Company Christmas Party

And yes I do mean Christmas (and not Holiday) Party. (You may remember my thoughts on Christmas in Japan...)

Friday night was our firm Christmas Party. It was held at the Ritz Carlton (fancy!). I had heard stories from the other foreign attorneys and the translation staff that there would be games and dance routines, but I was not prepared for the scope of the event.

The firm's Christmas party is a big deal. There are games, and dance routines, and speeches, but mainly it is a vehicle to build firm solidarity. This is accomplished in a number of ways. Most central, is the role of the junior associates. Junior associates (who wear coordinated costumes) are "in charge" of the party, and act as organizers, announcers and dancers. This gives the junior associates a chance to not only demonstrate their involvement with the firm, but also puts them in a position to tell senior attorney (even bigwig partners) what to do.

The party started with a dance routine put on by the junior associates, in formation and everything.

The dance was followed by a "State of the Firm" speech by a senior partner. The funny thing was that everyone talked through the entire speech, and got louder and louder as the speech went on. Maybe a way to make sure he didn't talk too long?

After the speech, they opened the food stations (and it was wonderful!). During this time, they started with little games. The firm was divided into teams based on what floor you sit on (so I was on the 21st Floor team). Points were awarded for each game, and the floor with the highest points at the end of the night won a prize for that floor's support staff (I think it was 2 tickets each to Tokyo Disney). The first game was a quiz game, and I didn't really pay much attention as it was all in Japanese and I was busy adoring the buffet :)

The second game, however, was very interesting. The junior associates put a picture of a woman up on a big screen, and the game was to guess who she was.

It turns out that the associates had hired a professional make-up artist and photographer, and had several senior partners made up as women for the game! The team that guessed which partner was in the picture got points. The best part was at the end of the game, they put on a video in which the partners (in drag) made a faux shampoo commercial, tossing their hair, air-kissing the camera, etc. It was crazy! (And possibly grounds for complaint in an American company...)

The evening wrapped up with sumo wrestling. Again, partners were dressed up in sumo suits, and each wrestled for his respective floor's team. At this point I would remind you that the sumo wrestling was going on in the middle of the Ritz Carlton grand ballroom. In fact, I was eating chocolate covered strawberries as I watched!

At the end of the night, the associates put on one last dance number, and then the prizes were awarded. Then the entire firm was led in a rousing cheer (think pep-rally) to end the night. A grand time was had by all, and I certainly picked up a few party pointers. I wonder how Michael would look in a dress.......