First of all, many apologies for the long delay in posting – sometimes it feels like nothing new happens for a while and then everything happens at once. In any case, this is my attempt to catch up with the events of the past week. This past Wednesday was a national holiday so no work for English teachers (and everyone else). We were invited to a wedding reception of one of the guys that Zac and Ebow got to know at our local bar this past year. It was a western style wedding but with lots of Japanese touches (like drinking sake in the ceremony). After the wedding is a close family party and then the reception itself is only for the friends of the couple. We arrived at an Italian restaurant in Omiya where absolutely everyone was wearing black and smoking. We had a buffet style meal of Japanese foods like sashimi and deep fried salmon along with Japanese versions of Italian pizza and pasta.
When the eating was over we westerners kinda expected the music to start and the dancing to begin but that was not to be. Instead of a dj and dancing Japanese wedding guests are treated to Bingo. And then Pictionary and other guessing games. The winners got cool prizes like tickets to Disneyland or PSP players, which is pretty neat. My favorite game was Don’t Eat The Cream Puff Filled With Wasabi. Now that was fun. Eating that much wasabi is pretty much a guarantee to dissolve your tongue and nose cartilage. Watching someone try and hide the fact that they have 3 tbs in their mouth is really entertaining. And with the wasabi having been consumed, the couple kissed for our benefit (very important kiss – Haruka told me it was the most important kiss, though I don’t know why). And that was that. By 6pm we were handed our gifts from the couple (a pretty desk calendar) and everyone went home. Except for Zac, Ebow, Haruka and I - we went bowling!!!!!
Bowling was awesome, especially in formal wear. Actually I felt like we fit in because apparently the thing for girls to wear bowling is fur. Obviously. I included a picture of a friend of Hauka’s we ran into at the bowling alley. We were treated to lots of j-pop music and me losing terribly. I hit four pins down once and everyone cheered liked mad. I am that talented! We all commented that it felt like we were back in high school- except for the being in Japan and having attained legal drinking age. After bowling, we went downstairs for some amusements with the little chits we got for bowling. Zac won me an Elmo (now on my Christmas tree at work), but none of us gamble so after trying to figure out the point of gambling with coins that you don’t get real money for (except Haruka…it made perfect sense to her) we gave coins away and headed back to Sengendai.
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