Goodbye Japanese Class

Well on Friday night it was time for the Japanese class farewell party. It was out at a big game complex - bowling, karaoke, video games, batting cages.... The party had originally been planned as a costume party, but I thought that idea had been shelved so I just went in normal clothes which was a mistake. One of the teachers was fully decked out in a kimono, another in a weird hybrid of hawaiian shirt & charlie chaplin, and the 9th grade assistant had on a duck suit! One of the ladies kindly lent me a headband with a snowman on it, and lent Alex a cowboy hat.

We had a big room in the karaoke section, and after paying 4000 yen (about $40) they started bringing out ridiculous amounts of food, and drinks, and we had karaoke all night. Finally we ordered desserts. In true Japanese style the women ordered too many. Basically Japanese people always order too much food, and somehow manage to eat it all. I think it is the training from having to clean your tray at school lunch. Every party I have been to organised by Japanese people, there has always been way too much food, but the skinny Japanese people just hunker down and eat!

The Japanese class teachers did a lot of karaoke - they love singing all these old songs that are awful. They also love singing Carpenters & Beatles songs. I had never heard The Carpenters song 'Top of the World' but now I know the lyrics, without even intending to learn them. I even managed to sing my first Japanese song - with the 9th grade assistant - it's a song called PopStar, and every so often there is a line in English which means I could catch up in the song when I got a bit lost in the kanji!