Business With Pleasure- Shaken, Not Stirred

Over the last few weeks I have attended functions thrown by some of my students. I know the pros and cons of mixing business with pleasure but in this land of "Yes" I couldn't say "No."

My group class (pictured above) requested that I attend a "Welcome Party." They rented a little cafe called Chapter II and we had the entire place to ourselves. It was pretty small and you can see most of the sitting area in the picture. These people are all very nice and the dinner was wonderful. I'd heard some tragic news that day, so for a couple of hours they helped me forget. The man (Shigeharu) brought some sho-chu (alcohol) and wine. As you can tell from his red face, he was pretty tipsy. He got a little rowdy but the women all minded their manners. Please note that eveyone seems composed and good mannered.

IN CONTRAST:

Yesterday, I was invited to head to the beach for a BBQ with another student of mine. This one lives just down the street. I can see their balcony from the window of our shower. In the picture above, he's the one on the left. He's Kosuke and the guy on the right is Yoshi. Yoshi loves Levis, Lee, and Harley Davidson. At one point, Yoshi ended up naked and was running up and down the beach with either a blow up beach ball or a sand castle bucket covering his private area.

This picture is Kosuke's son, Ryunosuke. He's quite a cute kid. I've finally been to their house enough, that he doesn't run in fear.

Here are Kosuke's little brother, Norisuke (left) and Shibaki.

The beer was flowing and while I did have a few I did not end up naked or doing a bellydance with anyone. After spending time with him as a teacher, it felt like I was going undercover while we were at the beach. I kept getting the feeling that I was going to be made. It felt like Kosuke was some kind of kingpin and I was being drawn in to be part of the gang. I didn't have to do anything to compromise my ethics (like extort money from some shop owners) and I didn't do anything to require me to cut off my little finger as an apology, either.

I think that Shigeharu-san would've enjoyed the antics of this group better.