We Wish You A Merry Xmas!

My branch had a Xmas party today. Kate came with, and so she dropped by the school beforehand (the party proper was to be at a bar). Once the Japanese staff figured out she was my fiancee, all hell broke loose. The secretaries (all women, of course) started cooing about how pretty she is; one of them (the sassy one) remarked "Mottainai!" (what a waste!). Then we got a standing ovation from all the staffers, including the always-professional office manager--this was a little strange.

The party was all good fun, plus or minus some stifling smoke.

Lovely new discovery: The Calpis Sour, a Calpis*-based drink that apparently contains a fair bit of alcohol, although one would never know from the taste.

I was a little curious as to how the overflowing table of gaijin would play in the Japanese bar, but it went off without a hitch. At one point we broke out into a rousing rendition of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and the nearby tables were quick to join in. One of our neighbours jumped up and started shouting "Merry Christmas!" and toasting us all. Later on he came over and had a conversation that went roughly like this:

"Where are you from?"
"America."
"Yeahhh! America!!! Yeah!!! And where are you from?"
"Australia."
"AUSTRALIA!!!! Yeah!!!!"
etc.

Later on Kate told me she thought they were playing a drinking game, based on people yelling at our table. That would have been one helluva drinking game.

Well, let's leave it at that. I've got the early shift tomorrow. (Yay.)

* What's Calpis? The first step on the path to wisdom is saying the name out loud. "I love Calpis. I can't get enough of Calpis." That done, here's a helpful website. They sure know how to sell their product, I'll give 'em that.