Izakaya.

It's been an extraordinarily long week (hence no updates recently), so I celebrated the weekend with my JET & Japanese friends at a Japanese-style restaurant (which are called "izakaya"). It's really impossible to go wrong at izakaya: big glasses of beer, lots and lots of different types of food, and your very own room. Here is a photo of my friend, Pam, who shares an appreciation for good food, and tons of it!

Here are Shige and Naomi having a laugh. I think I said some naughty words in Japanese before taking the picture, that's why they look like they're gonna pee their pants. One of the rewards of having Japanese friends is that you learn alllll the baaaad wooords. And then share them with your colleagues the next day at work.

The night naturally led into karaoke, of course. Here are the lyrics to a song that Naomi and Ryoko sang: "Yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh / the survival dance / the trial dance." Yeah, it's not the real dance, it's just the trial dance. (No relation whatsoever to the TRIBAL DANCE or anything).

The night ends with a train ride back home.