First week - boozing with the professors

This past 'orientation' week has seemed in many ways like a team-building school trip. I keep expected to be presented with two chairs, a yogurt pot and a length of string and being asked to cross an imaginary river.

(Professor Sato reaches for the chopsticks he's dropped on Felicity's lap.)

Asahi beer factory trip.
Japanese are known for having a 'groupist' culture, which basically means a concern for what other people and society in general think. In the west, such people can often be put under the label of 'conservative' - vs. the fun-loving individualist young. Obviously this is social commentary in broad strokes, but in the West this is often equated with more 'morally conservative' behaviour, and includes (from our Christian heritage) an aversion to over-drinking.

In Japan however, this aversion just doesn't exist. Thus a perfectly natural venue for the professors of Daiichi University and ten young students to aquaint each other was a beer factory, at an all you can eat and drink meal.
Unfortunately I had been seated next to not one single English speaker but I soon made friends with my neighbour, Mr Fuji (left). He got promptly off his trolley after two pints and then when I pointed out that he had the same name as a famous Japanese mountain, fell about laughing for several minutes. This is me with his table-name card, reliving that moment of comic genius.






It seems the handy bibs double as super hero capes.