These are drinking parties. In the truest sense of the word. New Years is a very important holiday for the Japanese. They view it as a time to erase the mistakes and problems from the previous year and start fresh in January. So, it is inevitable that at the end of the year, they have parties where people get together, get blitzed drunk, and have a lot of random fun. This year, I went to my Board of Education, my choir, and one of my schools.

They always give some sort of prizes or awards (random joke ones) to everyone but they give good food and good drink. At my Board of Education, they gave us king crab and sushi. At my schools, they gave sushi and some other high quality Japanese food. It was really good.

Usually, there is a bit of time for everyone to eat and drink and be merry, then they have the game for everyone. At my school's, it was a Jeopardy style game with questions all about the school in the previous year. Big events, news, the building codes, that kind of thing. At the Board of Education, the game was that they took a person's name and made clues about it and you had to guess who it referred to. Really difficult for me since I had no idea a) what most of their names are and b) much about their personality. But it was still fun nonetheless.

I personally like going to the enkais because simply, more people try to speak in English to me so I feel a lot more welcome...and a lot less alone. Not that I feel alone and lonely anyway, but I don't have to try and speak as much. Which alleviates some pressure for all of us.

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Seriously, this had to have been one of the best days of my life. It was so awesome. The thing is, I'd been sick for a while. Stuffed up and coughing. I had to miss a lot of choir because of it and I hated it. But we sang Beethoven's 9th Symphony (now, my 3rd time). I had the music actually memorized, so in the rehearsals, I actually tried doing the solo part. What was great was that everyone was really happy I sang. But unfortunately, the choir doesn't allow one of our own to sing the solo. We have to bring professionals. But oh well.

The concert itself went extremely well. I stood up there and held all the coughing down so I wouldn't make a scene. There I was, dressed in my black suit, bow tie, hair crisp, staring at the crowd. I found Tiffany immediately in the seat, staring at me with this smile on her face, like she was so proud of me. It was easy to spot her, the albino redhead kinda stands out in a sea of Japanese people, you know? I thought I saw another friend in the crowd, but he wasn't acting anything like he normally does. Usually Brian is really happy and exuberant and this guy in the audience was stone cold and quiet. And then the concert started. Everything went perfectly. My voice never sounded stronger. I didn't make a single mistake (I don't think), and my voice didn't crack. Which was really good, considering how little I had practiced prior. As we were singing, I kept looking around, trying to find my scattered friends throughout the auditorium. That one guy was never happy and I looked harder, it was definitely not Brian. It was some Japanese guy, but don't blame me. I had spotlights on me and I couldn't see well. But I thought we sounded good and the applause lasted forever. They just would not stop clapping. And even I could see the little twinkle in Tiffany's eye as she clapped.

After the concert, I went to my choir's Bounenkai and launch party. Basically, a chance for us to congratulate each other after the performance and drink together. There were awards given out (though I didn't receive any) and it was a good time. Except for one thing. There was not enough food for everyone! It was an expensive bounenkai (they usually are) and I didn't even get enough to eat or drink! Grrrrrr. I was actually really upset at the night. Stop the awards show and give us food! We're (I'm) starving!

And when they pulled what little food was left and they stopped serving, I was fuming. I texted Tiffany (who went to have coffee with other friends who went to the concert) and asked if they wanted to eat again, that I was really upset there wasn't enough food or anything. So she started to make plans for us while I was busy talking to my choir folk. It turned out that nobody got enough food to eat and there would definitely be a second enkai (drinking party) for everyone with a lot of food.

Well, that calmed me down a bit, so I called Tiffany again and said let's join the second enkai. Everyone. So I met up with Tiffany and John and we went to meet my choir. The choir already met Tiffany from the last concert's enkai (They had me serenade her. Click here for that story.) So she was familiar to them. But they loved talking to John and Tiffany though. At least, they liked practicing their English on them. I looked at the folks and asked "Why don't you speak English with me?!" "Well, you speak Japanese to us." I guess I can't argue with that logic, somehow.

After that, John, Tiffany, and I went to another bar to have a third enkai with foreigners. It was getting late, so the choir people wanted to sleep. But we met up with some other people and talked some more. Then, after a few hours, we all went to a FOURTH enkai at a Brazilian club and danced there for a little bit. It didn't feel like we were there for very long, but we got back late. A day that will forever be in my memory.

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