Welcome Party enkai Japanese style
I have to say that Dan and I were a little apprehensive about our enkai, we had heard that basically everyone tries to get you as pissed as possible. Normally that is fun, but I had to make 2/3s of my speech in a foreign language! The tradition at an enkai is that you never pour your own drink, you pour everybody else's. As the guests of honour we had people milling around us with large bottles of beer waiting for us to take a sip so that they could immediately top up the glass. Thankfully for my small-town NZ binge-drinking youth culture training, I managed to maintain my composure through the night.
The enkai was held at a nice beachfront hotel in Hagi, there were 32 mostly men there, all the bigwigs of Hagi education. I was disappointed to see that none of the admin staff were there, one of the girls in the office has been really helpful to me but I guess rank is everything. The other thing that struck me as odd is that none of the wives were there. Work and family are kept separate. In NZ I would have met my supervisors wife by now and my guess is that here I never will.
First we had speeches, I was really touched that our superintendant Wada-san, who is a very jolly old man, made a huge effort to say his speech in English. For them it is so difficult and I was really humbled to see him struggling through it for our sakes. We hear him laugh from our office about 4 times a day and he sounds like Santa Claus.
Dan and I then did speeches, I thanked our supervisor for being so good to us, and our superintendant for giving us ice-cream on our first day when we were obviously nearly melting ourselves. We tucked into the food and it was pretty good, I tried eel for the first time, raw fish, prawns and lobster. They made a big deal about trying the kiwi food I had made for them which was sweet. I was at a loss with only a couple of elements and a tiny toast grill, no oven! So in the end I made mousetraps with Marmite, and chocolate fudge. Gran taught me to make both those things as a kid. They seemed to like it but you never know. Actually the cooking sake and mirin that I cook shaved beef in here smells a lot like Marmite so maybe.
Then Dan and I got back up on stage and showcased a bit of NZ, we showed a big map, squeezed the bum of my stuffed kiwi so it would make squeaking kiwi noises, held up an All Black shirt, and showed the blown up colour photos of NZ. One of the younger teachers did a bit of a stand-up routine with Dan, we gave the explanation in English and he would 'translate'. Everyone was roaring with laughter so God knows what he said. It didn't help that in Japanese Dan accidentally said his sister was go ju (50) rather than ju go (15). I held up a pic of Jodi in her butterfly wings and said "Sore wa watashi no mei desu - This is my niece" and everyone cooed.
I think it was a bit more formal than some enkais can be, but we had a great time and it was nice to socialise outside of work. We were forced to speak Japanese at the table as no one had English so I got a bit more confident which is great. I am trying to make more Japanese friends so I can practice and jump in the deep end. We left the hotel that night with two huge bunches of roses and we were pretty happy. We were both overwhelmed at the hospitality and kindness and the big deal they make out of welcoming new people. I will never forget our enkai night and I feel as if I have truly experienced a slice of Japanese culture. Kampai!
The enkai was held at a nice beachfront hotel in Hagi, there were 32 mostly men there, all the bigwigs of Hagi education. I was disappointed to see that none of the admin staff were there, one of the girls in the office has been really helpful to me but I guess rank is everything. The other thing that struck me as odd is that none of the wives were there. Work and family are kept separate. In NZ I would have met my supervisors wife by now and my guess is that here I never will.
First we had speeches, I was really touched that our superintendant Wada-san, who is a very jolly old man, made a huge effort to say his speech in English. For them it is so difficult and I was really humbled to see him struggling through it for our sakes. We hear him laugh from our office about 4 times a day and he sounds like Santa Claus.
Dan and I then did speeches, I thanked our supervisor for being so good to us, and our superintendant for giving us ice-cream on our first day when we were obviously nearly melting ourselves. We tucked into the food and it was pretty good, I tried eel for the first time, raw fish, prawns and lobster. They made a big deal about trying the kiwi food I had made for them which was sweet. I was at a loss with only a couple of elements and a tiny toast grill, no oven! So in the end I made mousetraps with Marmite, and chocolate fudge. Gran taught me to make both those things as a kid. They seemed to like it but you never know. Actually the cooking sake and mirin that I cook shaved beef in here smells a lot like Marmite so maybe.
Then Dan and I got back up on stage and showcased a bit of NZ, we showed a big map, squeezed the bum of my stuffed kiwi so it would make squeaking kiwi noises, held up an All Black shirt, and showed the blown up colour photos of NZ. One of the younger teachers did a bit of a stand-up routine with Dan, we gave the explanation in English and he would 'translate'. Everyone was roaring with laughter so God knows what he said. It didn't help that in Japanese Dan accidentally said his sister was go ju (50) rather than ju go (15). I held up a pic of Jodi in her butterfly wings and said "Sore wa watashi no mei desu - This is my niece" and everyone cooed.
I think it was a bit more formal than some enkais can be, but we had a great time and it was nice to socialise outside of work. We were forced to speak Japanese at the table as no one had English so I got a bit more confident which is great. I am trying to make more Japanese friends so I can practice and jump in the deep end. We left the hotel that night with two huge bunches of roses and we were pretty happy. We were both overwhelmed at the hospitality and kindness and the big deal they make out of welcoming new people. I will never forget our enkai night and I feel as if I have truly experienced a slice of Japanese culture. Kampai!
posted by Rosie at
8:27 am
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