Sayonara Party

This past weekend AJET hosted its annual Sayonara Party - a night where we all gather to farewell our leaving friends and generally engage in drunken debauchery.  This year, as every other, the party was held at a campsite/chalet by the river in Kamiyama.

Kamiyama is nestled in the mountains of Tokushima, about an hours drive from the city.  Folks started arriving from about 4pm onwards  The early birds got a head start on lighting the barbeques and the beer began to flow freely.  My friends and I arrived at 5.30pm with just enough daylight left to have a wander around the site and unpack the car.

Accommodations at the site were basic, with all 35 of us crashing out on the futon-covered floor of one giant tatami (Japanese straw matting) room.  The bathrooms were a little dodgy and the bug population was out of control.  The BBQ area was, thankfully, undercover and as the sausages were grilled this is where most of us ended up.  I had received a Meat Guy* delivery order the week before and as a result got to enjoy some otherwise-impossible-to-find-in-Japan herbed Irish breakfast sausages for my dinner.

With everyone fed the time had come for the annual Sayonara Party Sumo Tournament and those that had signed up sat nervously around the edges of the room as the judges assembled a sumo ring made of futons.  Once the rules had been explained, the first two girls faced off against each other - a battle lasting a mere 30 seconds!  To be fair, it didn't look too hard to push your competitor out of a ring of sliding futons...  Next up was the boys round and play continued this way until everyone had battled.  Sumo supremacy was won by an American guy called "Broc" and the ladies final was taken out by Welsh "Bella".  Both winners received prizes and earned the title of "Sumo Champion 2012" amongst the JETs.

Wrestling over, everyone filed back outside and soon enough it was time for cigars and fireworks on the riverbed.  A group of about 10 of us fired up our stogies and glowsticks/fire crackers were passed around.  The next hour or so passed in a loud, smoky haze as everyone let off their fireworks and ran around on the rockbed with sparklers.  Once we were out of firepower, most of us headed back up to the BBQ area to chillax, chat and get our drink on!

There was some talk of a midnight skinny-dip in the river, but once the willing participants had assembled by the riverside, it was decided that the current was a little too strong this year and that indeed too much booze had already been consumed for the activity to be safely viable.  We settled for standing around chatting instead, as one by one people started filtering off to bed.  The last of us crashed out at 6am - which considering the 10am checkout time, was not the greatest of ideas.

It was a great night though and a fun way to send off some of the dear friends I have made this year.  For some of them, Sayonara Party will be the last time we'll see each other in Japan and that thought alone is rather sad.  Of course there are a couple of others that I will see in the next few coming weekends, before they leave Tokushima (and/or Japan) for good at the start of August.



*The Meat Guy is an imported meat delivery service based in Nagoya, Japan.  You can order products from the Meat Guy online and have it cash-on-delivery cold-shipped to your door.  You can get a whole range of products from the Meat Guy such as Aussie beef steaks, American steaks, sausages, meat pies, whole turkeys/ducks and chickens, sides of roast meat, kangaroo steaks, pork chops, hamburger patties, pita bread, guacamole, sauces and more.  The downside is that it can be a tad expensive, so it's definitely just a treat for special occasions or when you are feeling that little bit homesick!