Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu

Hey Happy New Year! I suppose the month's half over already, but, eh. Nate was here until yesterday. He came out last month on the 19th and we went straight to the jh bounenkai. Which was greatly overpriced. 5000 yen (US$50) for mediocre food in a small room with a low ceiling. It was so expensive because there was fugu. I pretended to be worried about dying from the poison (you know... if blowfish is cut improperly the poison sac gets pierced) and waited for one of the other teachers to try the fish first. She didn't die or seem ill so I ate mine. The flavor was uninteresting and there wasn't enough flesh to outweigh the inconvenience of all the bones. I was hoping it would be worth the hype. Oh well.
I was also disappointed that nobody loosened up in the slightest really at the party. The beer was slowly flowing, but only to a couple of glasses, I suppose. The others weren't drinking so the could cut out before the 2jikai (that's party #2, suckas) I figure. We played bingo in the cramped room, which was fun, because the teacher in charge of the party had supplied us with cool prizes. I got a lap blanket. Nate got a mug. The teacher who got bingo first picked the largest present. And got loads of instant ramen. Which is probably good in the long run since he's a bachelor (and a bitter one at that--apparently he's regretting the jh physics teacher career path. It kinda shows. He always seems stressed out and not so friendly at school.).