Archive for category Friends and coworkers
December 24, 2005 – Christmas songs at the izakaya
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Life in Japan, Uncategorized on December 24, 2015
Everyone finished work early because it was Christmas Eve, so we all went out to the izakaya across the street from NOVA to celebrate. Despite being located directly across from the NOVA branch, teachers rarely went to this particular izakaya, opting instead for the cheaper options. English teachers are notoriously frugal with their beer money.
We all had lots of food and possibly a few too many drinks, prompting a very boisterous round of Christmas songs as we approached midnight. We got so loud that the staff asked us nicely to keep the volume down. We took this as a cue to move to karaoke.
Being away from home for Christmas is hard. Being around a bunch of other people who are trying to forget they are also away from home for Christmas does make things easier.
Merry Christmas from Japan!
December 8, 2005 – NOVA Christmas party
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Life in Japan on December 8, 2015
Tonight was the Numazu Nova Christmas staff party!
Over the past few months there have been a lot of parties involving some combination of teachers, staff, or students. In almost every single one there has been some argument, complaint about work, complaint about other coworkers, or someone overindulging. Tonight was different – everyone went out and had a great time. It was one of the most fun and most positive outings in a long time.
Like every other party, we started out in an izakaya and ended up at karaoke. People left through the evening, but I am proud to say that I closed out the evening singing Christmas songs (poorly) with Vivian.
A great time was had by all!
October 23, 2005 – Geek day
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Life in Japan, Movies on October 23, 2015
Today was a total geek day. There was yet another teacher party in the evening, but I declined and decided to spend the evening in. Super Dave came over after finishing work and brought his portable hard drive. We traded some movies and TV shows while watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 presenting “The Crawling Eye”. Hanging out and watching robots make fun of terrible sci-fi was a lot of fun and a nice break from another night out at the izakaya.
Warning: Do not attempt to watch The Crawling Eye (or any other MST3K) without ample beer on hand. It will break your brain.
October 22, 2005 – Never drinking again
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Drinking, Friends and coworkers on October 22, 2015
Hurting…. badly…. hangover… drinking = bad. There have been way too many parties lately, and I have been enjoying them far too much. I am officially taking a break from parties for a few weeks to recover.
One of my roommates also enjoyed himself a little too much last night, causing him to sleep through his alarm and several phone calls attempting to wake him up. After several attempts to contact Azeroth directly, the NOVA staff called me to ask if he was still at home. It took me a few minutes of loud knocking on his door to get him to wake up. I told him that it was 10:20 and he was late for work. He literally jumped out of his bed.
If you have never seen someone jump out of bed from a deep sleep before, it is actually pretty entertaining. It’s more impressive considering he was sleeping on a futon on the floor. I did feel badly for him (and the student whose lesson was cancelled), but at the same time I could appreciate the humour in his reaction.
I spent the rest of the day recovering and looking forward to a few weeks with no beer.
October 21, 2005 – Garlic
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers on October 21, 2015
Happy birthday to my roommate Palmer!
To celebrate, we went out for “a few drinks” at the garlic themed restaurant Ninnikuya which literally translates to “garlic shop”. Almost everything on the menu features garlic, and you can find the restaurant by smell alone. There was a short lived restaurant in Winnipeg called Gilroy’s with a similar theme.
In addition to a garlic heavy menu, Ninnikuya also featured a 90 minute all you can drink offer. After a long day of work, English teachers are known to take full advantage of such offers. Tomorrow is going to hurt.
October 18, 2005 – Bad influence
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers on October 18, 2015
At work I was coerced into going out for a few drinks when my shift was over. British people who have the day off the next day are bad influences.
October 13, 2005 – Emergency beer
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Teaching English on October 13, 2015
One of the teachers at Numazu NOVA cancelled on their shift at the last minute. During the rush to rearrange the schedule, Super Dave got stuck with 4 voice classes out of his 5 lessons.
Voice is the open conversation room where students of all levels can attend. Depending on the group of students, sometimes the classes just run smoothly by themselves. Other times the teacher is required to keep things moving and entertain the students. 4 voice classes with largely the same group of students would be exhausting!
Palmer and I decided that Super Dave needed some beer for surviving his crazy day, so we went out for a few after work. Beer doesn’t always solve problems, but it can help occasionally!
October 12, 2005 – Monkey love
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Friends and coworkers, Life in Japan on October 12, 2015
Last night Azeroth had a very enthusiastic guest over for a “visit” around 2:30am. I was just about to fall asleep when I heard the sounds of two drunk people attempting to be quiet as they entered the apartment. A message to all the roommates of the world: you aren’t nearly as stealthy as you think after a few drinks.
I am usually a very heavy sleeper, but I was unable to sleep through the sounds of crazy monkey love that started up across the hall. My room door is pretty thin, and Azeroth’s is a sliding door that offers literally no sound dampening at all. On top of that, both of them sounded like they were having a very good time.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate when people are able to express how much they are enjoying themselves in an intimate situation. However, it is still possible to enjoy physical affection when you aren’t screaming at the top of your lungs, especially at 2:30am with thin walls.
After unsuccessfully trying to drown out the sound, I decided to take a nice 30 minute walk around the neighbourhood. When I got home, all was quiet.
My day at work was long and miserable due to lack of sleep (again).
(2015 Update) The next day Azeroth told me “you’ll never believe who was in my room last night”. He never told me and to this day I still don’t know. Come on man – it’s been 10 years, give me a hint!
October 11, 2005 – Three schools in three days
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Teaching English on October 11, 2015
Today was the first day of 3 different NOVA branches in 3 days. Today I demonstrated my conversational English teaching skills in Fuji city. Tomorrow I will be enlightening my students on the finer points of conversation at my usual branch in Numazu. Thursday I will be expertly educating at my old branch in Mishima.
I thought that 3 branches in 3 days was pretty impressive, until my thunder was stolen by Alice, who had just somehow completed 4 branches in 3 days. Thanks for stealing my thunder, Alice!
After work I went out for pizza and beer at a really cool place in Numazu. Sleep is really overrated.
October 6, 2005 – Welcome wagon
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers on October 6, 2015
When you are teaching English in a smaller town in Japan that has chronically understaffed schools, news of a new teacher is pretty exciting.
During my shift at work, my coworkers and I learned that the new teacher, Vivian from England, had just arrived in Numazu. Super Dave and I decided it would be fun to get some people together to welcome her to the neighbourhood. We left work with one of the Japanese staff, and on the walk towards the NOVA apartments we texted and called several other people. By the time we knocked on Vivian’s door, we had 7 people ready to greet her. We all piled into her apartment for a bit, then took her out for beer and sushi.
You can’t go wrong with beer and sushi!
Drinking in Japan 
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