Things My Kids Do While Im Teaching

FOTO: ok, though it's nothing exciting, I've finally gotten one secret-spy shot of kids during class. You can see book reading, random wandering, group talking, and girl reaching for cellphone to write email.


prelude to the list...
Over the last few days I have compiled this list of things that my students do in class while the teacher is trying to teach. Mostly, I tend to enjoy the wild abandon of my classroom environments. It livens up my day. Something to keep my attention. How many paper projectiles can i catch in mid-flight this morning? etc. Ive come to enjoy the chaos to such an extent that i blush to say, I drag myself with heavy feet to all of my well-behaved classes.

Almost as fun as going to crazy classes is walking down the halls. Each grade has a hall, and the tracks are ordered numerically by classroom. The walls are sliding windows, so you can see the whole classroom walking by, like a circus show. After a while at school, you get to know your classes by their personality: first year computer track is XXX, second year international course is YYY. Today i was walking down Senior Alley. First up; 3-1. The Sleepers. Sure enough, 80% sleeping... walking walking ...3-3 the Industrious Workers (relative), taking notes quietly...walking walking... 3-4. oh, 3-4! As i approach 3-4, the floor begins to vibrate, the music grows insistantly louder, until i arrive at the classroom windows and YES! 3-4 never lets me down. There they are, boombox on the teachers podium blaring loudly, a slap in the face to the Establishment. Half of the class is playing poker and sitting on their desks, the other half is wrestling, and there is no teacher to be seen. It may seem odd to you that there was no teacher, but I find that this sort of thing happens frequently here. its all the same! teacher, no teacher. class, no class.

Ah, it brings joy to my heart. A jaunt down the hall here makes me feel like im at Rydell High. Anyway, here is the list of things my kids do in class while i am teaching:

1. Sleep.
(Sleeping in class is by no means a furtive act here. Its actually welcome, because otherwise you would be talking with your friends, thus creating more obstacle for those actually trying to learn something. At my school some kids bring pillows from home, so that they can sleep comfortably during classes. I have 2 boys who bring large, pink pillows everyday. sleeping is probably our number 1 school time activity at Ginowan High.)

2. sing in chorus while sitting on top of desks.

3. take off their clothes. (not all of their clothes, just a random piece here or there, changing into their gym shorts or something).

4. Last week while we were teaching, 2 boys were (very noisily) sticking coins up another boys nose. The other boy was just sitting there doing nothing. (Update: it has come to my attention that this boy is constantly getting things shoved up his nose by other students. He never complains.)

5. Today, one of my students had a clothes hanger wrapped around his head. He was going about business as usual, other than that.

6. stand on the window sills.

7. give each other haircuts.

8. lay on the floor.

9. tear pages out of their textbooks and use them as projectiles.

10. walk around aimlessly.

11. pick their noses and stare into space. (or try and pick other kids noses using any long thin object that they can reach across an aisle)

12. read novels.

13. throw around rolls of toilet paper (has happened in 3 classes so far)

14. play cards.

15. write emails on their cellphones.

16. One day last week when I entered the classroom, my 3-4 boys were blasting music from a boombox, had cleared all the desks to the periphery of the room and were practicing a complex dance routine reminiscent of the Japanese twist on michael jackson in the 90s. My teacher told me we`d better have class for just 15 minutes so that we could let them get back to practicing their dance for the second half of class. what? [Later: I found out this dance routine was something they were creating for the school festival, so it was school-related.]

17. try to convince me to go on dates with them.

What Puts the 'bad' in Boys?

There are a lot of Bad Boys (as in bad-ass, rebel without a cause James-Dean-style, etc.) at Ginowan High. They`re too cool for school, skip class, smoke, wreak havoc at every turn. Yes, similar to Bad Boys in American high schools. Despite what they have in common, however, I am becoming increasingly aware of differences in style across the pond. The list below comes from my 18 year old sports class, where many of the badd-asses are to be found.


QUESTION: Can you be a Bad Boy and still...

FOTO: here is one of my top 5 Bad Boys dressed in a pink kangaroo suit.

1. ...wear pastel flower-print shoelaces in your sneakers?
2. ...own a Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal that sits on your desk at all times?
3. ...bring a pink fluffy pillow to school every day? (also in this category: wear pink socks, pink earrings)
4. ...adorn your desk with sparkly sponge-bob square pants stickers?
5. ...write with a Disney`s Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty pencil?
6. ...wear eyeliner and shave your eyebrows off?
7. ...have a purple granny umbrella with hearts on it hanging from your desk? (definition of granny umbrella is the handle: old-fashioned wooden hook handle)
8. ...not understand why any of the above would not be cool?

