We had a good turnout at the Shinenkai! Everyone who said they would come, did. It was a lot of fun seeing folks I had met before as well as new. Lets get another meetup setup in early March. I was thinking the 7th, as it is a Friday. Please forward suggestions for where you would like to meet. I was able to get a deal with the owner of Higashi and if we go once per month, he will give us a discount or free food as long as we bring a party of 15. I suggest we go back to Higashi, central local, good food and all, for this meetup and arrange additional ones on specific topics or we can set meeting topics and things for Higashi meets as well. Please let me know your thoughts and we'll get this organized.

On the table already, courtesy of Carlos, is a Hanami (cherry blossom) party. Usually this is around Golden Week (the last week of March or first week of April). The thought here is to have this at a park - with a cherry tree if possible, with Sake and good food and people. Since we already have the last one its just a matter of bringing the other two. I was also thinking, I could invite some of the Japanese that live in the area and are part of the local Japanese community (they love Hanami too!). If anyone knows where we can find some cherry trees, let me know. I do know there are some in New Haven (in a park); maybe there are some in Elizabeth Park in Hartford.

So, give me some feed back about that and we get that rolling as well. Talk to you soon.

Ron

Across Japan, the month of December means "boonenkai", or "year-end party." Boonenkai's are usually held after work, with your colleagues. You might attend a boonenkai with your nearest co-workers, division, or entire company. Not just for work though, various groups that you might belong to, for example, a baseball team or English language class will also hold boonenkai. It's just another way to get together, thank everyone for their efforts throughout the year, and of course, DRINK.

Boonenkai parties are norturious fo drinking, lewdness, and bingo games. Hopefully, JIG can have 2 out of those 3 for our first boonenkai.

Our boonenkai will be held at a restaurant (to be determined at a later date.) However, please RSVP as soon as you can so we can decide how many seats we will need. To make our boonenkai complete and as authentic as possible, we will need a few volunteers to help plan the party. Please contact me directly if you can volunteer.

Typical events at boonenkai:
* Peope are often seated by either rank (decided) or randomly
* Speeches by the erai (superiors/bosses/leaders) people <-- always boring, but sometimes a good warmup <-- Japanese love speeches!!!
* The kampai toast
* The eating
* The drinking <-- nearby people will serve each other. But as the evening progresses, it is expected for everyone to move around, and pour beer/sake for other people and to thank them for their efforts (ie mingle)
* Some skits by the people who attend - ie comedy, re-enactment, etc
* Karaoke
* Bingo <-- we can hand out some small inexpensive presents?
* Final toast -- maybe some banzai's thrown in? lol
* Meeting outside to decide where the group will move to, in order to drink and sing more karaoke <-- not so easy to do in the USA. lol

Location:
Higashi Japanese Restaurant
1735 Ellington Rd
South Windsor, CT 06074
(860) 644-7788

Social Hourz Meet-up group will go to Toshi's and there's room for our group as well. So why not eat at a Japanese restaurant that is actually part-owned by a Japanese person?? lol. (Most Japanese restaurants in the US are not run by Japanese.)

This is so popular, that I have reserved a larger table, so we have room for up to 14 people! Please RSVP by 12:00pm Tuesday 10/23/07. Reservation is under BETSY - JAPANESE MEETUP. If full, you can RSVP on Social Hourz.

To make it easier, we will car pool from Manchester. (We will need to meet before 7PM) Carlos and Betsy plan to arrive at 6:30 to socialize with the members of Social Hourz.

Please note: RSVP's must be in by Tuesday October 23 at 12:00pm so we can confirm the # in our reservation.

Site: toshirestaurant.com

Cheers,

Carlos

Let's enjoy some Japanese food at Higashi. Eat sushi or MANY OTHER Japanese food. Prices are typical of Japanese places (ie not cheap like Chinese but not as expensive as French. lol)

Higashi is located in South Windsor--not far from the Buckland Hills Mall.
Here is a map link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&geocode=&q=higashi&near=south+windsor,+ct&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=A&om=1

Never ate Japanese? Ate it but didn't know what you were eating? No problem, we will give you a run down of what is what.

Higashi Japanese Restaurant
1735 Ellington Rd, South Windsor, CT
(860) 644-7788

A reminder, our June meetup is just two days away on June 12 at 7 PM. I will be catering in sushi and will have cold beer (hopefully Japanese) on draft for those 21+. There should be a 100 inch projection screen with a DVD player and PC attached for those who wish to display animation or other cultural videos, or play music. Please bring something like this with you to share!

The meetup location is my place in the entertainment district of Hartford. The gate is right around the corner from the Federal Cafe at the intersection of Union Place and Church St. You can park on the street or in one of the numerous paid lots (usually about $7) in the area. The address is 427 Church St.; look for a silver buzzer panel and mash #107.

Looking forward to your RSVP!

Kaapentaa

UPDATE: Unfortunately, my projector isn't fixed yet, so the big screen will wait until next month. Small screen will be available plus great sound for J-Pop etc. Beer is SAPPORO. If you RSVP'd "maybe" I am getting enough food for you, so do come on out!!!