On Thursday night, the seven grade teachers (what they call first grade, because it’s the first grade in the junior high school) went out for a beginning of term dinner. At least, I think that is what the occasion was. I’m not actually a first grade teacher, but I sit at their table in the staff room so they invited me along.

I thought I would have no trouble finding it; I knew the general area where the restaurant is, and they had given me a piece of paper with the name of the restaurant written in Japanese characters. But after walking around the block a couple of times, I stopped to ask for directions. I said “doko wa” (where is…) and pointed to the piece of paper with the restaurant’s name. The man sounded out “Japanese restaurant”. Apparently that was the name of this place. Not a very useful name! So I wandered around a little more and finally stopped into the police box (a little booth where several policemen hang out. There’s hardly any crime here, so I’m not sure what they do to keep busy.) They pointed out the restaurant directly opposite their booth. Sure enough, their sign said in English “Japanese Restaurant”, but I was trying to match the Japanese characters on my piece of paper!

Luckily I was only a few minutes late (promptness is very important here). The other 11 teachers were all seated around a table. It’s a weird style of table. You leave your shoes at the entrance to the table booth, then walk around the table on this platform. I always think I’m supposed to sit on my knees at these restaurants, and about halfway through the meal, when my feet have fallen asleep, I notice that there is plenty of leg room under the table.

Dinner was huge. I think there were nine courses. The first were several small dishes of assorted things – pumpkin pudding (not sweet though), and some by-product of tofu (at least that’s what I understood of the explanation) with salmon eggs, and some mushrooms in a spicy sauce. After that was sashimi – raw fish. Then some tempura – lotus root and something unidentifiable. Next was some sort of custard with mushrooms and fish. Then came a tasty looking salad, until I realized it was entirely composed of sliced raw onions and conger eel! Next they brought out charcoal braziers to the table with a wok kind of thing on top (this is what is shown in the photo) and we cooked our own vegetables and beef. Then came rice with mushrooms and hazelnuts. Next was miso soup! I couldn’t believe it – I kept thinking, this must be the last course, and then they would appear with another dish! Finally we had tiny pieces of tiramisu for dessert.

Of course there were plenty of drinks flowing and some apparently hilarious stories and/or teasing of one of the teachers! After dinner, which had lasted three hours, some of the teachers decided to go on for karaoke, but I was exhausted. They said they had stayed out until 11 pm. Not as late as I had expected them to stay out but too late for exhausted me!