Jesus, I'm rambling already, and it's only the first paragraph. Right, first things first I went to my school's Bonenkai on the last day of term (22nd December). Bonenkai just means year end party, and they're basically the equivalent of the office Christmas party in Britain. For our Bonenkai we got a coach up to Ishigawa prefecture in the north, and spent the night at an incredibly posh onsen hotel in an area famed for its natural spring water (onsen means hot spring bath by the way). Once we arrived at the hotel everyone got changed into yukata and went for a quick dip in the baths before heading off for a traditional Japanese dinner, followed by the traditional karaoke. I was badgered into singing, and I managed to seek out the one other foreigner in the hotel (an American ALT from Ishigawa) so we could sing a duet of Last Christmas by Wham - I thought it was a particularly moving rendition of the song. After that most of the staff went off to play cards, mah-jong or Japanese chess, whilst I had a two hour in-depth discussion about politics with a teacher in the lobby, none of which I could remember the following morning. Overall, a cracking trip!
Here's a photo of me wearing a yukata - a yukata is a type of lightweight kimono that's usually worn in the summer, or around the house: it's a bit like a dressing gown really. Below is the view from my balcony on the seventh floor of the hotel - the first snow had just begun falling on the mountains.
On Christmas Day I held a little get together at my house, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Everyone brought some food for Christmas dinner - some traditional (roast potatoes, nut roast, Christmas cake) and others not so traditional (tortillas, sushi), but in the end it was a grand feast. Here's Sam getting into the swing of things:
I kept the Christmas spirit alive by remaining permanently drunk through the entire proceedings, until my eventual collapse at around one in the morning. Merry Christmas everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment