Thursday, April 02, 2009

More from the Farewell Party

I made it back safe and sound from my little trip to Kyoto. I've got hundreds of photos, so I'm trying to whittle it down to a magageble number so you don't have to sit for hours viewing them :)

Here is another photo from our enkai last week. In this photo you see the people who were honored at the party, and in this particular activity, each person steps to the middle to receive a special, personal cheer. They did this for me when I first arrived at this school, and I remember being a little frightened when all of a sudden I was shuffled on stage (& left alone) and my slightly intoxicated supervisor stood in front of me on the floor and started doing weird hand and body movements accompanied by loud shouting. I was only slightly relieved when everyone else suddenly started chanting and clapping. Now, of course, I know that they were actually welcoming me in their own way, but at the time I was really scared!

Some of our delicious food...(yeah - don't ask me - I'm not really sure what it is!) In typical Japanese enkai style - we had many many little dishes of small portions of curious things. My best guess about these things - (top) kamaboko (steamed fish paste) & sashimi, (middle bowl) seeweed (I actually gave this one away to someone who LOVES it), (bottom) ~escargot(?) & breaded squid. And...umm...The menu sounds much better in Japanese...




LOBSTER???!!! They actually told me this was shrimp. It was filled with a mashed potato-shrimp mixture (think - twice baked potatoes). The embellishment was a grain that tasted like popcorn!







AND...after ALL that eating - the people who were leaving each got cheered and tossed up into the air!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure about the menu, but the presentation is beautiful! Welcome back from your trip, Tracey. Can't wait to view some of your pictures. Love you!
Aunt Barb

Gina said...

Hey Tracey! I can't wait to own the coffee table book about your travels! The food chapter alone will be gorgeous!

Hugs,
Gina ;~}