FOTO: here are some of my Bad Boys dancing in drag with flowers in their hair.


In Okinawa, you can do all of these things and still rock the party! If only American Bad Boys could let their sensative sides shine through like this... sigh, what a world it would be.

trip to the waterfalls

Ive received a complaint that i don't put many fotos of my weekend trips and what-not up here. So i'll try to be better about it, starting now. Oh, and a general apology for my bad spelling, age 6-now.

This weekend i made a long and arduous journey up to a secluded lake/waterfall in the northern part of the island. yes, a wonderous adventure. the further north you go, the more signs you have like this: "watch out, weird turtle/bird/snake crossing area!" with a cartoon picture of a very disgruntled loooking beast on it. My safari (consisting of christina, amy, juhi, and myself) dutifully screeched to a halt (or screeched and then backed up into the mountain guard-rail, uh-um, Christina was driving...) to take a picture of each and every one of these signs.

Back to the beginning of the story: after an intense night of karaoke at the Sakura Story in Nago, we dragged ourselves from bed at the early hour of 11.15, and set off. An hour or so of perilous twisting mountain roads, turtle crossings, and decoding of directions taken from an ancient fellow with a towel wrapped around his head (and the better part of his teeth lost somewhere along lifes path), saw us arrive at our destination. That is, at a very dubious looking dirt trail that someone clearly deluded soul had chosen to call a road. But luck was on our side! Christina`s faithful mobile is quite small, and we successfully fought our way down the thin rocky path into the heart of the jungle. This leg of the trip was made easier by the spirit of Aerosmith (he had lingered on in our hearts after a hearty rendition of Cryin the night before at karaoke, and had taken over the vocal tracts of 3 of our 4 passangers with gusto for the last hour of the trip). A great cheer.
Not to be outdone by the so-called road, the path leading to the waterfall was not really a path, but a gently sloping CLIFF, and some ropes to help you retain your life during the descent. Definitely not a handicap accessible tourist attraction. Though we did see one fellow scaling the descent with a 3 week old babe strapped to his chest. Props to you, duders. This picture is a view straight down the path.

Ah, it was worth it however, when after a bit of huff and puff, we arrived at the serenic lake/small falls.



In years of yore, or whatever those things are called, some thoughtful person had shimmied up a tree and tied on a rope swing, which created great group-enjoyment during our visit.

All in all, it was a good day! Heres a shot of the group looking jolly on a rock. One of the best things about the day was getting to watch 4 Japanese students who decided to prove their manhood to one another by leaping down a fantastically high ravine/waterfall into a rock-strewn pool below. Look how high this cliff is.

On the way home, we took the scenic highway and passed through many a pineapple field. Pineapple plants are a lot shorter than I ever would have imagined them to be... I always imagined them tall and imposing, like coconut trees. Check out these short little fatties.

Oh, to be a pineapple.

The Ostrich Egg and I

Ok, so many of you may remember me mentioning a vague desire to be involved in the ostrich-egg painting going on at my high school. You had better not wish too hard outloud around here, my friends. Friday at school I ran across the art sensei in the hall. Hmmm, got to make small talk in, urhg, this extremely unwieldly foreign language.

Me: "Uhhhhh, so, ostrich egg, art class, paint!" (large hand motions).
sensei: "m, ostrich eggs, hai."
Me: "sugoi. cool. um, I want... paint ostrich egg...too... someday. cool idea."

He bows and nods enthusiastically, we part ways, I feel accomplished for having had an exchange with art-sensei without an interpreter. I take a seat at my desk. Appr. 1 minute later, enter art-sensei with ostrich egg in hand. He flourishes it before me and sensei on the left translates, "here is an ostrich egg, douzo." I take the egg, and with it, unwittingly accept a time-sensative mission that will make or break my art career at Ginowan High. The senseis begin talking rapidly to each other in Japanese. Finally sensei on the left understands. With a beaming smile she turns to me and proclaims, "Please finish painting this egg by 4pm today. It will be put on exhibit in the Okinawa City art museum at 9pm tonight."

uhhhhhh. Come again?

sensei: "can you do?"
Me: "hn, chotto, well, I have class to teach." (that means.... HELL NO!!!!)
sensei: "ok, you teach three and four period. you will paint, 5, 6 period?" Beam, beam, beam.
Settled. Beam! I will do.

