忘年会

December is the season for bonenkai, end of the year parties, in Japan. This weekend I had one on Friday night as well as Saturday night. 

On Friday night I joined one of my elementary schools's for their party which they held at a local onsen hotel. They hired a driver to pick everyone up and bring us to the hotel together. Upon arriving at the hotel we were shown to our room, already set up for our party in very traditional Japanese style. However this time we had chairs! Usually when parties are held in tatami rooms everyone sits on the floor in front of their little tables. Of course each set was beautifully laid out, each setting identical to its neighbors.

We had a wonderful feast of delicious sea foods, beautifully arranged. One of the most important parts of Japanese cuisine is presentation, and they really care about the details. One dish we had included sea cucumbers, my first time to try this sea creature. It did not really have any flavor, and was a bit tough and chewy. It was not bad by any means, my impression was simply wonder at why you would bother to eat them at all. Allover, however, the dinner was fantastic.

On Saturday evening, I had I joined the Board of Education for their end of the year party. It was in Kanazawa, the capital of our prefecture, and we had an exciting line-up of destinations for the evening. We started at a restaurant for a nabe dinner, where we also had a 二時間飲み放題、which is a two hour all you can drink deal. So of course we kept our glasses full of beer and sake. We followed dinner by going to a snack bar for karaoke. Snack bars are very small bars that always offer some variety of snacks for you to enjoy as you sing karaoke and drink. They are usually quite small, both times I have gone to a snack bar with my BOE, our party (of 16-20 people) alone filled the establishment. After the group had our fill of karaoke, we headed on to the next place. The last place on our list was a small bar owned by the boss's son. We actually had tasty drinks here including white wine and mixed drinks, and he offered us delicious snacks as well. As always, going out with this group made for a lively and fun night.