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

More Adventuring in Kobe

Hi, friend. Sorry for the extended absence. I've been a bit flat because literally all I've done since I posted the last piece was edit the hundreds of photos from Kobe, so that I'd be able to write the next one. But lord, it takes hours and hours to touch up photos - even quickly and with only minimal enhancement. It's so exhausting. The blog just stagnated for a month. From now on, I'm not going to bother retouching my photos, because I'm taking more photos than I have time to edit them all. I'd rather keep writing and moving forward instead. 

Anyway, let's quickly recount, because I've actually done lots of cool stuff since Kobe that I want to tell you about, too. I need to play catch up - I've got a backlog to work through. 

Day Two in Kobe was a lazy Sunday. Rosanna wasn't feeling tip-top, so we took it easy. After a sleep in and a leisurely cuppa, we ventured out into the day to make the most of what was left of it. Neither of us had tried Kobe's famous beef situation, so that was our top priority. We caught the train back into the Sannomiya area and made a beeline for Kobe Steakland, a reasonably priced steakhouse that many of the other ALTs had recommended to Ro. 

If anyone's interested in visiting, from Sannomiya Station, you should pop out on Ikuta Road. Turn left and head towards the intersection under the train line. Turn left again (there's a ramen place tucked on the corner under the bridge) and you should spot Maccas up on the right. That means you're heading in the right direction. Just past Maccas is a narrow side street on the left with big signs for Steakland, which you'd be hard pressed to miss, to be honest. It's about a third of the way up the alley on the left, and you have to take a tiny elevator up to the 6th floor. Be warned: because it's reasonably priced, Steakland is atrociously busy. The elevator drops you into a tiny foyer, which, oddly enough, is decorated with plush carpet, warm downlights and a bunch of cheap-looking Renaissance-era paintings in glass cases (for some reason). It even has a Grecian bust statue, complete with a generous dusting of glitter. Very strange.

You have to add your name to a terrifyingly long list, and then stand (or, if you're lucky enough to snag one of the few seats, sit) in the foyer and wait until they call your name. We arrived at about 1:30pm and the foyer was absolutely jammed. Uncomfortably claustrophobic. At one point, a family tried to squeeze a pram through, which was just about the most idiotic idea anyone could have had - though I remain impressed that they somehow managed to shove the pram into the tissue-box-sized elevator. 

Steakland has two dining sessions: lunch and dinner. The lunch sets are significantly cheaper than the dinner sets, which is probably why every man, his three children and five dogs tries to get in for the lunch session. Anyway, lunch finishes at 2pm. If you get your name on the list before 2pm, however, they honour the time you arrived and allow to you order from the lunch menu, which was a lucky bonus. We'd made our peace with having to pay dinner prices in order to have the experience at all, so that was a very pleasant surprise. 

 We both ordered the basic beef lunch set, which comes to about $40AUD and includes a cut of steak, seasoned and cooked in front of you on a hot place (teppanyaki style), a pile of delicious fried garlic slices (also cooked on the plate), seasoned bean shoots, a serving of rice, some miso soup, a small side salad, pickled ginger as a control, and a complimentary drink. It gets a thumbs up of approval from me. The steak was delicious and it was overall a fun and memorable experience. I'd definitely go back. Great value, if you can get past the psychotic waiting game at the start. I think you can make reservations, so if crowds and lines aren't your thing, that's a more dignified option.

After the Steakland Experience, we strolled around for a while and did a bit more shopping (what's up, Lush?). We stopped by Baskin Robbins (which they call '31 Aisu' over here) to try their Halloween Specials - just about the cutest ice cream you'll probably consume in your lifetime. Mine was called the "Okashi Sundae" (which seems to translate to "strange, funny, weird" in English), with Pumpkin Pie and Cotton Candy flavours. Ro had the "Obake Sundae" ("goblin", "ghost", "monster", etc) with Midnight Mint (choc-mint flavour) and a flavour called "Monster something"... Anyway, it was neon green. They came with little swirls of whipped cream, sprinkles and ghoul-shaped cookies and chocolates. So unreasonably adorable.

Familiar, home comfort bubbly bath things! 😍

LUSH getting all festive and spoopy.

This smells like pure joy.

I seriously have no chill whenever ice cream is involved. It's getting embarrassing.

