Bonenkai 2019: Foodie Adventure Edition
Bonenkai, which literally means “forget the year party” (bo=forget, nen=year, kai=party), is a Japanese tradition that takes place around December each year. Typically celebrated with friends and coworkers, it’s a way to commemorate the past year and almost always involves heavy drinking and/or eating.
This year, the Foodie Adventure team decided to have our very own mini Bonenkai to celebrate all of our (well, mainly Gizem & Jackie’s) accomplishments this year.
We ate, we drank, we took photos. Lots of them.
Our venue would be the new Parco building in Shibuya, and our first stop would be Falafel Brothers.
We each got a falafel sandwich with fries, and to share we got a hummus plate with pita and some craft beer, kindly gifted to us by the owner.
So cute!
<3
Once our bellies were filled to the brim, we slowly made our way down to the basement, checking out the unique shops (like the Pokemon Megastore & Nintendo store) along the way.
Our first stop on the second (boozy) phase of the night was Campy! Bar. The original bar is in the LGBTQ-friendly neighborhood of Shinjuku Ni-chome, but this new location is such a great addition to Shibuya. It was my first time at a drag bar, and I had so much fun. It’s awesome to see openly queer people in such a closed society like Tokyo.
We chatted with a few of the drag queens, sipped on our drinks (Moscow mule for me & Jackie, Gin Buck for Gizem), and talked about—what else– our favorite queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Our last stop was Beer Boy, a craft beer bar with locations all around Tokyo.
They change up the beers on a daily basis, so we each tried a different type. Gizem chose fruity, I chose smoky, Jackie chose hoppy.
Mine was way too smoky and tasted like bacon… I usually love smoky things but this was too much and I could not finish it. I ended up just mooching off of Gizem & Jackie’s beers.
And with that, it was 10 PM and we decided to call it a night.
It was so nice getting together and having some time to just unwind and celebrate.
I’ve only known these women for a few months, but it’s great to have such like-minded, passionate, and fun friends that I can also call colleagues.
Thank you, our dear readers, for an amazing 2019—we truly appreciate your support. We have so many ideas & plans for 2020, and we are so excited to get those out to you.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any feedback, comments, suggestions. We are always looking for ways to improve Foodie Adventure.
Let’s enjoy these final days of the year. We wish you a great holiday season and a Happy New Year!
