Bonnenkai - End of Year Party

It is now party season in Japan. These parties are called Bonnenkais - end of year parties. This year, I attended the Arakai JHS bonnenkai party. The food is always very traditional at these parties (mostly fish) and is made up of several small dishes, each with a different kind of food.

These parties cost about ¥15,000 (about 75 quid) and are paid for out of the teachers' club fund which each teacher pays into every month. The price includes food, alcohol, accommodation, and unlimited visits to the hotel onsen. This picture shows the standard food served at Japanese end of year parties. As you can see, there's a lot of fish.......

The Marumine Kanko Hotel is massive and is extremely busy at this time of year. It can accommodate about 800 guests and is furnished to a very high standard. ¥15,000 seems a very reasonable price to pay. I have heard from other foreigners in Japan that their work parties are terrible value. I guess I'm lucky to be in an area where the local hotels are plentiful and whose standards are high.

There are many school parties throughout the year in Japan. If I don't want to attend, I make some kind of excuse and feel no guilt about non attendance. However, I feel sorry for many of the Japanese teachers. I'm sure some of them would prefer to spend time with their friends or family. It seems impossible for many teachers to spend any time at home as they are often in school from 8am to 8pm. Most usually go to school on Saturdays as well. I also feel sorry for single teachers. If must be impossible for them to have a social life or find a spouse (outside of the world of teaching). I don't really understand why Japanese teachers are so willing to sacrifice their family life for their work life. Teachers in Japan seem to spend most of their time looking after other peoples children, instead of looking after their own.

After the first party, we went to the second party in a room reserved for karaoke. I was coerced into singing a couple of songs and had a fairly good time. At this party there was whisky and another Japanese spirit called shochu. As I'm not a drinker of spirits, I went to the bar and ordered a couple of bottles of beer. My individual decision to order beer probably caused a few teachers to have a sharp intake of breath, as being in Japan, decisions should be made as a group and not as an individual. However, I weighed up my options and decided to go it alone and order beer. It was either that or sitting in the karaoke room for 2 hours drinking oolong tea and listening to some bad karaoke.

After eating some noodles in the hotel noodle shop, we had a third party back in my hotel room on the 7th floor. Here the food was more suited to my tastes : pot noodles, crisps, nuts, beef jerky, and chocolate.

Next week should be fairly quiet at school although we do have a visit from the Governor of Fukushima. The Governor of Fukushima is Japan's equivalent of Jack McConnell. More about this later in the week.