The Bounenkai

Literally meaning the "Forget the year party", a bounenkai was a good chance to see off the negative aspects of last year, of which there are only few, and see in the new year with the same promises you make to yourself every year...

Anyway, Basim's father had been in Japan for a couple of weeks and had taken me and Basim, as well as some family friends out more then once to some very upmarket restaurants whilst imparting some very useful hints and tips on Japan that I'm very grateful for. The day before he left he hired a room on the 5th floor of hotel Okura in Kobe for this bounenkai. Extremely formal, we had a six course dinner and fine wine and covered numerous topics in conversation. Basim's father also gave an Obama-like speech which summed things up nicely I thought.

The food was epic, including lobster, shark fin soup and some very nice puddings. I took a few pictures so here they are...