Whenever I go to Japanese nomikai (drinking parties), I always carry this ambition to get well-fed. Never happens. I guess that's why it's called a "drinking party." A bunch of people trying their hardest to get smacked beyond dexterity.
Yamada-sensei met me in a cab near my home station around 6-ish. We live in the same ward. We arrived to the ever-busy Nagoya Station shortly after. He refused my offer to pay half of cabfare, as always. Neither of us had ever been to the restaurant, which was on the 12th floor of one of the two Central Towers, in the same building as the Marriott Hotel. The place wasn't hard to find, and as expected, it was pretty jiggy. We had about 20 heads occupying a Japanese-style room, full with a large window with a great view westward over the bullet train tracks and neon lights of the countless shops behind Nagoya Station.
It's funny to see your co-workers at drinking parties, especially Japanese. They really go all out, as such parties are one of the few social experiences they have to really let their hair down. So they do it up big. People get loud and boisterous, and some get ambitious with their English. Fortunately for me, I'm in the good graces of the elementary crew, so people only expressed more niceness towards me as they got "nicer." More funny was the fact that the eldest people were drinking the most. The principal was smoking and ordering gin and tonics like mad, and the vice-prinicipal's face was tomato-red within a half-hour from the first round of drinks. He'd invited his nephew-in-law, Nick Benwell. They had us sit next to one another, I suppose for language support. In true Brit-fashion, Nick was knocking back his fair share. I stuck with the standard tap brew, which I could barely sip the head off of before the assistant vice-principal refilled my mug--typical Japanese drinking etiquette. Even the old staff lady who serves school lunch everyday was hammering then back. Meanwhile, I was trying to get my belly fully with a bunch of food that totaled up to a bunch of teasy appetizers moreso than a full meal. At first, there was sashimi, or raw fish--salmon, tuna, shrimp, squid, etc. with soy sauce and wasabi. Tasty but not filling. They had nabe-style soup cooking on the tables, but I didn't mess with it because of all the piggie swimming around in it. They brought out some little broiled chicken wings with lemon wedges, which I put a small dent in. After that, there was tenpura--lightly batter-fried veggies and jumbo shrimp served with soy sauce. Again, yummy but not sticking to a bro's ribs. Then there was udon, thick wheat noodles served with soy sauce. Then they brought out the crab legs and heads, not served with soy sauce. The only thing we didn't have was rice. Then it dawned on me,
Q:"Why is rice never served at drinking parties?" Afterall, rice is served with most Japanese meals.
A: Because they don't want the rice soaking up all that alcohol everybody's chugging back. No rice = you drink more and get drunk faster = mo' yen for the restaurants. Ah-ha! Sherlock Homeboy cracks another one.
At one point, the principal had me and Nick drinking hot sake out of crab heads--full with crab brains floating around in it, which I found out that spilt out of the eyeball sockets if the shell was tilted the wrong way. That was pretty decadent stuff, and I only drank it as not to be rude. Finally, they served some little green tea-flavored ice cream balls with strawberries. I surprised at how much food was left over, because I know that stuff wasn't cheap. We ended the festivity with the assistant vice-principal, well-inebriated, giving some closing thank you's and good job's and then we all stood and made one big clap with our hands, and gave some sort of cheer. After that we bowed, said our goodbyes, then went home. And all this before 9pm.
As I hadn't drunken much, I left, not tipsy even. The other heads were pretty smacked though. I know Yamada-san took the bus home. I'm sure everyone else trained or taxied it back. And that was that-- middle-aged schoolteachers getting drunk on a Monday night.
...And we'll be doing it again next month when we have our beginning of the school year party.
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