A chill in the air and bonenkai season

I'd like to make an amendment to my statement a few posts ago that I will have had 3 good friends leave Tokyo by the end of this year. It's actually 4 now that I've discovered through her blog posting that another friend is leaving. Kind of like being broken up with by email. That gripe aside though, she will be sorely missed as the number of witty ladies who I can smoke and drink with while conversing with what some would call sarcasm, is sadly low in Tokyo.

It's going to be a cold winter.

Hopefully my 2 work parties this week will help to warm things up, but I'm not holding my breath. First off, tomorrow night I have a bonenkai for my section, which I'm hoping doesn't leave me in tears like the last one did. The first section party I attended went fairly swimmingly, with a taxi ride back to the office in which a secretary, a Professional and I all made tipsy promises and future plans of hanami parties and summer fireworks. The second party did not go as well. Despite knowing that they could converse with me in either Japanese or English, the two Professionals I sat by insisted on directing their questions to the secretaries at our table and blatantly ignoring me. Not cool, especially considering I do work for one of them all the time. I know that these people don't know what box to put me in, I'm definitely a strange appendage to our section, but what happened to Japanese people opening up with alcohol? It was a sad sad night. Luckily for me, I don't have to return to work slightly tipsy tomorrow night so I am going to at least not enjoy the party, smashed.

At the end of this week it's the much-anticipated Xmas party! Held at another swanky Tokyo hotel this year, my only real dilemma is deciding whether to wear a faux fur stole and the level of cleavage to show. I figure no one can resist a little valley, as they call it in Japanese, so even if I only attract valley-grazers, at least I will have someone to make meaningless conversation with and deter the Professional who always brings me chocolate from monopolizing my time. And let's not forget my voice-acting debut either! But that is a secret until the party so I will have to refrain from spilling details until then.

A quick weekend in review:

While getting my nails done on Saturday afternoon the nartist (nail artist) asked me if the sparkly design I was getting would be OK for work. I assured her it was while thinking, Are you fucking kidding me?! I have seen enough veritable diamond claws around the Kaisha on secretaries and female Professionals alike to render my sparkly tipped nails tame. Love Japan!

After that sweet little encounter I had to ask an ornery fucker of an ojisan if it was alright to buy a pair of earrings from his antique stand after getting a "what?" and no move to come help me after I sumimasened him. Prick. You get so used to polite if not fake service here that I get a little over-incensed when the service falls below that mark.

Mado Lounge party that night fell short of expectations. There were some burlesque performances that ended up feeling more like sleazy stripteases due to the disproportionate number of foreign guys straining their eyeballs to get a peek of nipple from behind the performers' pasties. Did someone take a bus to Gaspanic in Roppongi and kidnap all of their customers? It sure felt that way. The hooping performance however, was fan-fucking-tastic, with the ladies using LED light hoops to spiff things up. All in all though, I feel bad for anyone who didn't have an invitation and had to pay 3500 yen for a douchey party. The space they have to work with on the 53rd floor of the tower at Roppongi Hills is incredible and sexy with the most killer view to ever be seen from a club in Tokyo but that was sadly not enough.