Enkai Enjoyment

An enkai is a Japanese office party-- so in our case, any enkais mentioned indicate a dinner and loads of drinks with teachers. There's a fair amount of ceremony involved- usually a fair amount of speeches; pouring drinks for your coworkers [especially anyone who's helped you out in some way]. The enkai is a mxed bag because

1. It's really nice to see your coworkers outside of work. Everyone visibly relaxes and just enjoys chatting.

2. It's still a work function and the cost can be pretty high.

Friday the 19th Aaron and I joined Jenny and Nick for a JHS enkai. Sadly, they're heading back to Oregon in June. The replacement ALT won't arrive until Aug, but Jenny, being a stand-up girl and great friend, tapped Aaron to fill in June and July. So the enkai was primarily Jenny's Sayonara enkai with a welcome to Aaron.

It was by far the best enkai I've had so far. The JHS teachers were very friendly, the food was good, Jenny and Aaron ate and drank for free, while Nick and I only had to pay a small amount. Jenny gave a really sweet speech about her time in Japan, which really moved her teachers. Here's hoping future enkais will be as enjoyable.