Come Away with Me

Bounenkai 忘年会

After weeks of nothing but my travel tales and faces of me and Alvin, finally it's back to real time. I have more travel stories and pictures of my parents' trip to share but i'll follow up on that later. It's nearing the end of 2006 now and with Christmas round the corner, there are some self reflections to be done and new year resolutions to be made.

Year end is a busy period as most Japanese prepare for the new year or Oshogatsu (お正月). It is also the bounenkai season. Bounenkai literally translates into 'Forget the year party'. Depending on your job type and the number of circles or clubs one is associated with, a typical Japanese usually attends three or four of such year end parties. The basic premise, as you can imagine, is to sit with your colleagues and get nice and drunk before proceeding onto a second or third party late into the night.

Out of the 5 schools which i teach at, 3 schools asked if i could join them for their bounenkais. As all 3 fall on the same day, naturally i had to go for the one with my base school. Not that i mind at all, in fact it's the perfect excuse to turn down the other 2 invites without appearing anti-social. It is fun to go to one of these typical Japanese drinking parties when you get to see your usual serious co-workers let their hair down and acting all crazy after rounds and rounds of drinks. But an average cost of a dinner party on the island is somewhere between ￥4000 to ￥5000, which is quite a lot to pay for food by my standard. That aside, the one thing i dislike most about Japanese social gatherings is that almost all the men smoke. And there is nothing i can't stand as much as cigarette smoke : (

So anyway, the year end party with my base school is this evening and everyone is supposed to bring along a ￥500 worth of present for gift ecxhange. With such a limited budget (it's approximately S$6.50) and honestly not many places to shop around the island, i had quite a hard time coming up with a 'worthy' gift.

Finally an idea hit yesterday! I had been trying my hands on baking for quite a few times now though with mixed results i would say. Nevertheless, i think those cookies are passable and so i hastily baked a batch of chocolate chip ones,filled some of them in a glass jar (bought from the 100yen shop down the street) , threw in a few chocolates together with a Merlion keychain and a Singaporeanish magnet and tada! Think i am quite brilliant! Haha =)

This is what i paid 65bucks for dinner!

posted by テレサ @ 2:20 PM