A woman from the library got transferred recently, so the board of education had a going away party for her. What connection does this woman have to the board of ed? None that I know of. She came to my welcome party, along with other library staff. Apparently the library has some connection to us. We have these "enkais" or company drinking parties every now and again. Everyone gets trashed, laughs a lot, and stumbles home. Here are some pictures of drunk Japanese. Notice the ubiquitous peace signs. They don't have anything to do with peace, it's just something the Japanese do. What's funny is they think it's American. They have a lot of things that are purely Japanese that they think are American. One is White Day (they pronounce it hoe-why-toe-day), which apparently was invented by Hallmark. It comes on March 14, my birthday, and is the answer to Valentine's day. Here, women give men chocolate on Valentine's Day, and get gifts in return on White Day. They don't make it much of a romantic thing though. It's more of a going through the motions kind of thing. Gifts are given to co-workers and such, rather than just intimates. That's another trait I've noticed in the Japanese: it's not the thought that counts, it's doing what is supposed to be done. When I participated in my town's festival, carrying a portable shrine that is supposed to have a god inside, no one seemed to really believe in the god or even think that it mattered whether or not you believed. What was important was that we carried the shrine. I find this a very interesting difference from American culture and Christianity. Of course Americans, including Christians, often do things by just going through the motions, but there's at least a lot of lip service to things like belief and faith. These are ideas we hold important that the Japanese don't seem to.