This article reflects information as of 2022. For the latest details, please contact us.
This entry was written for "Gyoza Advent Calendar 2022," hosted by the Grilled Gyoza Association.
Time flies — this is already my fourth year taking part in the "Gyoza Advent Calendar" hosted by the Grilled Gyoza Association.
[Past article, 2019] Gyoza Advent Calendar "Corporate Branding Through Gyoza"
https://note.com/tentus/n/nf5e172634517
[Past article, 2020] Gyoza Advent Calendar "The time we held an online drinking party eating home-grilled mail-order gyoza while watching Matsuko's 'The World of Mail-Order Gyoza You Don't Know'"
https://note.com/tentus/n/n6225993d35c1
[Past article, 2021] Gyoza Advent Calendar "How Well Do Athletes and Gyoza Go Together?"
https://note.com/tentus/n/n994f097764e3
These Past Few Years — Tough, but Fun
I imagine many people had a rough time these past few years, with COVID and all. We did too. But these past few years were also a really fun period.
The 2019 piece I wrote, "Corporate Branding Through Gyoza," was an entry from just before COVID, and in it I wrote about how, by taking part in activities tied to the gyoza I love, we borrow gyoza's power as a "communication food" to grow our circle of companions (us).
Then, in my post after the 2020 COVID shock, I wrote about ways to enjoy things online. That was also the period when we started running with friends online — the same friends we used to run with at the Imperial Palace. There were companions (us) we could only have met because it was online, and afterward we've stayed close, mixing online and offline, right up to today. On the gyoza front too, I think it was a period when mail-order gyoza became quite active thanks to stay-at-home demand, and I actually enjoyed my own time at home by ordering all kinds of mail-order gyoza.
Last year, in 2021, "How Well Do Athletes and Gyoza Go Together?" was about gyoza's power as a communication food — beloved even by athletes who normally shy away from fat — and about the people who gather around it. Around this point, it started to feel less like "COVID" and more like the start of a new way of living.
The Year 2022
So, 2022 — what kind of year was it for all of you?
For us, a new addition showed up at the office.
A freezer dedicated to gyoza at the office
Every month the Grilled Gyoza Association sends us carefully selected gyoza, and it was actually after COVID that we started storing them in a gyoza-only freezer at the office and regularly holding gyoza parties.
As I wrote in my 2021 entry, our office gyoza parties really do draw all sorts of people, and every time it turns into a wonderfully fun gathering.
Getting to know people through gyoza,
chatting together over gyoza,
being remembered for gyoza.
I feel 2022 was the year this style settled in.
Beyond Corporate Branding Through Gyoza
Lately I've come to think this style has gone beyond the 2019 framing of "Corporate Branding Through Gyoza" and might be better put as "A Life Walked Together With Gyoza."
Looking forward to another good year ahead!
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