Michan's Gyozas

Michan is like a mum. She loves to fuss and spoil her favorite people and when she sets her mind to it she really goes all out to do it. This time she decided to throw a gyoza party. (Gyozas are a kind of small meat dumpling.) They are very popular in Japan and despite her wanting to have a party entirely of gyoza; Michan doesn’t like them so much!

I dread to think how much time she actually spent making them or how many were actually made. Every time I went to her apartment the week of the party there seemed to be trays of gyoza everywhere!

Needless to say she outdid herself and we had gyoza, rice balls, tamago-yaki (egg roll) and miso soup!

Seeing as it is nearly Christmas we also decided to have a Criss Cringle. Everyone had to spend 1000 yen on a present (about 5 pound) and after dinner we drew pieces of paper out of Christmas hats to decide who would choose first. The rules were simple – you could choose to open an unopened gift or steal a present that had already been opened. A gift could only be stolen three times!

I got to choose second and opened a present to find a Starbucks gift voucher inside. Dawn quickly stole that from me so I got to choose another one which had chocolates and a moose pen from Canada – perfect!

The Criss Cringle was good fun and I think most people got gifts that suited them in the end. With the drinks still flowing even though it was getting late the night descended into much drunken antics including drunken twister and a few compromising situations involving Minika’s souvenir from the sex museum in Beppu.