Joshua Small is a First Year JET currently living in Ikaruga-cho, Nara-ken and has been chronicling his experience on his blog Snorlax87.
I recently went to my school’s Bon Enkai to celebrate the end of the fall term! It was amaaaaaaaazing!
A brief preface: The definition of “enkai” is merely “party; banquet” but it is also what greases the wheels of social communication in Japanese culture. The enkai is usually a work party with a lot of drinking.
My school’s enkai was held at a major shrine in the city of Kashihara. Kashihara is the 2nd largest city in Nara, with Nara City being it’s largest.
Given the terrible weather conditions, Storm and I received a ride from S-Sensei to the enkai. After we arrived, we were told to pick a table number out of a box to determine where we would sit for the dinner. I thought I was being funny when I did the ol’ “reach my hand into the mysterious box and pretend like something grabbed it” routine, but apparently my humor doesn’t reach across borders sometimes. Storm and I pulled different table numbers, so we wouldn’t be sitting together. After we pulled our number we were given scratch lottery tickets. We were also told not to scratch them until the enkai starts…
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http://snorlax87.blogspot.com/
2 comments so far...
Um,sorry to be pedantic, but it’s “bou nen kai”: literally “forget year meeting/party”. While technically yes, this is an enkai, they’re written differently. Bounenkai=忘年会; Enkai=宴会.
And knowing is half the battle. PORK CHOP SANDWICHES (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1BDM1oBRJ8).
Thanks, Stu. Definitely worth pointing out and a good learning opportunity for the JET alum community (myself included) who were not clear on it previously.
-Steven