One thing that happens at the end of the year here is a "year end party". They call it a boonenkai and it usually involves a big night of drinking with workmates. Most office groups head out on a sort of pub crawl in the big nightlife district in Sapporo. Our lab decided to go to an onsen resort on the outskirts of town called Jozankei (this is the place that I went to for a conference and blogged about in Fall Spectacle)
It was nice to return to this hotel without having conference talks to attend and while there are fewer other guests in the hotel (we pretty much had the place to ourselves). It has a great waterpark in the basement and 4 different onsens - all are beautiful. Shawn came with us and he got his first tast of onsen. Here is a photo of him in his yukata. These are provided in the rooms so that the guests can spend the weekend lounging in Japanese wear (and they do - they wear this to and from onsen, to dinner, to breakfast - everything).
After returning from Jozankei, we stopped in at our favorite watering hole for a drink and ran into a bunch of friends there. They were celebrating a birthday and invited us to come along to karaoke with them. It was late, and we had to work the next day, but who can resist karaoke? So here are a couple photos of Shawn and I belting it out in the karaoke box. I have to admit that it is more fun than I anticipated. You don't sing in front of a big room of strangers, you get a small booth for you and your friends, access to any songs you want, all you can eat snacks and drinks and a server who brings it all to you - pretty good for 5 bucks an hour).
This weekend we will go to another boonenkai. This one will be mostly foreigners who are working or studying at the university, so although we are calling it a boonenkai, it will be more of a Christmas party. We will do a gift exchange and maybe sing some Christmas carols so it should be fun. On Christmas eve, we have a reservation for dinner at a pub (OK, yes, our favorite pub, again) where they will serve turkey and homemade eggnog. I can't wait for turkey especially since I missed out on Thanskgiving. Christmas dinner will be spent with a couple of friends that Shawn works with. They are both from New Zealand and are married to Japanese women. They both have young children so we will get our requisite dose of oversugared children at Christmas.
So we have cobbled together a makeshift Christmas here in Japan. It will be fun and keep us busy. We didn't get around to sending Christmas cards this year - so I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment