The party started at 6:30pm, but I only arrived at the place around 6:40pm.. It was held at Komae (狛江), in a small hall on the 3rd floor of a building next to where the HQ of my Karate-dojo is located. For ladies it was 3,500yen per person and 4,500yen each for men. I think maybe this is due to the fact that guys do drink more than the ladies.. which was aptly proven later..
When I got there, the place was already packed with people.. no one I knew, except for Narikawa Sensei and his wife, and Wakiya Sensei and his wife.. No one from my dorm went.. I decided to go because I am curious about how a typical Japanese Year End party is like. There were a couple of 'gai-jin' (foreigners who are either Caucasians or Africans) present too.. They seems to be 'attracting' lots of attention from the Japanese.. well, I must say that the Japanese always seems to have an 'obsession' with White Caucasians and Black Africans.. *eyes rolling*
Anyway, I don't really care if no one talks to me and I don't really feel like talking to anyone too.. with my (still) poor command of Japanese, I don't want to spend the night struggling to find words to have a decent chat with people whom I most probably won't be seeing again.. So there I was, eating and quietly observing the crowd.. :p The food was not too bad, there is tempura, sushi, pasta, meatballs, salad, beef slices, etc., but comparatively it seriously lacked the 'excitement' and variety of Malaysian/Singaporean food.. But one thing for sure, the Japanese sure like to drink!! :o :o To me, it seemed that all the men can't wait to get themselves drunk.. Maybe it's a culture thing.. As the alcohol flowed, faces got redder and voices became louder.. Some of the mums of the kids who took karate started to talk rather loudly and big gesturing, so unbecoming of the impression that I have of Japanese housewives..
Anyway, Narikawa Sensei seemed to be rather high as he was just sitting at the front, face redden by alcohol.. while Mrs Narikawa was busy walking around, being the competent hostess.. and their daughter, Ms Narikawa was busy organizing and making sure the programs went on smoothly.. The programs was ok, nothing fantastic.. the usual piano performance, a short sketch (that was supposed to be a comedy, but it was kinda of a stretch than a sketch to me), a solo dance performance by a guy (named Asrof) from Tunisia and song performances by a group of 3 guys (rapping, singing and dancing away)..
Around 8pm, the event that everyone was waiting for finally got started. It was a game of Bingo.. :) Everyone was given a bingo card when they arrived. Then the numbers were being called out one by one.. A lots of those numbers on my card matched, but they just don't seemed to form a straight line.. When more than 15 numbers had been called out, my card had around 11 of them and yet I can't bingo as they just refused to form a line of 5 (horizontally, vertically or diagonally).. :( :( When I finally was able to bingo, out of 25 numbers on my card, about 18 of them had been called out!!! Just the kind of luck I usually have.. "so near yet so far", "so close yet not enough".. 
Well, I've gotten prize No. 19, which turned out to be a box of rice crackers... :x :x From the Net, I found out that the box of rice crackers cost about 1,000yen.. :p
Throughout the party, I only talked to a handful of people, especially the 2 guys (one French and the other Tunisian) and the coach from Russia who come to the dorm for the weekly karate practice .. From the French guy, I found out that the previous Sensei, Mr Oogawa was no longer with this Karate-dojo. Seemed like he was forced to resigned!! :o :o I was shocked!! I had thought that Oogawa Sensei was absent for the past 3 trainings was because he had something to attend to.. and the reasons I heard from him (which he had heard from another person) were very lame to say the least.. Although I am tempted to clarify my doubts with one of the older lady who come to the weekly trainings in my dorm, I am worried that I might not catch the whole story with my (still) poor Japanese listening skills.. :(
The whole party ended 10 minutes before 9pm.. It ended with a usual custom of year end parties in Japan, where everyone was to clap in sync 3 sets of beats together.. Then before leaving, everyone helped to clean up the place.. Uneaten food were packed for take-away or thrown into the organic recycling bags, while burnable items (like chopsticks, paper plates, etc) and plastic items (plastic cups, plastic wraps, etc) were collected and sorted in separate bags too.. The guys then kept the tables and chairs.. I left the place after saying goodbye to Mrs Narikawa and Mrs Wakiya.. Reached my room around 9:40pm..
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