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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Saturday 23 December 2006

Bonenkai

This last week I've been pretty busy planning our ski trip to Nagano, and another trip the following week to Nara, Hiroshima and Osaka (yes, we are going back to Osaka for the 3rd time!). Yesterday was the last day of school and winter vacation starts today. Technically teachers don't get time off during vacation, but with five 'cultural furloughs' entitled to me for every vacation period (the city JETs don't get to enjoy this 'furlough') as well as the national New Year holiday, I have two weeks of holidays to spend! Woohoo! And I finally have time to blog again..

Last Friday, one of my schools had their bonenkai, which literally means 'forget the year party'. It's like the Christmas parties held by companies for their employees. It's a chance for collegues to hang loose, drink freely and forget the bad things of the year as they usher in the New Year. I really like working at this school (a branch off the main school) because it is so much more laid back than at the main school. It's a shame that it will close once the students graduate at the end of this school year this coming April (there are only 12 students at the moment, and about 12 teachers working part-time to teach classes for these students).



The food was so good! Oishiiiiiii! We had shabu-shabu (a type of nabemono), steak (which was really nicely done - and I'm not a red meat or steak person!) and of course, sashimi. The steak was really tender and tasty. To my delight, the ebi sashimi (prawn) was included in the sashimi course. Mmm yummy!

Ingredients laid out for shabu-shabu:


Steak and sashimi:

4 comments:

  1. My only wish is that the images would link to larger images... ** sigh ** that looks delicious.
    What was your fav restaurant in Perth to eat Japanese food at? Apart from Taka's...

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  2. Hm.. in Perth? I liked Tsunami in Mosman Park. Contemporary Japanese food - pricey, but pretty nice. I tried uni (sea urchin roe?) for the first time there. I went there twice.

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  3. Midori on (I think?) Milligan st in Perth is really good too.
    Midori and Tsunami are both pretty pricey. For cheaper Japanese food:
    Sushi = Takas (as you mentioned)
    Oyakodon / katsudon = Mr Samurai on William st Perth.
    There was also a good place on Beaufort st in Mt Lawley called Asahi. Asahi means "morning sun" and is also the name of a popular beer here in Japan.

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  4. Yeah, good ol Asahi beer. I think they import it to quite a few pubs here - apparently it's very nice, but I'm not an alco so I don't know personally.
    Thanks for the suggestions, I think I will have to go down there and check those places out sometime.

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