My Enkai

Last night the teachers held a welcome enkai for me. An enkai is a drinking party – so lots of beer is consumed along with (really good) food. Enkais are a good way for colleagues to bond, as everyone gets to relax and enjoy themselves.

The food was really good – a fantastic spread of Japanese food from sushi to pizza. However the pizza was the only continental food. The rest include tako (raw octopus), kansai-fu egg omelette (関西風), sashimi (刺身) and various types of nagiri . The variety of fish here is impressive and the Nagiri I sampled was salmon, some kind of brean and - according to one of my senseis - snake but it was really eel. There was also an amazing beef salad called gyuu niko no taki (牛肉のたたき ) and the salad here is really good. It seems to be the same as usual salad so I think the secret must be in the sauce.

So far I have been pretty good with sampling new and crazy cuisine but I had one moment last night when trying my second round of horumon (pig intestine). It was much better than last weeks version but for some reason it didn't go down well with my gag-reflex. I managed to control it but the problem with being foreign is that everyone is watching while they feed you the weird food. It was really embarrassing, and I tried to pull it off as potential hiccups. I don’t think I succeeded though.

I also finally got up the courage to sample tako. I have been putting it off due to long standing fear of tentacles. It is not so much what it is as the idea of getting anywhere close to something with suckers – especially if it means putting it in my mouth. Amazingly it was not bad. Certainly not as tough as I imagined it just took a lot of will power to do it. Amazingly it is easier to eat raw liver than octopus.

Though out of all the weird food I ate last night the eel had to be the best. It was tasty and soft and delicious. That I can recommend.

The party was wonderful and I had a great time getting to know some of the other teachers. Mostly I talk to the English teachers so it was nice to speak to some of the other teachers. They are a blast and completely different from the school. The only thing is that during some beer influenced moment I may have resigned myself to using my limited connections to try and source Orlando Bloom’s autograph.