ALRIGHT! it's on, baby. Me and the egg, the egg and I. Egg, we've got several short hours at the end of the school day to become one. I frantically grab paint supplies from the art room (to the great amusement of the students, who seem to think it is hilarious to see me anywhere in Okinawa except the actual English classroom, like I live there or something), create a visual barrier a la mound-o'-books between my desk and kocho-sensei's viewing field (as I feel that acrylic ostrich egg painting may not be on the list of appropriate ways to employ yourself while you're on the payroll), and race to beat the clock. Not only did I have to paint this egg, I had to do a reasonably good job, because apparently it was going on display in an ART MUSEUM (sweet mother of god WHY??) along with all the other Satanic number of (666) eggs that the students had worked on for the last MONTH (note the difference in time allotted for completion of project).

To make a long story short, and to avoid you breaking out in an nervous sweat (unless you live here in Oki, and then you're probably already sweating) the catastrophe was avoided in proper time. In fact, Kocho-sensei ended up sitting next to me and watching for the last 20 minutes (along with about 20 other senseis, munching away at omiyage). Apparently egg-painting is a-okay to do during work hours at my place of employment. Should have expected it, if taking a nap every day in the tatami room makes the cut.

But man, talk about being careful what you wish for.

Weird Tid-Bits About Okinawa

1. People here shave off their eyebrows to a stubble and then either leave them so, or paint them in with makeup. Haven't seen in anyone over 40 doing this. But it's not just teens either. It's most people.

2. In Okinawa it is acceptable to stop your automobile on any road, put your blinkers on, and go out and about to your business. Go to the bank, the grocery store, visit a friend, shoot the breeze. On the highway? No problem!!! Just stop and flick on those blinkers. I find myself constantly weaving in and out of hazardous stationary vehicles, in what I like to call the Slow Poke's Tango of Death. I call it this because the speed limit in Okinawa in the city is 25mph, and on the highway it's… a whopping 30mph. That's right! 30mph an hour on the HIGHWAY. Despite the Speed Gods working in their favor, the Okinawans still manage to get into twice as many traffic accidents as mainland Japanese.

3. I have 69 channels with my satellite TV. Among these 69 is one called The Samurai Drama Channel. Dedicated purely to… you guessed it. Samurai sitcoms. What could be cooler? The Samurai channel is in competition (I am the only judge) for first place channel with Star Karaoke, where famous Japanese people make fools of themselves doing karaoke all day long. Cast your vote, if you want.

4. There are no janitors in schools. The students clean the entire school everyday, during a 7th "cleaning" period. BTW: Brooms here are bundles of tree twigs tied together, they're not into Western style brooms. I noticed the same in Russia: every street cleaner was brushing about with a fistfull of twigs. Nicaragua had this goin' on too. What's up guys? Someone let me in on the secret. Is there some big advantage to the twig approach that I don't see? I've got to get one and try it out.

5. Girls and boys sit separated onto different sides of the classroom. Not sure if this is by choice or traditional seating chart arrangement. If they have to do group work together (even at the supposedly mature age of 18) terrified giggling, and refusal to speak at all, lips pressed tightly together, heads frantically shaking, while faces turn progressively more red, ensues. If pressured to continue, I speculate that they might implode. Will keep everyone updated.

skip six.

7. They don't have substitute teachers here. If a teacher is sick or on vacation, the students just go crazy by themselves in their classroom, unsupervised.

8. Interesting fact about rice: it is incredibly illegal to bring ANY rice into the country of Japan. Though they could import rice from China for one fifth the cost of home-grown rice, the gov't thinks it would be best to remain self-sufficient in case of war, and therefore puts incredible amounts of effort into the difficult and non-profitable business of Japanese rice growing (it is difficult and non-profitable because Japan has very little flat growing land: most arable land is mountainous, so rice is produced by a bunch of family farmers, eking out little paddies on the mountainside... I once read that 28 times more labor goes into each acre of rice in Japan than the world average.) Most people here eat rice 3 times a day, at every meal. The gov't spreads these rumors that non-Japanese rice is inferior and unhealthy so that Japanese people aren't interested in chucking rice production and moving on to something more profitable. HOWEVER: Okinawa is the only place in Japan that is allowed to import foreign rice. They have a special allowance to use Thai rice. This is allowed b/c OKinawa used to be their own country before the Japanese took over a few 100 years ago, so their cultural heritage is different from mainland Japan, and they traditionally distill awamori from Thai rice. Hey, if you can't have your independance, at least have some Thai rice.

