It's Kinda My Party and I'll Kinda Cry If I Want To

Ok this was from back in October and somehow didn't get put in the post bin, so here's my first real enkai (formal work party). Gripping stuff.

Yet another enkai was held in my gracious honour on October 21^st. This one, compared to the low key affair I had with the naughty kids table at the Chinese restaurant was a very stately affair, or so I felt when I walked in the door as kimono-clad women guided Maggie and I past a beautiful little courtyard garden, up many flights of stairs, past many rooms, their paper-screened doors glowing from within and doing nothing to counter the raucousness emanating from within and finally to the biggest room situated on the top floor. As we stepped through the shoji doors all fifty or so assembled BOE members were seated on their knees in their black suits, a tray of delicacies placed before them. It was indeed a few steps up from the usual watering hole, despite the regulars also present, albeit looking unusually sombre.

OK in actual fact, this enkai was not just for the likes of me. It was more like a “Oh, let's have Ali's enkai because we're already throwing one for the big, big boss who's leaving” enkai. So that was the case. It still meant that I had to sit at the head of the room with all the big guys and that I had to make a speech, an honour that Maggie didn't have to go through at her welcome enkai, and in comparison to the big boss and his pride inducing speech, I was like the handicapped cousin. And after the previous two extra extended editions, everyone was eyeing their food tray in front of them looking impatiently at me as I stood so it only seemed right that I not take too long as not to deprive my fellow hard working workmates their food.

After an hour or so my visions of this upmarket affair were soon shattered as the guise of prim and properness could not be held for long under the influence of alcohol and slipped to reveal the Naughty Kids at the Min Min minus the old food stained man with the cigarette butt hanging out one side of his mouth. Which was good. I don't know how long I could have kept up sitting seiza with my legs folded beneath me, or how long I could keep up the polite conversation with the new woman head of the BoE seated beside me at the head of the room. After it was established I was a sake drinker, not a beer drinker (the only alcohol in the room at the time), sake was called for and it was then party time.

[OK I'm sitting in the waiting room at Yura Station and there's a cat that looks just like Laaa lying down outside the door. She even acts like Laaa!! Gooey moment for ten minutes*... and back.]

For some reason empty sake bottles kept piling up around me, more than what I had drunken. I think this was because I started a new craze and sake was all of a sudden 'in' and with me being the only person in the room with it, I had it stolen. In order to convert the non-believers, I ordered several more bottles and took it upon myself to visit everyone in the room and pour them a cup of sake. This didn't work out as expected. I had started off with my favourites, the Rowdy Duo and moved on to the old big, big boss sitting with big boss and the head of the library when my plan hit a snag. In order to social with sake after the person has drunken from their cup, they give it to the pourer and pour for them. Needless to say after visiting five people I couldn't go on.

Round one as this enkai at this place shall henceforth be named, finished with some more speeches made by the oblivious Ozeki-san who at this stage couldn't control the muscles of his mouth enough to form actual words. As a final sending off the BoE members formed two lines and linked hands above their heads to make a tunnel of which old big, big boss went under. In my current state I just saw something I could take part in and also went under the retirement bridge. At this stage most of the group said their goodbyes and headed home including Maggie, but the hardcore partyers moved on to round two of three rounds – a karaoke bar in the old cobbled backstreets of Miyazu. I on Ozeki-san's bicycle. I then realised why drunk bicycling is illegal in Japan.

Round two was a lot of fun. We were the only ones in the bar so we didn't have to put up with drunks chiming in with our fabulous 70s, 80s and enka hits. Nishihara-san was a fan of Lady Gaga, or Gaga-sama as she calls her, so the pair of us warbled our way through Poker Face. At some point Ozeki-san decided in his drunken stupor to go across the road to his old haunt to see if his old drinking buddies were there and with nothing much to do with boundless confidence and obliviousness, we followed him. So started round three. I don't remember much of round three, but I do remember the free food, probably for the best. After this we rejoined the group who were still at the round two stage, sung some more songs then crab walked home.