drink, bathe and be merry!

I went to an enkai on Thursday night(what's an accurate translation of enkai?--everyone here just calls them 'drinking parties'). Four new teachers will join the high school's staff starting tomorrow, and the enkai was to welcome them in. If you weren't aware, the Japanese school year begins in April. This year, our first day happens to be a Sunday, which seems really strange to me, but whatever, you know? For the party, we went to a place near my house, a big new bath house call Tsukasa Onsen.

Tsukasa is a company that is best known for their colorful pachinko parlors. If you haven't had the chance to play pachinko, as my brother says, don't get your panties in a bunch. It resembles watching paint dry, only you must keep your right hand perfectly still while watching said paint.
The premise is as follows: you trade your hard-earned money in for a basket of worthless ball-bearings before you even start playing. Then, you sit down at a machine and start feeding your hard-earned..., uh, I mean ball-bearings into the opening at the bottom of the machine. You watch as the balls shoot up the pinball-like display and fall down into one of two or three holes. Mostly the balls fall into the large hole at the bottom, and nothing happens. If the balls fall in one of the other holes, you get more balls added to your balls in the opening. Actually though, the only thing you control in the game is how hard or soft you shoot the balls up. You do this by turning a doorknob-sized handle at the bottom of the machine. You turn the knob and just hold it there as still as possible--that's where the skill comes in.
That's the idea. My goldfish could do it if he was still alive, I think. Which reminds me, the machines have different themes, like 'Under the Sea,' or 'Cowboys.' That means there are different backgrounds to enjoy while turning the knob and watching the ball-bearings fall into the holes. Believe it or not, I have a good friend who bought a car with his pachinko winnings. Must've been a fluke...or was it???

So Tsukasa apparently had some extra ball-bearings left over to build a huge, touristy bath house. That's where the drinking party was. All in all, the parties are usually times when I grin and bear the formalities--namely lengthy opening speeches--but the food is usually spectacular, and the conversation is usually happy or drunken. One man was telling me, 'I want to speak English! January, January, ohh, uhh, I mean 'usually' I have no chance.' He's a funny guy. He worked at Arao #1 Middle School last year as a part time math teacher, and he was the first teacher I ever saw sleeping at his desk. Gosh, I wonder if I can find the picture I took last year...

Anyway, after the party, several teachers and I went to the public bath. The baths are pretty much always separated men/women. A friend once said he went to a bath that wasn't separated and there were plenty of men but the only women in there were kind of ancient and shriveled. I have to admit, it was sort of interesting be walking around naked side-by-side with the ultra-formal accounting lady or the tea lady or do a cold plunge with half the staff in the bubbling bath across from me. These happenings do not normally coincide in my mind. At least I have a difficult time imagining them happening with my old coworkers in the U.S.!
(BTW, if you do go to one of these baths, there is only one main point to remember. The idea is to be clean BEFORE you enter the bath, so use the showers first! Knowing that, all will be well with your fellow bathing friends. Also, wash yourself off lightly with the water in the pool close to the exit before you leave to get all those 'other people germy-germs' off before you leave.)

Well, it's late. Is it I who fades, or the world? I think it is I, therefore I am. Okay, definitely bed time.