Last evening I walked up to the Tsuchiyama station, and made a short trip to Kakogawa to attend the retirement party for three of our teachers. I stepped out of the station and waited around for Mr. Hayashi to pick me up. I was surprised when Miss Kageyama’s car showed up with Mr. Hayashi in the passenger seat! She drove us both to the hotel and dropped us off, then she was off to another party for her other school.
We walked inside and everyone was kind of waiting around in the lobby. I was impressed with the hotel – it’s a lot nicer than I’d expect for Kakogawa. We paid our money to a couple of cashiers at the front, and then drew a number to find out where we will sit. This is the same as the last official party I went to – kind of an interesting way to keep things from becoming too chummy. Mr. Hayashi drew a number, then arranged for me to skip the drawing process and just sit by him.
As we walked into the banquet room, Mr. Hayashi kind of set me up to sit between him and Miss Shigata, the second year teacher that’s been making goo-goo eyes at me all year. She had tried to get me to go to Kyoto with her, but I managed to dodge that. Now here I was stuck next to her, and the worst part is that it is Japanese custom to pour drinks for your neighbors, so we were filling each other’s glass all night.
Another thing that is different about these kind of parties is that there is beer and sake everywhere, but nobody drinks until the toast speech. We had to sit through three long speeches surrounded by bottles and bottles of Asahi Super Dry that were getting warmer by the minute. Finally, after the first round of speeches were over, we made the toast, and then it was a drink-a-thon.
Mr. Hayashi kept urging me to pour drinks for Miss Shigata. He told me “She likes you very much, I think” and “Afterwards you should ask her to go somewhere with you”. It was like having a little devil on my shoulder the whole night.
Meanwhile, Miss Shigata was enjoying all the attention, asking me questions, filling my glass, and watching me eat with chopsticks and silverware with equal amazement. On stage more speeches started, one by the principal listing all the accomplishments of each teacher over the years. The teachers each sat in a chair on the stage with their heads bowed listening carefully. Each retiring teacher had an introduction from one of the younger teachers, and this was almost like a roast – they gave them a hard time.
Mr. Komuri did a cool activity where he handed out paper to each table, and we had to come up with a Japanese kanji character that best represented the retiring teacher’s life. I only knew a few, so I didn’t really have anything to contribute, but it was a good idea.
After their introduction, the retiring teacher would make a speech. I’m not sure what they said, but they tended to talk for a long time. It was strange to me, it seemed to go against my ideas of modesty and humility – some speeches went for twenty minutes. Part of it is that these teachers have been lecturing students for forty years and it must be a hard habit to break, but I part of it is that this is really their last chance to say things before they leave. Retiring at sixty years old is mandatory in Japan, and it is generally considered to be the end of your life when you leave work. So much work is put in early to choose a good career and to do your best, when you reach sixty there’s not a big tangible goal in front of you anymore.
The dinner wrapped up and the activities leading up to the end got stranger and stranger. At one point one of the P.E. teachers staggered up to the front of the party, sang out the teacher’s name, and then did some kind of crazy punching in the air while we clapped in time. Then we all cheered. Kind of like Hip-Hip-Hooray but with martial arts. The guests of honor announced that they were leaving, which probably had more to do with the amount of beer the hotel had than anything else, and we all formed an arch with our hands and they walked through it.
Afterwards, Mr. Hayashi urged Miss Shigata to stay with me and take care of me, because he had to leave. He took off, and I was stuck trying to think quickly with an alcohol drenched brain. I looked wildly around to the room – people were leaving one by one, and I saw Mr. Komuri talking with someone. I walked over and asked him if he would join me for a drink or something. At first he said that he had to leave, but maybe he saw the desperation in my eyes. He agreed, and something strange happened.
A lot of the teachers that were just kind of lingering in the lobby suddenly started gravitating to us, and we found ourselves with a group of ten people. Ah, safety in numbers. We walked from place to place in Kakogawa, finding that most things were closed because it was Sunday. Finally we found an izakaya that was open, and it turned out to be quite nice.
We sat and drank for an hour or two, and I made sure that I sat at the opposite side of the room from Miss Shigata. Just as everyone was sitting down, I snuck off to the restroom, and when I returned, all the drunk guys had cozied up next to the drunk girls, and I sat at the end next to Mr. Komuri.
Finally, we had enough izakaya grub, and so we all went to the station, and went our separate ways. I arrived home late, and went right to sleep. It was a good party, and I’m glad that I can rest on Monday.
