Last Saturday was our bonenkei, and although I would luuurve to post the video of our band of technicians, PhD students, fat foreigner and skinny bloke doing our finest AKB48 impression(please look elsewhere for information on the uber J-pop band of teenyboppers that is AKB48), I'm not sure the others in the video would want to appear to the world (well you few who read here and the mysteriously silent Russian contingent who read a few posts). That part was fun, the chance to look like 15 years old again and leap around being stupid is not going to come along until I get into the nightclubs in Newcastle on "skool night" if that is still popular in the UK.
Also fun was having the sound of the next doors bonnenkei soundtrack playing whilst our endless speeches were on. Its been a tough year in our department- his highness is still out of commission and has been for 6months so its been hard on the staff. He'd sent an email, about how we've all pulled together and struggled blah, blah and as it was being read out the "Rocky" theme started up from next door, which our table found hilarious. Our first formal bonenkei was followed by 3 increasing less formal ones, where the chair of the department took us from cocktail bar to sushi restaurant (yum!) to bar with karaoke and piano-playing bar owner. This guy knows all the good places, previous enkeis have seen me at possibly the coolest and at the same time kinda dodgy bar in Susukino (the entertainment area of Sapporo) - a secret bar with its own elevator entrance hidden behind a wall. Your own huge space with karaoke, pool, darts, fully stocked bar with 2 barkeepers (the stories they must know!) and a jacuzzi with disco ball which the slightly disturbing part. Anyway, I got home at respectable 3am from my last bonenkei and spent Sunday packing and sorting with the help of Oyomesan.
I sent off the last of christmas present by Monday, so then I could make a start on the Nengajo cards - so won't miss these, christmas cards are a chore already, but new year greetings even more, especially as I have to hunt through to find names and addresses in Japanese. Tomorrow is our departmental research conference, so I've been busy writing yet another talk and trying to get some last results to include. Following the conference, 5 of us are heading to an onsen in Jozankei for the night followed by a pottery session on Sunday (part of the package apparently). I'm looking forward to probably my last chance for an onsen here, although it comes at the price of not getting any packing done this weekend.
On the New job/moving front. I have some fantastic friends, who are taking the majority of my items- a BIG relief. I have a flat in Newcastle for the first couple of months, curtesy of the university. Its going to cost me an arm and a leg, but its fully furnished (down to bed linen) and gives me a base for posting too and finding a cheaper, less studenty and further from the football stadium place once I"ve arrived.
Very Jane Austen like don't you think? I showed the folks in the lab and their first question was whether it was that old inside?! Do they imagine I'll be cooking over some spit or living sewing by candlelight or something. ..the mind boggles.
1 comment:
Yay for bonenkai!
I love playing with people's minds when they ask silly questions like about your apartment. My response would have been to say (with a completely straight face) "Why yes, the inside is as old as the outside. Its a special theme apartment block, the kitchen has an open fire for grilling and the outhouse is in the backyard."
Tee hee!
Post a Comment