Goodbye afterparty

From the first party, just about everyone went to the second party, at a snack called New Elite. I didn't mind the snack so much, mostly because about thirty of us were going, including many of the women teachers. This tends to scare off the undesirable aspects of snacks--namely, the skimpy-dressed hostesses and trying-too-hard flirty fiftysomethings.

Yoshihara kicked off the singing, busting out maracas. She and Kamito did a duet with an anime song. I did "Stand By Me," guessing (correctly, as it turned out) that most people would know it. Several teachers took to complimenting me on my English.

I started talking with Fuji, one of the office workers. He's been my source for a lot of (not surprisingly) administrative information: I learned from him the average tuition per month for students (about $100), and the Yakuza-associated parents who don't take kindly to his phone calls reminding them of delinquent tuition payments. Tonight we talked about some parents not caring about their students.

I also talked with Nagadome, the new head of the PTA. I still don't know what the PTA does when it's not out drinking with us, but they're a fun lot. Nagadome is the father of Akane, the head of the English Club, and she's the spitting image of him. He works for a travel agency, and I lost count of the number of countries he told me he'd been to. Not surprisingly, his English is very good. This probably has something to do with his daughter's affinity for English.

As the night went on, I wanted to sing something with Satomi. After talking it over, we decided on "A Whole New World." I had a blast, and she seemed to, too. I talked Shigematsu into doing Top of the World with me, but we ran out of time before our song came up. She wants to live in a foreign country, but feels she's too old. She's 28! I tried my best to convince her she can do it.

Anyway, after the second party, the group split up. Not surprisingly, most of the women headed home. Equally unsurprisingly, most of the men marched on to the next destination: okonomiyaki. After midnight, with work the next (err, that same) morning. Having spent time saying goodbye to the departing, and with two of my departing coworkers calling it a night, I headed back, too. I got back home at around 1.