So, what kind of weekend does a JET have? (aka. what wacky shit happens?)

(I usually don't go over my blogs, so just deal with the style, vocab, and spelling errors)

I'm glad you asked... cause this weekend was especially crazy (Saturday at least)

Friday
On Friday, the town I'm stationed in held an 宴会(enkai = welcome party) for the 4 new JETs, and the 2 recontracting JETs were invited to come join the festivities. The new JETs are Alia, Heather, Andres, and me, and the vets are Jeff and Kennard (though we don't see much of Kennard).

The party was held at a Zen temple at 5:30 and all the big wigs from most of our schools were there. They had been planning the party for about 4 months, and the owner of the hotel was a Shotokan karate instructor whose English was very good. The food situation was a sukiyaki type deal with a gajillion different things thrown in. In the 'odd food category' I had Beef tongue (I think this was the second time I had it), some terribly bitter river fish (awa, I think) and some pork intestine (内臓 - ないぞう). They kept expecting us to freak out with every dish, but everyone held up pretty well until I had to explain that I've tried organs in a lot of styles but I just don't like the flavor of the meat. This was met with the typical "Oh, your Japanese is SOOO good" followed by several people picking organs of the grill, savoring the smell and eating it slowly while slowly drawling out, "delissssscious." And that was that.

The drink situation was of the 'bottomless beer cup' style. At about 7:30, everyone except for Alia and Heather were pretty soused (Heather doesn't like to drink and Alia has a Kidney problem). They asked/forced the JETs to sign a song, so we belted out "Amazing Grace" and The US national anthem. I don't know the anthem, so Heather thought ahead and saved my ass by bringing the lyrics. At first, I was impressed that we harmonized pretty well... until our superiors starting singing. We were schooled. I don't know how or why, but all Japanese people have hidden amazing singing powers. Well, after our impromptu song session concluded, they decided we needed more singing, and it was off to Karaoke!

...but it wasn't the Karaoke I was used to. I was a 3 TV setup with about 4 mics, but only one song can be song at a time. I felt a little bad, cause our boisterous group pretty much took over the establishment from some construction workers. So, I'm pretty drunk here, I start browsing the song selection (which was really vast, despite the place being pretty small) and I see... SUPERSTAR by S.H.E. (it's in Chinese). I decide, what the hell, I know most of the words anywho, so I select it, get up and start to belt it out....

The reactions were excellent.

The construction workers were dying of laughter, the supervisors were shocked, the bar owners were bemused and the other JET were caught off guard. When I finish it's the standard applause and Jeff turns to me and says, "Off all the things I was expecting you to sing, that wasn't it. At first I thought I was going crazy, but then I realized it was Mandarin." I quickly say that the only reason I can sing it is because I heard it so much in Chinese, before anyone gets the wrong idea. Although, that bold first strike at embarrassment really gets things started. Before long everyone is signing, getting more drunk, and we somehow manage to work 6 languages into karaoke before we ended (The construction workers did Dragostin din Tei (sp?) or the Numa Numa song, and we just about died). Although we ended at about 10pm, I was ridiculously drunk and had had no water all nite. After they sent us off in separate taxis and bid us good nite.

I somehow got my futon out before I crashed but woke up at 5am, terribly dehydrated. Mmm, it's like college all over again.

(I'm cutting this into 2-3 entries that are easier to digest) Next, Saturday in Sendai! And Sunday, smashed take 2!