The working world.

Sooooo, I spent my monday night getting WASTED with my coworkers. I'd usually be ashamed to admit that I can't remember what happened but it's not like I had any say in the matter.

For all those who don't know, drinking with your co-workers in Japan is probably more common than drinking with your friends, and turning down an invitation could be seen as rude. Now usually foreigners have a 'get out of jail free' card for almost any expectations Japanese have of Japanese people but because I don't want to be treated like a monkey by EVERYONE and only those too stubborn to see that I am a sentient being, I try to go along with anything that doesn't make my life extremely difficult. This included a 5000 yen ($50) diiner and all you can drink party with all my coworkers including the principal and vice principle. Now it was advertised as all you can eat fancy buffet but what it actually was was something like a drink-and-do-everything-else-as-fast-as-you-can-and-show-drunk-affection-to-your-underlings event. The buffet was enough to feed half of the 33 of us and it took them a good 20 minutes to refill things. I've experienced this kind of service in America (maybe once or twice) but I thought it was unheard of in Japan, which to me indicates how much the stress was on alcohol.

So I knew it was common to pour for each other and you aren't really supposed to pour for yourself and I knew it was common to get sloppy with coworkers, but I didn't know that if the person pouring reached you and you had a full glass that you're expected to drink a significant amount so that they can pour for you. And I didn't know that at any given time half the people in the room are running around to pour for their superiors and inferiors to establish healthy bonds at lightning speed, which means about a half a beer every minute or two at the peak of the night (which for most people starts once their 4 or 5 drinks in). There does exist an option to establish yourself as a light drinker, but you run the risk of isolating yourself so the only option, if you want to avoid the risk of puking on your boss is to drink as slowly as possible until the pouring starts and hope no one challenges you to a chugging competition.

I'm sure there is a great deal of variance between the types of jobs and personalities in question, but in any case, MY situation left me with the kind of dreadful hangover that I had managed to avoid most of the way through college. I imagine this group is a little more open because they seem to be pretty close with each other compared to the teachers at the other school I work at.

I wasn't shocked by this situation, the only real surprise was that I thought most of the alcohol entering my body would have been 90% at the hands of my own free will.

I'm not complaining and I'm not raving about it either. It was awesome to see the principal stumble around and tell me he wants to communicate with me better and then chug a beer in my honor. But it would be nice if there was a little more room to opt out of all the drinking without feeling like your putting your job at risk.

After 2 and a half hours, the most pathetic game of darts and bingo that I've ever seen, and somewhere between 9 and 19 drinks, whoever was left standing moved on to the bar (about half of us). I'd tell you about the bar but all I remember is a very drunk gym teacher telling me I need to be more American and that I'm too much like Japanese people. I don't really know exactly what he meant by that but I took it as an opportunity to tell him I'm not the kind of jackass that fits a stereotype as well as he does. He laughed.

After that, all I remember is an older woman teacher making sure I didn't get lost on my way home since she lives fairly close to me on the same train line. During that time I am sure I said something embaressing but I'm not sure what. I cannot remember for the life of me if it was in English or Japanese but it doesn't really matter.

I woke up the next morning (2PM) dizzy and sick and decided it was as good a time as any to go to karaoke.