At the end of each year, it’s traditional for companies, associations and groups to have year-end parties, called “bounenkai”, which affords a relaxed time to eat, drink and socialize among friends and colleagues.  I was very pleased to learn that the Kansai-region UCI International Commissaires also have their own bounenkai.

It’s very common for Japanese companies to own a resort house for its employees to use as a “getaway”, much like having a subsidized company-owned hotel put at the disposal of the employees. The Shimano corporation has just such a place, called Kita Komatsu Villa, a stone’s throw away from Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. And, thanks to one of our number who works for Shimano, we were able to secure sole use of the resort house for our small group’s party.

Shimano’s two-story resort house has a staff that tends to the kitchen (for a dining room that seats about 30 people), cleaning and administration. I didn’t count the rooms, but I would guess that there were about 8-10 rooms, each one a Japanese-style tatami-mat room sleeping about 4 on futons.  The centerpiece of the resort is a large “living room” style area, complete with tables, chairs, sofas, and an immense television.

Our bounenkai was really tiny — only five people — but we had a really enjoyable time.  First off we had a nice and very delicious Japanese-style dinner with all the trimmings. Naturally, that was followed up by the obligatory watching-of-cycling-videos from the year, accompanied by beer and, later, sake.

After completely dissecting all of the Japanese cycling events we could handle, we all took to the ofuro (Japanese hot bath), which seems to be where all the serious talk happens.  After that, with everyone pretty well exhausted, we retired to our large sleeping room, laid out our respective futons and crashed for the night.

In the morning, I experienced my first actual Japanese breakfast — in other words, one that involved eating raw eggs.  I must say it was much easier to deal with than I’d anticipated.  The key is in knowing how to mix the eggs with the soy sauce and that the eggs go into the rice while the rice is still quite hot.  It doesn’t completely cook the egg, but it is much more palatable than I’d imagined.

After breakfast and packing up, we checked out and headed to Kyoto to spend some time visiting cultural heritage sights sights before going our separate ways.  All in all, it was a remarkable couple of days!