Bounenkai - a year end party in Japan

Bounenkai is a Japanese word that literally translates as “Party to forget the year”party held,. where Work colleagues of work or friends are gathered and at the end of the year, drink some alcohol with and eat full-filling food around the end of year. 
The purpose of this party, especially with work colleagues, is to have fun with your workmates or and bosses very frankly and forget about bad or annoying things that happened in during the year. So that, people could get more motivated for the new year and be ready to start a new year with a refreshed minds and a clear slate. Hhopefully that would give have a positive impact on their work like more productivity, more efficiency, and so on. 

Today, I hosted a bounenkai at my home with my employees. Me and my business partner run a small vet clinic in Osaka, and employing five vet technicians. In Japan, the allowance on blood alcohol concentration level is set extremely low, therefore it means we should do NOT drive when you we have had any kind of alcohol. My house is located on top of a small mountain where that it is hard to come reach without driving a car, so our party today was alcohol free party. 
Even though, we still spent a good time together cooking/eating/ and chatting together. 
Our vet clinic operates 365 days, so we still got more than a week to work this year, but I look forward to 2013 and hope it will be a very good year!it was still a good head up for 2013!