忘年会(Year's End Party) & 新年会(New Year's Party)

Shabu Shabu

hello poopies,
you might be wondering about the title. I know it's almost march already but I really wanted to tell you about this, since it's part of the Japanese culture.
The 忘年会(Bou Nen Kai) & 新年会 (Shin Nen Kai) are 'parties' held once a year with friends or see off the old year or greet the new year.
colleagues. The basic idea is to go to a restaurant and
My colleagues hold a small Bou Nen Kai in the End of December.
We went for ShabuShabu (しゃぶしゃぶ = Hotpot dish with thinly sliced meat and vegetables)Restaurant in Shibuya to eat a lot of delicious food.
Afterwards we went to a small pub to drink beer and wine. I think it was a Belgian pub, but I'm not sure anymore.


For the Shin Nen Kai we met at the end of November in Shibuya again. This time almost the whole team joined. We had a course of several dishes like fried karage, pasta, marinated meat slices and 飲み放題 (nomihoudai = All-You-Can-Drink).
Funfact: When I went to the washroom I had my mobile phone in my back pocket and it felt into the toilet, but somehow it's still working. HAHA! It's a miracle!

By the time our Nomihoudai ended we went to the next Restaurant which is known for that you can fish your own fish that you want to eat.

At first it sounded like a nice thing to me and it's definitively worth to experience something like this. But since I'm already pretty picky when it comes to eating fish I was a little skeptic about it. My colleagues seem to have a lot of fun tho and it made me happy to see them laughing so much and having a good time.

On a sidenote: I already told some of my friends but the way the fish is prepared to eat really displeased me. It's all fun and stuff to fish your own fish but when an animal got to suffer I don't want to support it.
I can tolerate fishing your own but the waiter encouraged us to take selfies with the fish before we handed it over. All that I saw in that moment was a poor animal gasping for air and dying a ungraceful death.
Maybe I was overreacting or something but at this point I want to encourage you to check out what kind of fish or meat you buy when you go to the supermarket. Please check out the origin of the meat or fish and chose the one that soothes your conscience. Same for animal products.
I'm sorry for cut into a topic like this but it bothered me since a while nonetheless I rather wanna keep telling you about nice things that I experience in Japan.

I'd usually want to ask you about how you would like it and if you want to try it as well, but I don't want to start a discussion. Instead tell me: What did you do on your new years party? did you celebrate at work as well?

My next entry is already planned.

See you soon,

Yours,

Miharu ♥