bon enkai

a traditional and highly common custom in japan is to celebrate the end of the year by a drinking and eating party – an enkai, which i mentioned before – a bon enkai to be exact. bon enkai directly translates into ‘forgetting the current year,’ and we do this quite literally by drinking the celebratory party away. and forget we do. the bon enkai is specifically the end of the year party (there are many, many enkai here for almost any occasion at all). almost every club, company, business, and school has one in japan. last year, unfortunately, my bon enkais fell on the same day for both my high schools.

however, this year, one of my schools planned our bon enkai quite early, so i had the opportunity to celebrate with both schools. i always wish to take more pictures, and i almost always fail. it gets to be a certain point of intoxication that happens and the inevitable following of forgetting to bring out the camera. damn.

of course, as every enaki undoubtedly is, they were great fun. how can it not be? you drink, you eat, you be merry, you play games (usually only at the bon enkai), and then you drink some more. throw in some occasional karaoke at the after parties (nijikai, sanjikai, etc.), and it makes for some memorable times.

bon enkais, i believe, are the best because they’re near the holidays and almost everyone attends them. they’re biggest – the more people to chat with, the better.