Year End Parties

Last night, Casey and I went out with the Kaneda lab members to dinner for the Year End celebration. We had some amazing food- and it seemed like it was never-ending. We just kept eating until we couldn't eat anymore. It was fun to see the group outside of the lab. Sometimes they seem so serious about work that I wasn't sure how to interact with them on a social level. They proved that they know how to have fun! After dinner, we piled into taxis. When I say piled in, I mean it literally- one of the students, Nose-san, asked if I would sit with him in the front seat to make room for a few of the others in the group. We ended up sitting together in the same seat (good thing he's small, too!) and went back to the school. The best part was when a few students got out of the back seat and Nose-san and I were crammed in the front seat still... so there were us and the taxi driver in the front, and one student remaining in the huge back seat. We must have looked pretty funny. Anyway, a group of us decided that we wanted to do karaoke, so we all rode to Ishibashi Station and did what Casey and I later called a Karaoke Marathon- we ended up singing for 3 hours! It was crazy. All of the students we were with were really good singers, so it was a bit intimidating. I was actually too scared to sing by myself. I sang 'Bohemian Rhapsody' with Casey and Hara-san (who knows a TON of American songs and was singing them all night... he has a great voice, too!), and then 'Dude Looks Like A Lady' with Casey... then I eventually worked up the guts to do a John Mayer song by myself and I totally jacked it up. Sorry John! They said I did fine, but they are also known for being ultra polite so I think in reality it was pretty bad. Hara-san requested me to sing later, but I didn't know he had chosen a song for me until it showed up on the screen and he handed me the microphone. It was 'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' and at first I was like, "I don't know this! Can't sing- sorry!" but as the song went on, I realized that I did know most of the words, and Casey and I ended up doing this duet where we danced around together and sang to each other... it went really well! It actually renewed my confidence for the evening! So directly after that I sang 'Great Balls of Fire' and dedicated it to Hara-san... which was hilarious. I think I embarrassed him (it was dark but I think he was blushing) and the others were cracking up because Casey pretended to be jealous. The Hetricks ended up being pretty entertaining for the evening. I think a few may have taken video of us on their phones when we were dancing around (oh man I am going to regret that!!!). Casey did an awesome version of 'What a Wonderful World' in a very good Louis Armstrong voice. The crowd seemed impressed! My favorite moments where when one of the students (who is learning English) sang a few songs and didn't know some of the English words and when they would come up he would sing what he knew and then go "lalalablahblah..." and then pick up right where he left off. It was so funny to listen to- the English he knew was really clear, but then suddenly you'd hear mush and wonder what the heck he was saying. It was a really good time and I hope to do it again sometime soon. I think next time we should make a rule that everyone has to sing English songs... that would be too much fun, though.
Anyway, on the way home from karaoke, Casey looked down and found what is equivalent to a $100 bill on the ground! The group members told him he was lucky and should keep it. (People are so polite here that when they find things like that, they normally turn them in... but it was also 1:30 in the morning so we couldn't really do that.) The awkward thing was that the group had chipped in for the evening and paid for everything, so we had not spent any money at that point, and then we found some on the ground. Casey and I both felt a little bit guilty, but I think he might take some of them out to lunch or something. Still, crazy stuff! Who finds money like that on the ground in the dark? And especially THAT MUCH? Weird. So yeah... we had a very good evening, to say the least. Tonight there is another Year End party- this time for the International students. It starts in about 2 hours. I will surely update about that tomorrow.
Think that's about all for now, but it's plenty, I'm sure! Here's a picture for the heck of it.

-Ashley