City Hall's Union Christmas Party

	Emi's mother (a local elected official with strong ties to the union) helps dress the party's Ms. Clause.
	I'm pretty sure this guy lost a bet
	I'm always surprised when Japanese parents bring their kids to drinking parties, bars, or even sex stores. At this particular party one of the parents brought her daughter, Mebae-chan - one of my kindergarten students before, now a first-grader. I spent most of my time talking to her.
	Strike up the band! See the buy in the long boots? He sits across from me at work. The actual base player didn't show up, so he was called in as backup and these were the only shoes he had.
	A close-up
	For some reason they sat down for this song. Some of the songs were in (bad) English, by the way.
	A shot of the other table and evidence that this was, in fact, a drinking party. Like every party I've been to in Japan, really.
	M-I-C K-E-Y C-L-A-U-S. Mickey Clause.
	After the show, I got a chance to go backstage (sit where I was) and meet the band!
	A shot of my table.
	My former supervisor, Aomi, with a clever disguise.
	I think Mebae-chan took this one, but I'm not sure.
	Yeah, classic pose.
	I finally managed to get Mebae to try on the Minnie ears for one of the cutest pictures ever.

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