A Birthday Ode to Hilary

Hilary is a fellow JET of mine here in Okinawa (Nishihara represent!) I`m bored at work, so I`ve wiled away a bit of time writing this ditty for her.



Hilary oh Hilary, your birthday is here
today you get older! (as you do every year)

I hear that a bday is a day of reflection,
(One must puzzle and ponder and ask Onesself QUESTIONS)

1. Did this year make you healthy, wealthy and wise?
2. Did you do good at Growing? Did your Smarts change in size?

And after you`ve thunk this out frontwards and back,
you may find that your Thunking boils down to these facts:

You grow everyday and your Smarts are intact
Health Wealth and Wisdom aren`t at a lack.
This year was the best that a Body could make,
So lets stop with the Thunking, It`s time for some cake!

A Day in the Life *new photos!*

This entry is a response to several requests for a rundown of my average, boring day.

OK here goes. I get up every morning around 6.30-7 to the dulcet tones of my cell phone announcing in Japanese that "it is six-forty-five! do-do-do-di-dooooo!!!!" Arg, how do I make it stop saying this? Why can't it just beep? I fold up my futon and pack it away in the futon storage closet (photo). Yes, they have those here. I strategically open my sliding walls as to provide the best airing-access to the crosswinds that will form in my house 5 seconds later when I throw open every window and turn my 2 fans on full blast, as it is more often than not already quite hot at 7am here and I decided to go for the challenge of no air conditioning. Then coffee. Yes, lots of it. Then I hop in my Toyota Starlet for the short drive to school, narrowly avoiding collisions with the ½ of my student body that feels it is ok to walk in the streets as long as they travel in packs. I used to ride my bike to school in the mornings since it's so close, but I embarrassed myself trying to dismount the bike in the skirts that I wear to work (pitching headfirst over the handlebars isn't the best entrance to make). I aim to get to school at 8.05 every morning, even though I'm not supposed to be there until 8.15. This is not because I'm a good person: it's because I am still somewhat wary of my depth perception abilities driving on the right side of the car and prefer to have a wide selection of parking spaces available to choose from. So I have to get there before the crazy 8.14 teacher-rush!

I walk into school. "ohayou gozaimaaaaaaasu" (good morning + polite marker) and baby bow to the teachers standing in front of the school greeting students. "ohayou gozaimaaaaaasu," mouthed to the administrative employees behind a glass wall upon entering the gi-normous school complex. Compulsive head-bobbing and muttering of "hmhhhhh gozaimaaaaaaaaasu" to every person I pass up the stairs on the way to the teacher's room. Slide open the teachers' door and proclaim in a booming voice "OHAYOU GOZAIMAAAAAAAASU!!!!" I am genki incarnate. A chorus of the same answers me. Start to walk past the Kyoto sensei (vice principle)'s desk, craaaaaaaaap, a quick about face because I've forgotten to turn over my name plaque on it's wall hook (just in case someone in the room didn't see my entrance, didnt hear my entrance, and can't see me sitting at my desk, this will tell them that I am officially HERE). Retrieve my inkan ("name stamp": my official signature in Japan) from my desk and approach the Black Book on Kocho sensei (principle)'s desk. Open book to my page and "sign" in the space where the nice lady from downstairs has marked with a pencil. No matter that even if I couldn't read the date in Japanese (which I can) simple logic would prove today to be the day following yesterday, and today's stamp would directly follow yesterday's stamp. No, she worries I may not be able to sign in on my own, so she always marks it with a pencil. Then I sit down behind my desk amidst the other English teachers, whip out my hand fan, and begin vigorously fanning myself. 5 minutes. The teacher's room is air-conditioned, but for some mysterious reason they don't turn it on until 8.30. Teachers socialize for 15 minutes now. Whoever I talk to usually amazes me by re-producing some tidbit of information about what I said to some other teacher the day before, passed through several intermediaries. "Joyce-san, the lady from downstairs told Junko-sensei that when she came up to give you your pension booklet yesterday, you were only eating vegetables for lunch. She's worried about your health. What all did you have for lunch yesterday?" Meet expectant, unblinking gaze. Uhhhh. News about me really gets around here.

