatting in Japanese and English with a whole bunch of random people and not really worrying too much about it at all. (They had this sort of funny inside joke going about antioxidants, mostly for this one guy justifying how he literally downed a bottle of Italian wine.) Some other people came over to visit our table, including the current Urawa manager, a former Urawa manager, and even a former Urawa teacher, a tall skinny British girl with long blonde hair. She does Iaido and stuff and we exchanged email addresses and she's going to send me some links for "how to get involved in sports and stuff in your community". Awesome. Also we were talking to each other in Japanese and the Japanese people were all laughing like "Hahaha, look at the gaijin talking to each other in Japanese". I said "Okay, now you all have to talk in English!!"
About halfway through the party, after Eri left, I switched tables and talked to these other guys about sports and stuff. I should mention that I was wearing a Mariners t-shirt because I figured it would be a great conversation starter -- no need to say "I'm from Seattle and I love baseball", you know? So I was right. Anyway, these guys were fantastic. Even though they were only Sprint 6 they talked to me a lot, and were so funny, like "this girl is nuts! we've never seen any other foreigners who know so much about Japanese baseball and can speak Japanese and all! wtf!" The one guy said he hates the Giants and he loves motor sports and skiing and said we should all go skiing together sometime as a GEOS party! He was so funny and nice! Crazy! These people have such a great community!
One other guy came over and explained to me in Japanese that he didn't actually speak English, he was just there with his girlfriend. He told me I was really good at Japanese. I told him I was dead drunk and not worrying about speaking. He laughed so hard he literally almost fell out of his chair. Then he got up and gave Duane a big hug and pointed to Duane and said to me, "DUANE-SENSEI TEACH ME ENGLISHES."
In general the Urawa GEOS students were kind, friendly, open, funny, great people. The manager (who is one of those rare male GEOS managers) said "Please come to Urawa GEOS parties in the future!" I hope I can! It would be neat.
They were all heading off to karaoke after that -- at like midnight -- but since Urawa is kind of far to walk back from and it's so cold out, and I didn't want to miss the last train, I went home. So did Duane. We have an Akabane GEOS party tomorrow, but it's not going to be anywhere near as cool. I'm really jealous of Urawa, seriously.
The rest of my day was pretty good too. My students are pretty awesome. Maybe I need to figure out how to convince them to go drinking with me sometime too.
