Tuesday:
I got a WONDERFUL Christmas present on Tuesday morning. I didn’t tell anyone, but silently I harbored the wish that Santa would bring me a bicycle. It wasn’t exactly Santa, but I did get a bicycle. My supervisor emailed me and told me that someone offered to lend me a bicycle for my stay here. Ian and I have been wanting a bike for a while, but they’re a little expensive here. I don’t mind walking places, but it would be nice to have a bike to get around a little quicker. Anyway, my supervisor showed me a nice bike. I couldn’t put it in my car at the time, so I decided to come back after school.
After school was very busy. As soon as I got off of work, (despite the fact that it was freaking cold) I walked to the BOE for the bicycle. When I hopped on, the pedals went around without taking me anywhere because the chain was off of its track. I know how to fix that….I’m not that dumb, but for the life of me I could NOT get it back on. The chain was lodged at an angle that I could not reach. My fingers were black from the grease from trying. Instead of riding it home, I had to walk it back. 
I had to be very careful because I wore my white coat, and I didn’t want any of the grease to get on it. I’m sure people were wondering why I was walking a bike when I could have rode it. Oh well! When I got home, we had to jump in the car and go over to Krista’s. She’s going to Thailand over winter break, and we’re supposed to watch her turtles for her, so she had to show us how and what to feed them and clean their tanks (and by tanks I mean giant plastic bins full of water).
After she showed us that, we had to go to an enkai (drinking party) for the BOE. I never really want to go to them, but I always have a good time. Tuesday night’s enkai was a little different because it was a New Year’s enkai, so instead of just eating and drinking, we played games. There were masks at certain seats, and people sitting at those seats had to wear the masks. As luck would have it, Ian sat at one of the seats with a mask, so for the first ten minutes, he had to wear a scream mask. 
We had nabe and snacks for food. Nabe is a traditional Japanese dish that cooks like a crock pot. You heat the broth of the soup and add whatever you want: veggies, meat, tofu, whatever, and it is so warm and so good!! After eating, we played bingo for prizes. There were prizes for all twenty-five of us. I won a little heating pad thing that you put hot water in. Poor Ian was the very last one to bingo, but he won a lint roller. I know that sounds crappy, but it’s a re-useable roller that can be rinsed and used again. Japanese technology! The grand prize was a bicycle. I thought it would be super lucky if we won that and got two bikes in one day, but it didn’t happen. The winner had a little sticker on her place card.
Enkais are always a great way to see your co-workers relaxed. Of course alcohol helps, but even the co-workers who don’t drink really open up. I had a really good conversation with my supervisor, Sawada, and I found out things about her that I wouldn’t have on a day-to-day basis because the Japanese don’t really open up about their personal life. I feel like if we could communicate, we would be best buds because I feel like our personalities are very similar. Someone even told us that we look alike! She doesn’t know a lot of English, but if I speak in very simple English, or she speaks in very simple Japanese, (and lots of gestures) we can communicate. Plus, our iphones help a lot! 
Being there and talking to people, I feel like I know more Japanese than I thought. Don’t get too excited. I really, really, really don’t understand Japanese, but if I can interpret one or two words in a sentence, I can get a gist of what the sentence is about. Maybe it’s just that if I give a non-committal head bob, smile, and utter a sound, it looks like I know what’s going on. Lol. It really doesn’t take too much to get a Japanese person drunk, so there were several people there that were wasted. However, one guy stood out. He was creepily stumbling around and getting very close to the ladies. He tried to ride the bike, and before stumbling into it and making it crash to the floor, he broke off something on the handle bars. 
Oh, Japan and your low alcohol tolerance levels!
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