Drinking Parties

Hi, friend. It's been a while since I posted anything about the local lifestyle here, since I've been spending so much time zipping around the Kansai region and writing about my adventures. So today I thought I'd share with you some experiences I've had going to workplace drinking parties, or nomikai (sometimes enkai as well). 

Nomikai usually happens on a Friday night, after some sort of special school event. Sports Day and the Culture Festival were both popular excuses for the staff at my schools to get together and celebrate the weekend, by meeting up at an izakaya (tiny Japanese eatery and drinkery) and drinking as much beer and sake as possible. Because nomikais are all about celebrating special events, they don't happen too often. However, if all your schools happen to have their events in the same months, like mine, put on your beer hat and some easily removable shoes, because you're probably in for a big month.

Nomikai is typically an all-you-can-eat-and-drink sort of affair. Sometimes the entire staff is invited; sometimes just the staff from one department (for example, one party I attended was for English teachers only, another for the gym teachers... and me (?), and another again for just the first-year teachers only). Usually one teacher will make a reservation at someone's favourite izakaya, and generally the whole night will cost anywhere from $30 to $50 per head. Mine have typically costed about $50 each, but there have been some really fancy-pants places, so it's definitely been worth it.

I've been to nomikai with three of my four schools now, so let's just divvy up the post by school and go from there. 

We'll start with my visit school in Yakage, because they're the guys I go out with most frequently, and who seem to enjoy drinking parties the most. My supervisor really seems to love any excuse to go out with his work colleagues - in fact, I suspect he often makes up reasons to go, or occasionally doesn't have a good reason at all other than that he wants to. As a result, I often receive last minute invitations to go out with these teachers. 

The first nomikai I attended with the teachers from my school in Yakage was a post-Culture Festival celebration, sort of marking the end of the festival. We went to a fancy izakaya near Shin-Kurashiki Station in a much quieter part of Kurashiki. When we arrived, we slipped our shoes off and headed up a wooden staircase to a tatami room, where the staff were seated on cushions around a long table, low to the ground. We took our places, someone made a speech, Kyoto-sensei (the vice principal) made a speech, and then we all cheers'd and the waitresses started bringing out the first of many expensive and delicious courses of Japanese sushi, soups, stews and tempura. I was literally stuffed with food by the end of it, and it was absolutely amazing. 

Sashimi - assorted raw fish and seafood.

A sort of hot pot. We boiled the slices of pork in our individual lotus bowls over a flame.

Agedashi tofu - fried tofu.

Cold soba with a prawn and some wasabi.

Assorted tempura - battered seafood and vegetables.

We followed up the fancy-pants place with a smaller, more low-key bar close to the station, where we all crowded around some tables we shoved together, drank way more sake and snacked (even though we were all already too full... ???) until it was home time. As the night wore on, the staff were increasingly more inclined to try using English, but their conversations became increasingly less logical. Which meant the first conversations I'd ever had with a lot of the teachers were utter nonsense - but it was fun, so it's fine. Unfortunately, one poor overworked third year teacher accidentally drank too much and the night became messy at the station. As is the Japanese way, though, it was never spoken about again after we all went home. I see him often in the staff room and it's never been weird - it's like it never happened at all. 

Large sized nihonshu - Japanese sake, chilled, and served in a box... reasons as yet undetermined (will get back to you on that).

Assorted snack-y things. Edamame on the left (salted green beans), fried cheese triangles with ketchup, aaaaand I don't know what the last thing is - I don't think I ate it.

Lol, hey.

The second nomikai I attended with the teachers from my school in Yakage was a much smaller and quieter affair in Kurashiki's Bikan Historical Quarter, at an old izakaya whose name I can't remember (if I remember I'll edit it in later). This one was just the first year teachers, so there were about eight of us, and the place was so old that everything was made of roughly-hewn dark wood, and we had to carefully clamber up an impossibly steep and narrow staircase into a tiny tatami room with a single table. That one was actually really fun and much more relaxed, so I had a chance to have more comfortable one-on-one chats with some of the teachers. 

