Wednesday Weekend Wrap-up

"But, Crystal," you say, "Why write about the weekend when it's already Wednesday?"  Well, I'd like to take this opportunity to lie and say I've been incredibly busy with social appointments galore, but the truth of the matter is that I've just been lazy.

That being said, here is the weekend wrap-up!  Last Friday was my first Welcome Enkai (Japanese all you can eat and drink party) for work and it was a food and fun frenzy!  The co-workers I've met and worked with so far have all been amazing...the enkai gave me the chance to meet and talk to so many more of them in a more relaxed and fun setting than school (it's a little hard to talk to all 90-some of them on a given work day)!

This photo demonstrates the ingredients to language-learning-fluency:  booze, phrase book/dictionary, fun native speakers, and zero to no inhibitions:

Some of the festive courses, including "see-through sea-food" such as the shrimp below:

This is how you suck the brains out of said see-through shrimp heads (I didn't try it):

Crispy, fried shrimp head:

Which I DID try (it was crunchy and shrimpy...mmmmm):

One of my favorite pics of the night!  Anyone who can blow a smoke-ring is a friend of mine!

This weekend also brought me yet another fun guest and fellow JET:  Sam from Australia!!  I met her at the Sapporo Orientation and she is good genki-fun!!!

Posing with some ridiculously large naan at a Japanese-English-Farsi-speaking Indian restaurant near Sapporo Station:

We also stumbled upon a "kid-friendly" travel fair...the moonwalks back home are so lame compared to this inflatable role-model:

Sam and Eri getting to know my spacious closet (also potential guest-room overflow):

Yes, after my plastic-food photo run, I was in the mood for some shots of the real thing!!  This is a little sampler "Taste of Hokkaido" tray at a hip little restaurant we ventured to:

Oh, and perhaps the greatest thing EVER...we finally found our way to the Japanese fabulousness that is Print Club!!!  It was so great, in fact, that I feel it deserves its OWN post, therefore, I leave you with a teaser pic from Print Studio Rosa (are you excited yet!?!):