Farewells, Flowers, Tacos, and Trivia!

The following two weeks were spent in Tokushima City (and surrounding areas). April 12-13 and 18-20. To start, we had Chris Reidl's farewell party. After a thousand years of living in Tokushima and running the musicals, he was finally going back home to America.
Before going tho, several of his friends were throwing him a goodbye party at P's Paradise.
The events leading up to the party that prove I make the worlds worst first impressions:
Louise James and I went to Coco Curry for dinner. Eating there we discover Nate. Louise knows Nate because he lives near her, but I know of him and have never met. When he comes over I make an odd comment about his shorts. Really I was trying to say that I didn't like them, but because I was censoring myself, the comment just came out baffled and making no sense at all... We finish our curry and buy Chris his going-away present. A single donut from Mr. Donut, wrapped in a ribbon (which cost more than the donut did). We don't know exactly why we wanted to buy him a donut, but we did. We boarded the bus to James' to change and regroup for the party!

At the party I proceed to make an awkward fool of myself in front of a number of people. Finally to top the cake I end up setting off a fire alarm. As the bar owners were running around trying to shut it off... 20 minutes of it ringing later, it finally stops and I'm sufficiently embarrassed. But that was the bad news. The good news was we got there, and we presented Chris with our donut in a very stylized manner. He seemed to like it. By the end of the night, because the ribbon cost so much, we snatched it back from Chris after he unwrapped his donut! Buahahaha. There was also a book going around to be filled with memories. I wrote something snarky like "I remember it like it was yesterday. The cool breeze blowing through the palms; the feeling of the soft sand like cat tongues between my toes. The evening dark as I sipped my cooled colada from a pineapple husk, the only light around coming from the stars and the dim neon sign of the bar behind me. That was one of my favorite nights. You weren't there of course.. but I still really liked it..."

Anyway. After Chris' party Louise Chris Pickles (other Chris) and Amy went to Mike's bar. We arrive at a pilot's party. They're all drinking and singing and we join in. In a matter of time some of the pilots are taking off their clothes. What a shocking thing for Mike's bar... I phone up Janet and tell her what she's missing. The pilots stripped to their underpants, then packed up and left. After a short while we were joined by other JETs and the party there continued. Louise James and I went back to James' place to wait for tomorrow's party.

I awoke to Louise giggling at her pictures. A standard morning ritual. She and James were dressed as pig farmers. Meaning they were wearing matching red Gingham shirts. We watched a bit of British comedy on Youtube, and a very clever dance to Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn." We decided that we would learn this dance. After that we headed to a Mos Burger breakfast.

The thing about Ingrid's Hanami party was that it was during the day, on Sunday, after a long night out Saturday. We were lamenting going. She was charging for all you can drink beer, but Louise and I thought better to bring our own. At Tokushima Castle (the location of the party) we met Louise's friend from Takamatsu, Akane, and our friend Julie. We moved toward where Ingrid's gathering was and sat down. We knew few people but proceeded to drink anyway. Akane drank whiskey coke out of a bowl that Louise had taken from Mike's bar the night before. I bought some bottled orange juice and mixed my vodka in with it. It began to rain and some of Ingrid's friends had to put up a tarp. I thought I could help by climbing a tree, but once up there I felt precarious and didn't want to move... so I didn't help at all, and instead merely climbed up a tree while everyone did all the work.

Bored with the party at some point, I convince Louise James and Akane that we should crash a neighboring gathering. We went over and Akane chatted them up in Japanese while we looked interesting. We proceeded to eat their food (even if it was arranged in a naughty way on the plate...) and accept their offers for drinks. James and I befriended two college students who, despite being only 19, were smoking! I felt like I should scold them. (The smoking and drinking age in Japan is 20.) We waste the day away with our new friends. Soon night fell, and Louise and I found ourselves in a state much more intoxicated than we imagined. Those are the perils of starting to drink around noon. It was Sunday and we had work the next day so we could NOT miss our last trains. We drunkenly meandered through the park and over a bridge. We thought we stepped into a huge pond which in our minds came up to waist-level, but actually our pants were only wet around the ankle. This sent us into a riotous laughter which delayed our getting back. We miraculously made it to the train station. I have no idea how we managed that as we did not know the way. Our trains were at 9:00. and it was 8:00 so we had some time to grab food at Lotteria. By the grace of God we managed to go from the party, onto our individual trains, and then make it home to our houses. Not to mention up in time for work the next day. Amazing!

The next week we had more planned! Take came to visit but he was coming late because of work. I was under the impression that there was a ferry from Wakayama to Tomushima at midnight arriving at 2:30. But there wasn't. Take had to wait at the ferry port for 2 hours until the 2:30 ferry which arrived at 4:30. I felt so bad. And so tired. As I waited I had some dinner and Karaoke with James. The next day there was a musical viewing party. Our musical, Momotaro was recorded by Andrew and everyone wanted to see it before Chris R. had left. Everyone drove up to Naruto to a Mexican food restaurant named Sombreros. The food was ok. I prefer our spot in Osaka, but it wasn't bad for being the only Mexican place in Tokushima. I couldn't drink because I was driving. We watched the musical, talking and laughing over it, most of us seeing it for the first time. Everyone was in good spirits with tasty food and entertainment from the musical. Stuffed and laughed-out we head back to Tokushima City.

Tonight is the Trivia night that Louise and I had been preparing months for. We are hosting it this time and we were in correspondence with questions for a long time. Everything was ready! We got changed into our host's attire and headed to P's Paradise to start the show. We charged 500yen for participating and had about 9 times of anywhere from 3-6 people. The evening was an overall success. Our winnings pot totaled about $200 to be split between the members of the winning team.

Our theme was "The Meaning of Life" based on the Monty Python movie. We had seven categories. Birth, Growing and Learning, Fighting Each Other, Middle Age and Live Organ Transplants, the Autumn Years, the Meaning of Life, and Death. Birth was questions about childhood TV shows. Growing and Learning were selections from high school exams, Fighting Each Other was a collection of questions about History and Politics. Middle Age and Live Organ Transplants was a category about plastic surgery, and gadgets. The Autumn Years was about board games. The Meaning of Life was about religion. Finally, Death was a collection of pictures of dead celebrities (or celebrities who deserve to be dead) who had to be named. In each round we hid the name of a fish (like Carp or Tuna...) somewhere in the questions or answers. This was the bonus round: Find the Fish (also from the movie). Everyone had a great time. The team Louise and I were on last time had dressed up as Naruto (the anime) characters. They had adopted more members in our absence, including Janet and Take. They came in second place and received their 500yens back. The first place team was nicely Chris R.'s team. It was nice that he won the big prize at the quiz night before he left Japan. Louise and I were exhausted from hosting such a big event and we were both thrilled that it went over so well.

PICTURES!!!!

posted by Living and Teaching in Tokushima @ 8:54 AM Comments: 0