A typical izakaya's exterior in Kurashiki.

Chawanmushi is a kind of savory Japanese custard - extremely boiling hot and usually containing small bits of seafood, like shrimp and octopus.

I don't remember what this is.

We talked a lot about sport, because I was seated next to a team coach and he was extremely interested in Australia's sporting situation. I distinctly remember discussing Yu-gi-oh! as well, which the teachers hadn't expected to be popular in Australia. So that was a source of great entertainment, too. The izakaya was another place that served fancy-schmancy food (but not enough of it - my supervisor and I were both still hungry afterwards, so we visited his friend's bar later that night for a midnight feast) and seriously delicious umeshu (plum wine).

My supervisor's friend's bar in Soja, called Soja Bar. If you visit me, there's a 99% chance we'll go here.

Giant alcoholic berry slushy thing.

This sushi is from a very popular shop in Soja and was gifted to us by his friend.

I've only been to one nomikai with my visit school in Kurashiki, but it was fun. We went to a local izakaya in Soja (my town), which was a yakitori (fried chicken) restaurant. So I was able to hop on my bike and zip over to meet the teachers. Many of them I'd never even met before, but one of the English teachers - a tiny, impossibly cute female teacher - was invited along to be my interpreter. I found I was pretty much quadruple-parked all night with different types of beer and sake as everyone came up with new suggestions for the gaijin (foreigner) to try. I tend to be more of a heavyweight when it comes to drinking (I know, it was a surprise to me, too, and it surprises every single Japanese person I've discussed it with), but this night was definitely the closest I've been to drunk since I arrived here. 

Friend chicken party!

Unagi  - eel. Nope.

Smiley teacher with giant beer.

Giant beer with pack of cigarettes for scale.

I can say with certainty that sake made from sweet potato smells like popcorn and is not delicious. The other types I tried were fine but unmemorable. I tried my first unagi (eel), too, after having intended to for months. Despite it being seemingly every Japanese person's favourite, I cannot say I enjoyed chewing and digesting spongy eel bones, even if they were soft and didn't crunch. It's a solid no from me. Among the other dishes on offer were chicken skewers, karaage (fried chicken pieces), and chicken hearts. Did not eat a chicken heart; have tried before so was lucky enough to get out of that one. Decidedly weirder foods than usual, but the company was good, so all in all, it was a good night.

Cheers, friends. I don't even like beer that much.

Oh dear.

Very small and cute English teacher.

Rugby teacher who peppered me with questions about Australian sports.

The last nomikai I will mention is actually one of the very first ones I attended, and it was with the sports teachers from my base school in Soja. We met up at a modern izakaya several levels up in a building behind Okayama Station. I think I liked the food at this one the most - it was a yakiniku (bbq'd meat) party, so we all crowded around two tables with hot plates embedded in them, and threw different cuts of meat on the barbie (no shrimps (sorry, not sorry for any bad jokes, ever)) and drank beer. I tried a bunch of different stuff, like cheek and liver (did not like liver, will not be doing that again), and some yummy Korean salad-y type dishes. It was a chilled out sort of evening, with lots of laughter, for reasons I often could not determine. The staff at my base school are fun and cool people, so hanging out with them is always a good time. They invited me to a ski trip in January to Mount Daisen in Tottori prefecture, which is meant to be ludicrously fun, so I hope they weren't just drunk and jovial because I'll be sad if we don't actually go.

The tong-ed teacher is my pal. He's cool.

Kanpai, friends. 'Cheers' in Japanese, in case anyone was wondering.

And that's the going-out-drinking-with-work-colleagues lifestyle so far. Very fun, wish we did it more often, and am lowkey twiddling my thumbs waiting for the next invitation. Hope you're well! More to come soon. x