Then we visited Ikuta Jinja, a truly stunning bright red Shinto shrine in the heart of the city. Seriously, you take an exit out of JR Sannoymiya Station, follow Ikuta Road north for maybe three minutes, and suddenly, peeking out from behind the glossy grey and glass buildings is the ancient traditional shrine. It's pretty spectacular. It's thought that the shrine is one of the oldest in Japan -  it was built at the beginning of the 3rd century - and is one of three magnificent shrines that are dedicated to some of Japan's most magnanimous deities. Ikuta Jinja is said to enshrine the kami (Japanese god) named Wakaruhime. 

I was told that it was destroyed during the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and had to be rebuilt, which makes it the perfect symbol of Kobe's amazing resilience and determination in the wake of such a terrible natural disaster (while we're on the subject, you should dedicate some time to visiting the Earthquake Museum; it's powerful and devastating, and very important to learn about everything that has happened in this beautiful city, and what the people have endured and survived). I don't know much more about the shrine than that, but I wouldn't want to spoil the history lesson for you anyway! You definitely should visit it if you visit Kobe. It's a wonderful place. 

We called it early and went back to Ro's apartment, where we curled up on her couch, watched the sometimes awful, always delightful live-action adaptation of Death Note - complete with necessary drinking game - then started a re-watch of the anime because we were in a Death Notey mood, and ate the last of the kibidango (a very famous kind of souvenir/omiyage from Okayama; it's basically a soft, chewy mochi (sweet made from rice) filled with thick, peachy syrup and it's bloody delicious) before bed. 

The last day in Kobe was even sleepier. Ro was still not feeling one hundred per cent, so we had another leisurely-paced morning before heading to the station. After iced coffee and special Halloween-themed donuts at Mister Donut, and a lengthy debate about the etymological history of "pepper" vs "capsicum", we parted ways. I headed back to Shin-Kobe with the intention of heading straight home, but spotted a sign for the Nunobiki Herb Gardens and made the split-second decision to visit. It was just after lunch, lovely weather, and possibly my last opportunity to do something fun in Kobe for ages - I couldn't resist. 

It's a short ride in a shiny red gondola up Mount Rokko to the top station, which - unexpectedly - is designed like a classic European barn and reminded me of when I lived in Zwiesel. There was a lot of general merriment going on around the top station; there was a surprise German beer festival happening, with food trucks selling pretzels and German craft beers, and lots of people relaxing under tables with umbrellas, enjoying an accordion duet performance by two adorable women in berets. The atmosphere was brilliant. 

Gold-leaf-coated soft serve, anyone?

So, you start your adventure at the Nunobiki Herb Gardens at the top station, and you work your way down a winding path that follows the slope of the mountain down to the middle station, with lots of kitchen gardens, herb gardens, flower patches, gazebos and glasshouses you can stop at along the way. It's a peaceful, beautiful place, quite a lot like the National Rhododendron Gardens in Olinda, but with more cement paving and approximately zero mountain ash trees. No lakes or ponds, either. Okay, so actually perhaps not so similar after all... But the feel of the gardens was similar. Brace yourself for an onslaught of flower photos. I refuse to apologise. I like flowers.

Anyway, so after what may or may not have been over two hours (refusing to confirm) kneeling on the ground taking hundreds of different angled shots of the same flowers, I pit-stopped at a cute little stand and tried lavender flavoured soft-serve. Did smell like flowers. Did not taste disgusting. Would recommend if you happen to be there - or anywhere that sells floral-flavoured ice cream. 

And then it was back to Shin-Kobe on the gondola, and I was whisked home on the next shinkansen out. I was a very tired girl that evening. I'd had to literally battle my way through the omiyage (souvenir) shop at the station, and it had involved completely unable to move in practically any direction due to the insane number of businessmen frantically picking up souvenirs for their families/colleagues/mistresses/pets, and intensely long and uncomfortable waits in ridiculous queues. It was the kind of experience you immediately regret committing to, but fighting your way out again would be just as difficult, so you stick it out and end up with a stress headache instead. It was generally just a bad time all around.

In more pleasant news, I recently binge-watched "Anne with an E" on Netflix, which is incredible and anyone who even slightly enjoyed the Megan Follows adaptation, or loved the original novel, should definitely watch it. It's stunning and beautiful and I'm dying for season two to be released. There are few things more exasperating than waiting for a new season on Netflix.

Anyway! Hope you're well. More to come soon (actually soon this time). x