Happy Time

Last night was the return of the "happy time" party. It was good times! We went to a Korean BBQ place. This place would be very strange to a westerner. I say this because they bring you a plate of raw meat and you basically have to cook yourself on the hot plate in the middle of the table. Yeah it sounds quite strange, but I think it's just the way Japanese like to socialize. I enjoyed it very much. The night started out with everybody around the table giving a Kampai (cheers), then we started to dig into the amazing food. We had some Korean style salad at first, with some kimchi and chijimi(Korean pancake). Then the staff brought out the pork meat. We grilled it up together, all along joking and laughing. There was much alcohol going around the whole time. For some reason my Japanese gets better as the more I drink. haha The night ended with each person giving a self introduction. We did this because there was a few new teachers that had joined us that night. We all went around and made our self introductions (in Japanese). One of the new teachers said she likes "house music, and indie rock". I was so happy since that's exactly what I like, so we chatted up a bit afterwards. The big surprise came when one of the teachers said they were getting married. It's not such a big deal, but the person that he is getting married to, is another teacher that works at my school. We were all very surprised to hear this. They had kept it a secret the whole time. I asked them when they became a couple. They told me that it was when we went on that rafting trip back in August(I posted the video a few months ago look in the archives), they realized they were in love. WOW! The cool this is that I was on that rafting trip, and I can say that I know some Japanese people that are getting married! They said I can go to the wedding too!! WOOHOO! It's sometime in May so YAY! Anyway, last night was great! I broke some ice with the new teachers and made my friendship with the others even stronger. Well I took a few photos of last night so enjoy them. Today I am going to meet my friend for lunch down in my city. Talk to you soon!

peace

vince