This article reflects information as of 2020. For the latest details, please contact us.
This entry is an article for Gyoza Advent Calendar 2020, hosted by the Yaki-Gyoza Association (a general incorporated association). The Gyoza Advent Calendar is here:
https://adventar.org/calendars/5387
Hello, everyone! Today is Tuesday, December 15th!
And Tuesday means—!
That's right!
The broadcast day of everyone's beloved "The World Unknown to Matsuko"!
On such a fun Tuesday, let me tell you about the time we held an online gyoza drinking party when Onodera-san appeared on "Matsuko's Unknown World of Mail-Order Gyoza."
But first.
Of course you all know Chikara Onodera-san, right?
I arbitrarily think it's no exaggeration to call him the most talked-about person in the gyoza world (gyō-kai) of 2020—Onodera-san, the Representative Director of the Yaki-Gyoza Association (a general incorporated association)!
Onodera-san is this kind of person ↓
https://note.com/ch1cala/n/nb8f345acb94c
The business card from when I first met Onodera-san was from Onodera-san of Livedoor, so looking at the profile above, it's somewhere between 2004 and 2006.
Which means I've probably known him for close to 15 years now, but back when we were both in IT, I never imagined we'd end up in a relationship like this.
I'll leave out the detailed story of his appearance on "The World Unknown to Matsuko," expecting that his partner in the appearance—and Onodera-san's wife—Itsuka Onodera-san will write about it in tomorrow's entry.
Now, the program aired at the end of March 2020, which was just when the first wave of the coronavirus was raging, and I was spending anxious days wondering what would happen next—but I rode the wave of the very bright topic of the Onodera couple's Matsuko debut and set up an event like this.
An online drinking party eating home-grilled mail-order gyoza while watching "Matsuko's Unknown World of Mail-Order Gyoza"
It's exactly as it sounds.
A drinking party where everyone just eats gyoza they grilled at home while watching "The World Unknown to Matsuko."
But this was incredibly fun!
So fun that in the second half I wasn't really watching the program... ahem, ahem!
We just grilled gyoza, showed them to everyone saying "look, doesn't it look delicious," drank beer, and talked—but somehow there was an incredible sense of camaraderie, even though it was online.
In last year's Advent Calendar I wrote an entry titled "Corporate branding through gyoza,"
and I think the power of gyoza as the communication food I touched on in that entry showed its effect online too—no, precisely because it was online, it showed even more.
Sharing the gyoza we'd wrapped,
sharing the lovely gyoza we'd grilled,
sharing a cat for now because someone wasn't ready yet,
sharing a super-cute dinner set,
and everyone going off to grill so no one was left in front of the monitor—that too is one of the charms of an online gyoza drinking party.
This year all sorts of things happened because of COVID, but at this time I learned that you can enjoy things online with no loss.
You could even say it was the catalyst that let everyone take on things you can only do online.
Even if the place is far, even if the times don't quite line up, even if you can't drink alcohol—you can grill gyoza at home and toast with everyone!
It's a wonderfully fun and lovely gathering, so please do try it too!
And when you do, please invite me too!
And there's one important piece of advice for when you hold an online gyoza drinking party.
I'm writing this entry to deliver this one line to all of you, so please carve it into your heart.
When you try to show everyone your grilled gyoza and bring the freshly-grilled frying pan close to your laptop's camera, the gyoza will dive into your PC!
It was good gyoza this year too!