The year end party is drawing nigh...

Half five here in Japan, and the sky is already dark. Across the desks from me, one of our more vocal 3rd year girls is singing along full throated to the SMAP song on her laptop, whilst the golf manager looks on and pretends to know what the hell is going on with music nowadays. The department chief, who IS the skilled swordsman from The Seven Samurai, is resplendent in his usual attire of brown shades and sandals, and shuffles to a from the photo copier half-heartedly humming to the music.

In an hour our much vaunted BoNenKai should be underway. I really have no idea how it will turn out... my best guess is that it will either be like all of the other outings we have had, during which the teachers all sit around and talk about school for hours, or it could be fantastic with gratuitous drinking and a general coming-out-of-shells. A downer before things have even started is that the teacher most likely to make it a good time has gone home early with stomach trouble. Seeing as there are no classes tomorrow, it's the perfect time to let loose and forget about all the bureaucratic toss that fills the days, and as BoNenKai translates as Forgetting the Year Gathering it's doubly so.