Tonight was the official farewell party for my roommate Palmer. He is moving to Sapporo at the end of the month but we held the official farewell party tonight in order to accommodate other people which resulted in a larger turnout.
The evening followed the template of almost every other teacher leaving party: meet after work, go to an izakaya with a drink / food special, second party at karaoke. For tonight’s party, teachers and staff met at the garlic themed restaurant Ninikuya (literally garlic store). We all left a few hours later a bit drunk and smelling like garlic. Most of us moved on to Uta Club for karaoke. We didn’t book ahead (we rarely do), so our large group ended up being in a long, narrow room that had barely enough space for a table in the middle.
Sometime later into karaoke, sake was ordered. Getting into sake late into a night out is usually a bad idea. Tonight was no exception to that rule.
It’s unfortunate that some of the best parties are farewell parties.
Drinking in Japan 