The Drink to Forget Party
...written on 2000-12-16, @ 11:01:48
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Sat December 16, 2000
Last night I went to my company's Bonenkai Party."Bonenkai" means "end of the year" and is the time when people literally drink the memories of the past year away. Frankly, I think that might be hard to do in two and a half hours, but the majority of the party goers, about 100 employees, tried anyway.
Manami, Yasuyo and I arrived 30 minutes late, which meant there were no main courses left. I was glad that I had a little snack before I left the apt in anticipation of an abundance of seafood offerings, and was able to top it off with some yummy fruit.
When I came in the door, I spotted "Mr.X" and I thought to myself, "I know where I'm going to sit.", but before I could walk over there, Mikiko thrusts a can in my face and says "Pick a number." The number I picked, 93, was my random seating choice and it wasn't next to Mr. X. Sigh. Oh well, I sat down and then Manami dragged me to the demolished dinner offerings. I piled my little plate with pineapple, melon and strawberries and as I went by Mr. X, I stealthily slid my finger along his back- a big no-no I might add, but I don't think anyone saw me and I'm not sure if he even knew what happened, but as I passed him he saw me and yelled out my name. I went back to see that he was already jolly with 30 minutes of drinking under his belt. We greeted each other and I went back to my table.
At the table, I spoke to a man I have never spoken to before. His name is Kazuo and he works on the 3rd floor of the main office. We had a nice little chat.
Soon it was time for the party game. There were 9 tables in the room that were designated by a letter from the alphabet. Mr. Sugimoto was going to ask us all questions and we were to write the answers on the pad of paper at each table. The first question was "How many steps are their from the first floor to the third floor?" I turned to Kazuo and said, "You should know that one." He laughed, but didn't have an answer. Many other questions followed and then Mr. Sugimoto prefaced one question with "The American teachers should be able to help on this one." He told about the current difficulties with the election and then asked what father and son team in the United States had been president. Manami translated this question to me and it wasn't very clear, but I wrote "Adams" in big letters on the pad anyway. Adams was the correct answer of course. Ivan was at the table next to mine and yelled over, "Kim, how did you know that?I thought it was a trick question.", he said. Well, anyway our table didn't win, but we all had fun.
After the game, Shacho stood up and called some people to the front of the room to present them with flowers and kind words of appreciation for their dedication and hard work. One woman that he singled out for the top honor just bowed her head and sobbed.
After the awards, we all headed off for second parties. Shacho had invited all of the American teachers, some Japanese teachers and the secretaries to go with him. There were 15 people in our party and we went to a little, and I mean little, bar called a "Snack".
This is a tale for the next entry. See you in about 30 minutes.