sobetsukai

Teachers at Japanese schools rotate out on a regular basis. New teachers work at one school for three years, then move on. Veteran teachers work for seven before being transferred. Administrators put in three-year stints before being shuffled around. This year, my school lost the principal, first grade teacher (who was also head of English curriculum), the school nurse, and secretary. For those of you keeping track at home, that's 4 of 12 staff members. Sam's school lost the vice principal, head teacher (an administrative and teaching hybrid position), the sixth grade teacher, fifth grade teacher, and first grade teacher, or 5 of 16. Departing faculty are honored at the end of the school year with an event called a sobestukai. Ours were both last Friday night. The party for my school (Sam's was completely different) consisted of dinner at a very expensive restaraunt, karaoke at a nearby hotel, then additional drinking in the hotel rooms afterwards.

I paid 15,000 yen (ahead of time) for dinner, which had me slightly annoyed until I walked into the restaraunt and saw it all laid out on the table. We must have eaten at least a dozen courses, along with limitless beer and top-shelf sake. One particular type of sake, from Yamagata Prefecture, in the north, was especially delicous. It was called juu-yon-dai (十四代, "the fourteenth level"), and apparently retails for $130 a bottle. It also tasted like Japanese pears and apples. I was so impressed that I asked Tokushige sensei, a native of Yamagata, where one could buy a bottle. He replied that it sells out every year, though he'll look around next time he visits his parents.

The food was equally impressive. Multiple courses of sashimi, tempura, and even stewed beef were brought to the table. Another of the courses was simple steamed crab legs, which had been partially cracked open. The Japanese teachers kept trying to pick the meat out with their chopsticks, and laughed when I just picked the leg up with my hands, cracked it in half, and sucked the meat out one end. They laughed, but I actually got to eat my food instead of fight with it.

Before the debauchery got fully underway, the departees each gave short (and not so short) speeches. Everyone talked about how they enjoying working at a tiny school, and how they thought we were a great group together, and so on. The principal added that when I leave next year everyone has to come back for a special sobetsukai and that everyone has to drink. Kaneta sensei, the nice lady who was in charge of English curriculum for the last two years, decided to thank everyone one by one, and switched into English when she got to me. I actually started tearing up. Leaving next year is going to be hard.

As is normal at these sort of events, my vice principal was slurring his speech by his second beer, and started getting stupid ideas, like challenging me to drinking contests. The principal officiated. We filled our small (around 150ml) glasses with beer, and waited for the signal. My empty glass was back on the table before the vice principal had even lifted his (his perception of time was a bit off by this point), and the principal shouted out "aaaah, kyotosensei maketa!" (the vice principal loses!) The vice principals honor was a little stung, so he started ordering everyone else to drink with me as well. Most of the women, who were driving home, politely refused, but poor Tokushige sensei couldn't come up with an excuse. He had only slept 2 hours the night previously, and wasn't really up for it, but the vice principal insisted. I apologized when we were done.

Two and a half hours after we sat down for dinner, we moved on to the "ni ji-kai" (the second party) in the karaoke room of a nearby hotel.


The principal, above, did a pretty good rendition of some old Japanese show tunes, and the school nurse (to his left, also just departed) sang Sakuranbo so perfectly that at first I didn't realize it wasn't a CD.


The whole while we all kept drinking, and while I was singing Message in a Bottle the vice principal, slouched in the corner above, actually stood up and started rocking out (sitting next to him is Tokushige sensei, and Uzawa sensei, our head teacher). It was brilliant.

After singing for hours, the ladies all went home, and the principal, vice principal, Tokushige, and I headed up to our hotel rooms where we carried on with yet more beer, snacks, and shochu. At this point my recollection of the evening begins to get a bit fuzzy, but I believe the vice principal was telling me that the principal had done quit a bit of negotiating with the board of education on my behalf and that everyone was very happy I was returning for another year. The principal would have replied, I'm sure, had he not been asleep in a chair by that point. Around 1am, Tokushige and I helped the principal up to his room, them retired ourselves.

Saturday was rough. I woke up and immediately downed double doses of Zantac and Tylenol. I was very greatful for the large hotel bathroom. My body hurt a great deal, and the tub felt very nice. When I left the hotel around 10am, my three colleagues cars were still in the garage. I'm sure they didn't get up for some time. The funny part is, while all this might sound a bit much, there were welcome dinners for the new faculty just last night, and there will be a drinking party with the PTA in about a week and a half. The adult Japanese liver takes quite a pounding in the springtime.