Party at the boss's house

Japanese sake with gold flakes floating around in it

Every year, our professor invites everyone to his home for a 新年会 (shinnenkai, start of the new year party). He usually schedules these for days when I am super busy, but this year I had the opportunity to attend.

Japanese alcohol

I said I would go, and since it was to start quite early I asked the guys in our magic bar if it was OK if I left early the night before. They said sure, but asked where I was going. That made me realize that I do not actually know where my professor lives... No one had e-mailed me the address or anything like that. I did know in what general area he lives, though.

Whisky

I went to the nearest subway station, and figured that there would be other people there that would know where to go. Like Dirk Gently, I followed some people that seemed to know where they were going. I also saw some students from our lab, so it seemed promising. The people I was following did try to get me to turn up the wrong road, though. But in the end, I reached the party.

Plastic bags with more alcohol, being chilled.

Very special whisky

There were over 20 people there, and the professor's wife had to spend long hours cooking for everyone. There was also a lot of alcohol there. Apparently you could only open bottles in a certain order (empty the cheap wines before opening the expensive ones, the same for all other types of alcohol), or your graduation from the lab would be delayed one year. This meant that most people got to try the cheaper (but not cheap) wines, and when it was time to break out the really expensive stuff many had already left or were too drunk to drink more (or to understand the quality if they did drink).

A cake

The same cake after being cut into 23 slices...

I tried 5 types of whisky, 3 types of Japanese sake, some Champagne, and some wine. I do not like alcohol, and when I tell people that I have never tried any Japanese sake (or whisky, or whatever) that was good, I am usually told that "Ah, you have just never tried any of the good ones". Now I have tried lots of expensive stuff, so that argument will no longer work on me, haha. The food was great (and the expensive whisky was much better than "normal" whisky, but still not something I would call good).

A replica of a very old Bible in German

Our professor is a book collector, and he has an incredible number of books in his home (and at work). He showed us some, and they were very interesting.

Three types of food on one plate

More food

Very nice bread