So it turns out none of the other English teachers are leaving. My supervisor will be here again next year. He may even be at the desk next to mine next year. About 12 teachers are leaving in total, including one guy I really don't like. He's the only teacher I've seen be violent towards some of the students. He's apparently not too keen on foreigners either.

None of the first year teachers are leaving except the computer teacher who wasn't a full time teacher yet. He just passed the test though, so next year he'll be a full time teacher. I wonder who the new computer teacher will be. Hopefully he'll know some English.

I found out our new kocho-sensei (principal) is from Horikawa Minami, one of my elementary schools last year. This puts me in the strange position of having met the kocho-sensei, while none of the other teachers know him at all. I don't know him all that well though,. since he wasn't in the office all that much at Horikawa Minami when I was there.

On Friday we had a going away enkai (party) for the teachers who were leaving. Japanese teachers really like to have big, expensive parties for every occassion. I think there were four in the fall, and three after winter vacation. Each one costs about $50-80. This one was the most expensive at $80. They are really over-priced though. You get all you can drink beer, and some fancy food. That's about it, for $80!

This enkai was in a traditional Japanese hotel. My last enkai was to welcome me when I came to Japan. I have avoided all the other ones, because I prefer to spend my money travelling, etc. I'm probably considered quite rude since I don't come to enkais that much, but I don't really like them. This one was much better than my first one, mainly because I can speak a little Japanese now. In my first enkai I was seated next to non-English speakers who didn't really talk to me. Talk about boring!

This time we all were seated on the floor, on tatami mats. Most people sat seiza-style. but I can't do that for very long anymore, so I sat cross-legged. There was one funny moment when one of the English teachers who is leaving stood up from seiza and couldn't walk. His legs had fallen asleep, so someone had to help him walk around a bit. Ouch!

Everyone had to dress up in a suit for the meal. Those of us who are staying sat down first, and then all the people who are entered together. There were many speeches I didn't understand. At one point I did notice when one of the guys who had been drinking too much said he was sorry to be leaving Hojimachi Junior High School instead of Horikawa. He got a lot of teasing for forgetting the name of the school. He really didn't do it on purpose.

We had a ten course meal of Japanese foods. Most of it was okay. I didn't like the scallop sashimi, and the raw baby squids weren't that great either. In general, I liked the food more at the last enkai, because they had some things I had tried before. This time, almost everything was new.

While people are eating, everyone goes to the teachers who are leaving and talks with them. It's polite to pour them a beer. I just gave small gifts to the teachers I knew, and the principal. Mostly they were foreign food items I bought at the foreign food store.

At one point one of the teachers asked me if I had a girlfriend. I told her that my girlfriend's name was Victoria. Then another teacher asked me if she was Japanese. I tried to tell them that Victoria wasn't a Japanese name, but they didn't seem to get it. Later, the same teacher came up to me and said, "You're right, Victoria isn't a Japanese name." I think she had to put some thought into it.

The teachers all went out to bars afterward, but I didn't really want to. Victoria, Sarah, and Rebecca were leaving for Taiwan on Saturday, so I wanted to see Victoria before she left. So I left the party and headed over to Victoria's place on my bike. I wasn't going as fast as I normally would, but somehow a taxi driver managed to hit my bike. I saw him coming to a stop sign, which I was biking in front of. I swear he looked right at me. However, he pulled forward past the stop sign and hit my front wheel. I realized he wasn't going to stop, and was able to stop my bike so that only my front wheel was hit, not my leg. I also kind of jumped off the bike when it happened and this meant my bike fell down. I think this prevented it from getting too damaged, because it wasn't too bad. The cover for the wheel was bent some, and the wheel turns a little funny now, but the damage was pretty limited in general. I think it helped that he was stopping at the time. Anyway, I gave the guy my phone number and he promised to call me on Saturday to talk about fixing it. I was having a hard time communicating with him since he didn't speak English. Since I was fine and the bike was rideable, I figured that would be fine.

He did call me yesterday, like he said he would. I think he said he was going to come around 12 today (Sunday) to take the bike somewhere to get fixed. However, it's 1:30 now and he hasn't shown up, so maybe he won't come, or I didn't understand his Japanese very well. I fixed the wheel cover myself, so I only need to see if the wheel can be fixed so it is not a little bent. That would be nice, but isn't necessary. If he doesn't come, I won't worry too much. I think he was a special driver or something, similar to a taxi. His car said on the top of the car "Safety Driving Service," which is rather ironic.

My computer monitor is also totally dead now, so I have to use my tv as a monitor. I'm going to send it in for repairs next week, but I am waiting for Paul to come on Tuesday, so I can copy some pictures and stuff to his computer.