There is a large box of mugs and coffee, hot tea, and cold tea are provided for everyone all day long. Usually there's a big box with omiyake snacks in it as well. Snacking has definitely been developed to an art in the teacher's room. At 8.30, the morning meeting begins. The position of meeting leader rotates, so some poor soul has to stand in front of everyone and blather on about what I imagine to be boring stuff. I can't understand much though. Then some teachers leave to go to their homeroom classes. In Japan, kids have a classroom, not teachers. So the kids stay in the same room all day, and teachers go from class to class to teach. 9.10, the bell sounds. The bell is weird: the one that begins and ends school plays the tune of "joyful joyful," which I think of as a Western church/Christmas song. I'll ask what's up with that someday soon. Off to teach! I teach 15-20 classes a week.

Classes! You probably want to hear about these. MY KIDS ARE INSANE!!!!!!!!! It's like a zoo. Ok, got that out of me. The classes vary significantly depending on grade and track. I have sophomore, junior, seniors. Then they are split into different carrier tracks, 1-8. As far as I can figure it, there's a computer track, an international track, a college track, a sports track, and then 3-4 tracks that don't have names and are basically kids who don't have a plan for what they will do after school. My teachers say about 40% of the students don't have a secure job when they graduate. Only a handful of our 666 students will go to a four-year college… maybe 3 each year, one teacher told me.

Whether my classes are the supposed "good" track kids or other, they all fall under the American education system's classification of somewhat poorly behaved. I'm told this is because I'm at a "lower level" high school. Except that no one really cares here, so it's a lot less stressful than dealing with badly behaved kids in America. You probably have an image of Japanese kids as very well-behaved and diligent: well that's because they sort the kids out by high school entrance exams. The diligent kids are all together somewhere in their "upper level" high schools, getting exported to US documentary series. The other kids weeded out to be unsuccessful are quarantined in schools… like mine!!! I have the second or 3rd "worst" (my teacher's words) high school in all of Okinawa, though from some stories I've heard from other JETs, I really don't think my kids are that bad. For a lot classes I help teach, a number of kids will be having their own conversations in groups. Maybe 15% will be sleeping. 1 or 2 will be wondering around the class aimlessly, 3-4 will be writing emails on their cell phones. Today some 18-year-old guy in the front row stood up and took off his shirt, proclaiming that it was hot. On Monday, I had a class where this one girl sitting alone just burst out shrieking something in an extremely high-pitched voice 3 times during class, for no apparent reason. A group of 4 boys were trying on wigs and taking pictures with their phones yesterday. The Japanese teachers usually don't have the energy to stop all or most of this behavior unless it is threatening to bother other students extremely, so I don't either.

Actually, I have some classes where most students are attentive. I get really confused when confronted with these classes because I'm not expecting it. Usually, these classes are the most boring. Really the more interesting classes are the crazy kids. I love the bad kids. Today I had 3-4… the 18-year-old sports boys. Basically, the whole baseball team. You've never seen such a fantastic array of hairstyles in your life. I mean, it's worth it just for that experience. Mind-boggling. Japanese kids are really serious when it comes to hair style. These boys had it all. Long, short, curled, straight, spiky, and combinations, like left side short / right side long. Bangs on one side, spikes on the other.

Really, the kids here aren't that bad. It's not like in America, its a different kind of badness. A teacher's car isn't going to be keyed at my school, I will never have gum put on my seat. Kids don't shout at teachers and it's infrequent that kids act hostile towards teachers. It's not hostile badness, it's just kids who don't want to pay attention in class. And the bad kids' punishment is to come to school early and do gardening/sweep leaves. Don't they look peaceful? What makes them behave badly here is mostly just that they're allowed to do whatever they want in class, so they do. Teachers rarely raise their voices with students. You aren't allowed to send kids out of class, they aren't allowed to fail high school. I've had it explained to me that they will pass NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO. So there's not much impetus to do any work. I don't really understand this. Teachers in the English department here don't really give homework because the kids won't do it. Last week 3 girls were singing pop songs in chorus in the back, really loud, and my teacher was trying to teach. What does she say to them? "Hey girls, please try your hardest to be good." They blink, and go back to singing. She could have made them stop singing if she wanted to, but I guess its just not their way here, which is ok. I'm not going to get mad about it, its a different culture. But I definitely have to spend more time figuring out the disciplinary system here. I've raised my voice with kids a few times, and they always look really surprised, and then shut-up (for a while). So clearly it works, but perhaps it's not allowed. [Later: eventually I figured out that more male teachers raise their voices than female teachers so it might have been more the fact that I was female that was a bit surprising.]

