歓迎会 Kangeikai

Recently, our group at work has one new member, Kojima-san. He used to be a PhD student in our group some years ago and did a great job. After graduation, he tried his luck in NTT, a big company, and after some years, decided to come back to superconductors and astronomical receivers (yes, that is my current job too ;) ).

Yesterday, we all met together and went for dinner to welcome him back. That is a very typical situation in a Japanese company. When a new member joins the work group, there is always one dinner to welcome him/her, the so called Kangeikai 歓迎会. When one member leaves the group, than there is a farewell party or Kansoukai, 歓送会.
 


If you have ever come to Japan, you must have noticed that Japanese people love drinking with colleagues. Actually, "going out for dinner" is normally expressed as "going drinking" and Japanese would say in English something like "Let's go drink together sometime" instead of the most common "Let's hang out/ go out/ go party sometime" for Westerners.

There are many occasions Japanese coworkers go drink together: new group members, group members leaving, end of the year dinner, new year dinner, hanami... or any time there is something to celebrate.

Restaurants also cater for these parties appropriately. It is common to be offered all you can eat and drink menus, Tabehoudai 食べ放題 and Nomihoudai 飲み放題　respectively. Normally, there is a time limit for these. Yesterday, we went for one of these all you can eat and drink menus and the time limit was 2 hours, which is about standard. The price depends on the restaurant, but prices around 3000 or 4000 yen are common.

If you are planning to visit Japan in the future, going for an all-you-can-eat menu can be a good option! What do you think about it? Would you like to try this kind of buffet style dinners including drinks or would you rather order dishes/ drinks directly?

Sushi cake

This is the sushi cake I cooked for White Day, in a moment of inspiration! Learn about White Day in here.

Sunday Lunch in Tokyo

Some things never change...

 

Chocolate Sparkling

Today, I tried one of those things only Japan can offer: Chocolate Sparkling. It is soda with chocolate flavor! At the beginning you expect it is the worst thing you've ever drunk... but after trying it, you do not really know if it is good or bad... quite a special flavor!!

 

Fugu 河豚

Fugu is the Japanese name for blowfish, a fish which has a lethal poison but whose flesh is really delicious. As many things in life, the best and the worst are together, showing the two sides of reality.

Last tuesday, my second day in Tokyo, I went for dinner with Professor Ito, and Naoko and Yuuka came along. The dinner, as you can imagine from my introduction, was fugu. The chosen place, a fugu restaurant in Ueno/Okachimachi.



There we could enjoy a very nice dinner and get up to date in our present and future projects. For me, it was the first time I ate fugu and I can say I really enjoyed it! It was served in many ways: sashimi, fugu nabe (shyabu shyabu style) and with rice porridge afterwards, sake burnt with fugu dried fin, fugu skin with vinegar...





Thanks again to Professor Ito for such a nice evening and hope we can meet again in Japan soon.

Italian Halloween Dinner

Yesterday, it was Halloween and Carolina and Maurizio invited me to their place to enjoy a nice Italian dinner together with Salvatore, Ilaria and Mireia. Carolina and Ilaria prepared pasta from scratch and they used squid ink to make it look black! Have a look at what Carolina has in her hands! the black tagliatelle came from that after using the machine to make pasta which is below in the photo.




And here, Salvatore pretending to help in the kitchen! XD



Of course, all the menu was Halloween oriented... didn't we only have black tagliatelle but also witch shaped ravioli and pumpkin resembling desserts!






And after dinner, some Wii among friends! Here, Salva and Mau were too focused on the game! ;-)



In short, a very nice evening with really good and imaginative food!!

Davide's birthday

Last Tuesday, 9th October, was Davide's birthday. For those who do not know, Davide is my office mate Manuela's boyfriend. ;-)



I was invited to their home and enjoyed an extremely good Italian dinner!! Manuela's mother had come from Sicily and she cooked delicious Italian/Sicilian food:
1st dish: Pasta called "Spaccatella al burro"
2nd dish: "Cotolette di Pollo"
3rd dish: "Gamberoni con Salamariglio"
+ Birthday cake and nice wine to accompany the dishes

IMPRESSIVE!!



The dinner was too good and so was the evening. Next day, I couldn't have breakfast and dinner but it was well worth it!



To end, Davide, "Buon compleanno! Auguri!"