nabe party.

december has been a month of too many celebrations.

my american co-worker, wil, departed japan on sunday. last week, my new australian co-worker, john, started teaching at our school. 

for two weeks, there have been a plethora of farewell events for wil. and it all finished with a christmas/farewell/welcome party on saturday hosted by our school. i wasn't really concerned with taking pictures because i ended up posing for most of them (sorry. its been a busy month.), so i don't have any visuals. the party was fun, just like my welcome/barney's farewell last june. it was held at an izakaya in shibuya. a lot of students were there...maybe like 50, and it was pretty cool because i'm at this point now where i knew 95% of the students who attended, as well as all their names, the courses they took, and their english level. i was pretty stoked about that. so many things have changed in these past six months. it was a good night.

afterwards, i took the new teacher and a small group of students out to karaoke. and the way there i had to chat with john about not hitting on random japanese girls on the street while in the company of students. the night got kind of weird after that (full moon, i suspect) but its really not worth mentioning. it was fun, but after two weeks of farewelling wil, i am totally ready for my winter break and kyoto. for real.

HOWEVER, here are some pictures from a nabe party a few of my students had a while ago. nabe is amazingly delicious! its this giant cauldron ontop of a burner that you put all these different vegetables, noodles, and animal intestines in. you eat and eat and eat and drink and drink and drink as much as humanly possible! nabe parties are super duper popular in japan during the winter.

oh, and i am 99% sure that i am renewing my contract for an additional six months.