Bonenkai

In the US, many companies have Christmas or Holiday parties in December. In Japan, you have Bonenkai, which is the year end party.

Mostly it's just an opportunity for the department to get together and drink. For my department, it's usually held in a hotel banquet room because there are about 200 people.

There is a meal served, with usually not enough food, and an open bar, with as much alcohol as you can drink! After the meal, there is often a "talent" contest. Often these "talents" really have nothing to do with any real talent, but with some skits that are performed. Here are some:
The guy who can chug a 40 oz. size bottle of beer.

Guys dressed up in schoolgirl outfits singing some Japanese pop song.

Guys dressed in wife-beaters, talking about both exercise and making fun of people in the department.

A guy dressed in a Tux and a wig who "conducted" a classical song.

This was just crazy. Can everyone see the goose?

And this guy did a spot on impersonation of Kojima Yoshio, and at the same time poked fun at all of the managers and Chief Engineers in the department,which is a very typical occurrence at parties like this.

As it turned out, the Kojima Yoshio impersonator won the 30000 Yen ($300) prize.
That is my manager,Kawagishi-San, in the green sweater, handing out the prize. Also, it was a going away party for Gunji-San, who is going to work in Ohio. I'll get to work with him when I return. You'll notice the flowers that he was given. In Japan, it's a typical thing to give flowers as a going away present, even from one guy to another.

The last "event" of the evening was Bingo. No not your typical Sunday night at the church type bingo, Japanese Style Bingo. There were about a dozen different prizes to be won, ranging from $5 things to $300 things. This year, they had some automatic number selector on a laptop. It also, chose the prizes for the winners. Each person gets one bingo card, and once you get 4 out of the five in a row in any direction, you go to the front of the room, mostly to make it easier to get to the front for the prizes.

When all but 2 of the prizes were gone, I finally managed to get 4 in a row, so I headed up to the front. On the next number, I got 5 in a row! But, so did 2 other guys. So, 3 guys and only 2 prizes. How do the Japanese solve a situation like this? Why, Jan-Ken-Poi (Rock Paper Scissors) of course. As it turned out, I managed to win the Jan Ken Poi, so I got to hit the button on the laptop to have it choose my prize. I won.........a $5 magic trick. The other guy won.......a Wii. A Wii!! Just my luck!

After that our Senior manager made a speech thanking everyone for their hard work over the past year: I thought that the Elvis collar was particularly comical.

And finally, the group picture: Can you see me?

11/30/07