Onsen Banquet

(this is an older post)

December 18, 2005

I was ambushed as i walked into the Kagaya onsen hotel. a man i have never seen before (aparantly works in the library) asked my coworker if she knew where sheryl haiduck was. i was standing right there. here i am, i said. he pulled me aside. oh no, am i in trouble? did i not rsvp correctly? can i not go to the onsen party? no nothing that bad. he wants me to give a speech at the banquet dinner! my coworker standing off to the side is making faces that seem to say 'don't do it - say no!' i try... 'well, i don't speak any japanese...' oh thats ok, he says, you only have to talk for 30 seconds and then say kompai! (cheers!)

did you know that the kompai really gets the dinner going... its actually somewhat important!

so i ask my japanese coworkers, what do i say in the speech? they teach me one saying (o tsukare sama deshita -- thanks for all your hard work). i practice it over and over and over again. i am sitting in the gorgous outside hot springs bath (so so so nice) surrounded by naked women saying over and over again - o tsukare sama deshita --

banquet time rolls around and in the elevator kayoko suddenly tells me that what i had planned to say maybe wasn't the right thing (something along the lines of it being something a boss says to an employee) she says i should say tanoshimimasho! meaning - lets enjoy ourselves! so, now, a nervous wreck, i repeat over and over again - tanoshimimasho tanoshimimasho (the absurdity of it being that i am in essence saying 'lets have fun, lets have fun, lets have fun' in the most serious way possible!).

and so we arrive at the banquet - only the entire college and high school and tokyo branch faculty members are there -- about 400 mostly japanese men in yukatas (bathrobes worn after going into the onsen). first the president speaks, then someone else - everyone laughs (me - tanohsimimasho. tanoshimimasho. under my breath). and then - my turn !

and it was fine - and everyone said kompai - and my hands were shaking like they never have before!

Tanoshimimasho! Kompai!