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.