Bonenkai's, Hoomu Paatei's and Mochi-Tsuki

Enjoying the outdoor onsen at our hotel after a long night of parties.

It was been a while since I have made a blog post. I have been extremely busy this December. A lot of Paatei's (partiessssss!)

Let me start by sharing about "Forget-The-Year-Parties", or Bonenkai. Most if not all places of work have this end of the year, forget-the-year parties. At first I though it was a funky translation , forget the year? but the idea really is to forget the stress of the work year and start a fresh new year. It is an end-of-the-year work celebration among co-workers.We had ours the beginning of the month, and it was such a blast! We ate a lot of delicious food, karaoke, and went to an interesting bar. These luxurious parties are paid by our monthly "party dues" every month after we get our pay check we each contribute to our party fund $30, this all goes to fund these "enkais"(work parties). One of our co-workers was tasked with planning this years end of the year party and we went to the nearby town of Hirosaki, we stayed at a hotel with a rooftop outdoor onsen (still wondering how they pump the hot water all the way to the roof.....) and enjoyed what the city had to offer.

Our party started with a wonderful meal (seriously what seemed like a 10 course meal, they kept bringing out food!) It was very nice and it was a beautiful Japanese-style setting venue with beautiful shamisen ( an Aomori region specific style guitar-ish string instrument)  music playing in the background. After our dinner we headed over to what is called a Kyabakura or"girls bar", culture shock for me here....a work place sponsoring a girls bar gathering? ummm ok ...... First of all "bars" in Japan are a little different than what I have experienced ( Please take note this is all written from lived experience and I am not much of a bar scene kinda girl so keep that in mind ) bars here are not usually a pay as you go but rather an "all-you-can-drink" kind of deal, you go in pay a set price and drink for a set time (usually $20 for an hour) At a girls bar you pay an "all-you-can-drink" price but it comes with conversations with the hostesess....super weird concept as a westerner. But totally normal in Japan. The venues in Japan are usually super small, again this has been my experience in countryside Japan so it might not be the same everywhere. This place we went to had 5 girls. After we walked in they immediately asked us all for our preferred drink of choice, they prepared some pitchers and sat down with our group (girls were assigned to certain tables...super awk) I am still shook that this was a part of my work party it was all so new to me, but I try to be as open-minded as I can and go with the flow of things. I always learn something new. We stayed only for an hour and then we all kinda separated, one of my co-workers and I went to join another bonenkai that another section at our office was having, and their party was even cooler! So classy. We ended our evening at the rooftop onsen (Hot Spring) , it was so wonderful and it was snowing a little bit so it looked beautiful.

My co-workers, tourism section

More of my co-workers.

My co-worker, translator and friend, the amazing Anna.

View from my room or Hirosaki City.

Crashing the Health Sections party.

Breakfast at our hotel, I did not know what to get...a little bit of everything I suppose. 

Just last weekend I was invited to yet another party. I joined Taiko Club (Japanese drum) about two months ago. They wanted to welcome me and some other newbies formally so they threw a little party for us! We went out here in town had a nice meal and did Karaoke afterwards. It was so nice to bond with this new group outside of Taiko practice. Taiko practice has been way harder than I imagined. At first I thought, how hard can playing a drum be right? geez was I wrong. Playing the Taiko is definitely an art form, it is not just about following the music but our bodies have to look a certain way while doing it. I am and always have been horrible with coordination, I had no idea I was going to have to move or look a certain way while playing the drums, but I have committed and now I am a member. I will keep you all updated on that.... sigh. I wish I could just jammmmmm and not be flowy like a princess-swan. I am not graceful at all.

Taiko party venue and food.

Taiko Club members.

My neighbors and also Taiko buddies.

Karaoke after dinner, Taiko members are so talented!

Some of the club members.

Anyway. Now on to house parties or "Hoomu Paateis" (home parties), I read a small article on Elle magazine and I guess the ideas of house parties are relatively new and a western inspired idea, not quite sure about the facts here but interesting. I think I comment on every post about how time seems to be just speeding by, and I will say it again- Time is flying by way toooo fast! I have goals to accomplish and I am getting nervous about not completing them. One of my goals while in Japan is to learn to cook some Japanese Foods. So in an attempt to get started on that right away I started hosting parties at my house and invited some new friends to come learn how to make pizza at my house and they invited me to their house to learn to make Japanese foods. We have started to call it international exchange parties. It all started with me being invited to make Takoyaki at my friend Eriko's house. Takoyaki are wheat flour, cabbage, and egg balls stuffed with different things but usually Tako (octopus) , They were so much fun to make and very easy! Here is the recipe if you want to try:

Takoyaki

-3 cups of wheat flour
-2 eggs
- 2 cups shredded up cabbage
-salt
-pickled red ginger
- katsubushi ( bonito flakes- optional if you ask me)
-tempura scraps
- dried seaweed
- takoyaki sauce ( Idk what is in this it is already sold as Takoyaki sauce)
-mayo

1) In a bowl you mix flour, eggs, cabbage , a dash of salt, pickled red ginger (fresh or dry, we used dry) and the katsubushi.
2) take a takoyaki cast iron ( looks like what you would use to make cake pops.. heat and brush a lil bit of vegetable oil to each circle.
3) pour the batter into the cast iron and start stuffing each one with octopus, cheese or whatever else you would like.
4) as they cook flip them around with chopstick or skewers
5) take them out when cooked and top with dried blue seaweed, takoyaki sauce and mayo!

I am such a newbie to cooking so I would google another recipe just to make sure. Lolz.

Luis Miguel! What a small world, Eriko lived in Mexico, Guadalajara in her 20s. My dad is from that area in Mexico it was so wonderful to connect on that note.

MMMMmmm Cheese stuffed balls!

I also hosted a make-your-own pizza party after at my house and we had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Eriko brought me this beautiful cake!!!

And lastly I went to my first Mochi Making Party! or Mochi-Tsuki, and I got to pound some mochi with a traditional wooden like hammer. It was such a blast and it was so delicious. I had mochi in a soup for the first time and then had mochi covered in kinako powder as a treat afterwards. I was surprised at the many ways one can enjoy mochi, I had no idea it could be eaten as a savory meal and a sweet meal. Apparently there are many more ways to enjoy mochi that I have yet to discover.