Japanese Class Year End Party

NEXT is our Japanese Language School in Chiba. I got to come because I take a refresher class. They had a year end party today with "nabe" which means pot. It is made with fish and meat stock broth with chicken pieces, onions, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, daikon radish, noodles and konnyaku which means -- are you ready-- "solidified jelly made from the rhizome of devil's tongue." That's what the dictionary said. Today was cold and rainy and this dish hit the spot. I couldn't stop eating it. I don't know how many bowls I had.

There's a can of gas below that runs a burner. You just keep adding stuff and eat away. So much fun.

Teacher Sachiko is at the far end of table. She did all this prep for us. 

Because it's Christmas and New Years, most of the students couldn't come, so the Japanese staff was also invited. 

This is dessert - on the left is chocolate and vanilla filled cakes and on the right is a kind of pie thing made from two pancakes filled with sweet red bean paste. With hot coffee...mmmm.

Then we all went around and said what we enjoyed the most during the past year.

And then we had a fun activity. This is called "fuu fuu pin pon" which I think translates to "huff puff ping pong." Check it out...