Better Friday Revisited; or, Inside the Temple of Doom

It's been a long time since we've celebrated "Better Friday", and with good reason. We're all grown up, and my parents don't go to Florida for spring break anymore. Although, this year they did, but that's not what made a somewhat "Better Friday" possible. My manager, who I interviewed with in Ohio and has been back in Japan for a few years now, is leaving Honda to be a bigger dog at supplier. Friday night was his going away party.

When a peon like myself leaves, they have a party at a bar. When a big dog like Yoshino-san leaves, they go all out. They had the party at the giant wedding reception place next to my apartment. You know the one, there's a picture of it somewhere on here. The place is a crazy, one stop wedding shop. They sell you the clothes, host the service (Western or Shinto), host the party, have a bus to pick up guests at the station. They may even sell rings or have a travel agent. Here's the website.

http://www.bellevie-u.com/

I've been dying to know what was inside that place, but I didn't think I'd ever step foot in there. I even considered trying to crash a wedding, but I think I might be spotted before I get very far. I went in and I was directed to the 5th floor before I really had time to look around. I knew going in that it would be a big party, but I had no idea. I did the math, tables were arrange 4 X 4, with 10 at a table, so there were about 160 people there. And we were only 1 of the party rooms.

They did the traditional "Kampai" to kick things off, and then went through a little "this is you life" thing. No engineer party is complete without a PowerPoint presentation. Once they started feeding people, nobody paid any attention to what was going on . Yoshino-san got up to say his goodbyes and only the people sitting at his table were really listening.

I realize I haven't had any good stories lately, so I figured after the party, I would go with the flow to the 2nd party that seemed like it might be wildest. Next thing I know I'm in car with 3 guys I don't know and 1 guy I barely know, headed god knows where. I got a phone call from Suzuki-san, and since I had no idea what was going on, I handed off the phone. Next thing I know, we're picking up Suzuki and 2 other guys, putting us a little beyond the advertised seating capacity of the Honda Elysian.

Went to the hostess bar, but on the other side of the station. I didn't even know there were hostess bars on the other side of the station. Anyway, after the normal "Hey Dan-san, say this to her", we called it a night.

In other news, it's definitely springtime here, which is great, because baseball is on TV. Even if I don't care about the teams, at least I can understand it. This weekend was the start of the springtime high school tournament and a couple of pre-season exhibition games between Japanese teams (Giants and Tigers) and the Red Sox and A's, so it's been non stop baseball on TV. I'd like to go to the bar Monday and watch the Sox-A's game, but I haven't found a legitimate sports bar here yet.

They also do a fine job of covering any Japanese players in the majors, so I'll be able to follow the Indians, at least when Kobayashi is pitching. I caught this on the TV, it says the Indians lost to the Yankees 7-6, and I assume the bottom says Kobayashi pitched 1 inning, no K's or hits, but that just an educated guess.

One interesting thing I'm noticing, watching all these high school games, is it seems like all the teams wear white uniforms. Maybe some colored trim (usually blue), but always white or off-white. Makes it hard to tell the teams apart if you can't read the name on the front.