After 4 periods we have 50 minutes of lunch. I usually buy obento (boxed Japanese lunch) from downstairs. Tasty stuff. Slight detour: have you ever heard of "fu"? I've been eating it the entire time I've been here but I just figured out what it is. Thought it was egg at first, but its NOT! No no, fu (麸) is wheat gluten. Really popular here. Solid gluten is mixed with rice flour and millet and steamed in large blocks. Then they put it in funny shapes and colors. According to Wikipedia: "Popular shapes include autumn-colored maple leaves, bunnies, and other generally "cute" forms. Such shapes and colors enhance the attractiveness of the cooked product since steamed gluten has an unappealing grey tone." If you come visit me, you too will be able to experience the wonders of:
1. Japanese boxed lunch
2. FU!
Teachers at lunch (L-R: Nakamura, Junko, Nice Dude, Kocho, Kyoto)


I often go to the teacher's tatami room (which no one uses except the Tea Lady when she washes tea mugs) and take a nap on the tatami. This is acceptable teacher behavior. There is more doing nothing by staff at Japanese schools than American ones (though overall they do much more work at school here, since in Japan they are all involved in 50 million after school activities that consume their entire lives, including their vacation time). I see teachers sleeping at their desks sometimes, or playing solitaire on their computers. Eating. Drinking tea. I really enjoy the laid back atmosphere at my school. The thing about teaching in Japan though is that the Japanese teachers have to spend many more hours at school than American teachers do. So while I see them relaxing frequently during my 8-4:30 work day, they might not get home until 7 or 8, and spend many weekends with the student activities as well.

After school, I go to karate club with the kids a few days a week. They generally get really nervous when I do this, since I'm their sensei and they have to teach me karate. Karate club is 3 hours every day. Yeah, they're really serious about club sports here. They're more important than academics. I think because it develops team spirit, which is super important. One of the best things about karate club is that the ken-do (sword fighting) club practices right next to us. Craaaazy! They put on these huge, million pound samurai-esque outfits, a helmet with a grate in the front so they can see, and start wacking each other with giant wooden swords. Its really exciting. I should have joined that club. Katanosaka sensei has recently invited me to join the art club, which meets Saturdays (for 6 hours!!). Yesterday he gave me the grand tour. Its going to be fantastic. Not only do we have a huge art room, we have a pottery wheel and a kiln, and tons of painting and drawing supplies. I can go whenever I want and use whatever I want! He was showing me the students most recent projects: ostrich egg art. Say what? Oh, yes. Ostrich egg art. Apparently there are many ostriches in Okinawa (?) so the zoo and other places have a lot of ostrich egg shells and nothing to do with them. They donate them to my school and the kids paint them. I definitely need to paint me an ostrich egg.

My (Second) Welcome Party

The first day of school was September 1st. That evening (yes, they put the first day of school on a FRIDAY, bizarre) we had my (second) welcome party. The welcome party is a big thing here. You always get a second one. This time, there was a good 25 teachers in attendance, and most of them got really drunk. About 10pm (that's 4 hours after the drinking fiesta started... they like to get a move on early here) respectabiggle teachers began standing up on the tables and making speeches. I hear that this is also the norm for Welcome parties. I, too, was forced to stand on the table and give a speech. Quick thinker that I am, I proclaimed the Okinawan culture to be superior to mainland Japan, expressed my joy at being placed here instead of up there with the uptight folk, and managed to cut the thing short by then calling for drinks all around. Yaaaaay.

Here are my buddies, Shouko and Tokuya being roped into the position of temp baby sitter for the hoards of younguns in attendance. Luckily, someone with foresight (probably a mother) whipped out an oragami set to keep the kids under control.
The night drew to a close at the late Japanese hour of midnight, with only 7 of the more hearty teachers (=under 35) still standing (well, one of them had passed out on the table an hour before, and we had a major group effort to toss them bodily into a cab home. I won't say who, cuz who knows who's reading this blog.)

Yes, my friends, this is how the Japanese do it: they are hard workers by day and bottomless holes for alcohol by night, they start drinking at 6, and the next day at work no one talks about what happened while the booze was flowing. It's an unwritten secret rule. I have to stay on my toes around these people.