Last Saturday, Benni-sensei and I were invited to a takoyaki party at the Maebashi school (which is also closing in the coming months). This is one of the schools where Kozue-sensei works, and Hamish-sensei is also pretty cool, so it stood to reason that it would be an entertaining night. Add in the fact that we just happened to go to Beisia that afternoon and thus just happened to run into Naofumi-san who just happened to be free to accept our extended invitation to the party and it gets even better. I love to hang out with certain of my students, and Naofumi-san is definitely one of them. He can be highly amusing and a very good sport.
Of course, there was alcohol at the party, as is only right for a party with no kids around. Most of the students live within walking or biking distance of the school (or they crash on any of the numerous couches at the school - why don't we have any couches? it's so unfair), so safe driving practices are almost always in effect, from what I've seen. Fortunately, having no car, it's not something I need to worry about - it's just a matter of finding someone willing to drive me back to Isesaki. Which turned out to be another good reason to have Naofumi-san around, because at 5am, he was one of the few remaining drivers going that way anyway.
But I get ahead of myself. First came the food and the wine. One of the Maebashi students had taken a trip to Yamanashi, which is particularly famous for wine. And it was very good wine indeed. And there was takoyaki, which I enjoy reasonably well but especially when it's homemade. Take-out takoyaki is nothing compared to the homemade variety. Also, there was gyoza, but it took a backseat to the takoyaki festivities. Primarily because someone found an abandoned Kit-Kat in the office and decided to put it to use.
I don't know who started it, but Naofumi-san was involved. I cheerfully volunteered to try the cheese takoyaki (yummy) and the kimchi takoyaki (eh, but I'm not a great fan of kimchi), and I was the only one who also cheerfully volunteered to try the chocolate takoyaki (interesting but not as bad as it sounds). It was only a little bit of chocolate, hardly enough to have any effect on the taste, but the looks on everyone's faces was worth it. I did refuse to eat the strawberry takoyaki; that goes far beyond the realm of sensibility. Nobody was conned into eating that one, and eventually Kozue-sensei ate it by mistake and immediately ran off to spit it out.
This was followed by an amusing game thought up by a Malaysian student. He calls it "what goes around comes around," and it's certainly the most disgusting party game I've had the misfortune to play. The general idea is to play russian roulette with a fetid concoction of whatever liquids are available. For us, this included (but was not limited to) wine, beer, tomato juice, lemon juice, mayonnaise, takoyaki sauce, oolong tea, and Zima. Add various flavored chips, Kit-Kats, and bonito flakes to the mix, and you can imagine the wonderful liquid that resulted. Hamish-sensei even threw in some foul-smelling cheese that he found in the fridge. In order to determine the loser of this game, all involved draw cards, and the lowest card gets to take the shot.
We played three rounds of this, which is a testament to how much most of us had already had to drink. As fate would have it, the first and last rounds were both lost by the Malaysian student (after the last round, he quite comically threw up his hands and shouted, "I suck at my own game! How is this possible?") The middle round was lost by Naofumi-san, and he did us Isesaki folk proud by not just taking a tiny sip but a great big gulp of what was easily the foulest of the batches. That he did it reluctantly but jovially says a lot. Like I said, he's a good sport.
Two rounds of Uno were played, though it wasn't much of a competition because people were starting to succumb to the late hour and the alcohol. About seven of us decided to head out to a nearby bar, which I'm definitely glad we did because it was an AWESOME bar. It has a piratey theme to it, including fake palm trees in the corners, blunderbusses on the walls, and a rickety wooden dumb waiter to deliver drinks to the second floor. There is also a life-sized Yoda, which doesn't really fit with the pirate theme but nobody seems to mind. We stayed only long enough for one drink, but it was fun.
Upon returning to the school, I realized it was nearly 5am, and I had plans to go to Kumagaya the next day, so I decided it was time for me to head home. Naofumi-san was also ready to leave, so he offered me a lift so that nobody else had to worry about driving to and fro. I got home in time to get four hours of sleep before having to get up to head on my way to Kumagaya. Surprisingly, I made it through Sunday morning with only the slightest of hangovers, so I figure I must not have been too drunk. I've been worse off.
So, all in all, a most pleasant way to say goodbye to Maebashi. Our farewell party will not be as depraved because we're inviting all the kid students. I'm hoping I get a chance to chill with my stupendous adult students too, because I like them, and I'm going to miss them.
And yeah, I'm definitely moving on April 1st. It's not completely finalized, I'm waiting to hear back on the details. But if it goes through, I'll be much MUCH closer to Tokyo - as in, maybe a 20 minute train ride - but still not too far away from Isesaki if I want to hang out for a weekend. It's not been perfect here, but overall, I don't have a whole lot to complain about.
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