Cheese shabu-shabu and people with no fashion sense

This glass is a beer jockey that says "whisky" but contains tea.

In Japan you have 忘年会 ("bounenkai", party to forget), a party where you go out with everyone you work with (you can have bounenkai with your friends too) and eat and drink together. I missed the party with my lab this year too, because I had to work that evening (and they always put our parties on Friday evenings, which is possibly the worst evening to use, since that is the only time you can meet your non-work friends; if you have any).

French fries and a glass of honey to dip them in (not the best combination, but not that bad)

I am invited to the bounenkais of my previous lab too, though, since everyone who ever worked or studied there is invited. This lab puts their parties on normal weekdays, which is good because that means you are likely to have nothing else planned on that evening.

Doing shabu-shabu with cheese slices

I ended up meeting the people I used to work with, and a lot of students I had never seen before (the students that were there during my time in the lab have all graduated by now). The food was interesting. There were French fries with honey. There was cheese shabu-shabu. This means a put with stuff in it where you dip slices of cheese until they melt and then you eat this cheese. If you wait too long, it is impossible to get the cheese out of the pot with your chopsticks, though, so timing is somewhat difficult.

The parties in my current lab often end up more or less like work meetings, and you have to talk about work a lot of the time. This may sound boring (and possibly not the most exciting way to spend your Friday evening/night) but at the party of this other lab, people were so bored they were playing games under the table, haha. I had a lot of fund, though.

Baguette with ice cream

One of the new students that just entered my old lab turned out to also be wearing a coat with a fur collar, and a weird scarf. He also wore sunglasses at night in the dark time of year. Everyone thought it was super funny that there were two of us (him and me) that so completely lack fashion sense, and they wanted to take photos of us. The two guys in the back were laughing during every photo.

Me and another guy also lacking fashion sense