So now that thanksgiving has officially passed (without any celebration over on my side of the world- I actually had leftovers Thanksgiving night because Motoaki refused to eat his half of the pineapple/bell pepper/soy/lemon/chicken I made the night before- he took one look at pineapple in the crock pot and promptly started cooking his own dinner- silly Japanese...) we can now officially kick off the Christmas season, and I couldn't be happier. Though we don't have snow and you don't really see too many lights up, there are decorations in the stores and Christmas music on some of the commercials. I know a lot of people think that Christmas these days is over commercialized but I sure miss it being here in Japan. I miss having the long Thanksgiving weekend to start shopping and to pick out a tree. I miss having Christmas concerts to look forward and TBS playing holiday movie after holiday movie.
Luckily for me, my December calender is already booked right up to the point I fly home. This first weekend we have a young teachers party where we will be cooking traditional Christmas dishes like fondue and apple pie (at least its not fish...) and then playing volleyball. After that we have our monthly BBQ with all of the foreigners in the area.
Then the next weekend I have a birthday party for a friend on Friday and then a weekend of shopping with Motoaki. The nearby mall (Kurashiki) recently underwent a huge makeover as well as opened a nearby outlet mall. Yes, yes Christmas is about Jesus but it is also about seeing an over the top glitzy Christmas tree, a Japanese man dressed as Santa (or if we are lucky, some English teacher dressed as Santa), Starbucks Christmas drinks, and fighting crowds to find the best gift for people back at home.
The following weekend I will be in Osaka for yet another birthday and more shopping, and then I have a choir concert on my last weekend before going home. We are singing Beethoven's 9th which isn't very Christmasy but we will encore with some Italian song and Silent Night- in Japanese! I'll take it. And it will be fun to sing with a big group, not to mention a group with some amazing talent. It's a community choir that anyone can join but last week when they announced who would do the solos (I have been too busy with guests to have even been around for tryouts), I found out that one of my favorite oji-chans (little old Japanese man) has some serious power. Seriously was straining my neck to see who was singing so beautifully and was shocked to see it was him.
Of course there is a lot of work involved in all of this play. I still have lessons and since they are Christmas lessons I have more prep than usual (cutting out ornament shapes for the little kids to color, making a tree out of paper, etc). I also need to write my Christmas cards as well as help Motoaki design a New Year's card. Even so, it never feels like real work.
Anyway, let the season begin and good luck to you in your own countdown to Christmas.
My husband won't eat anything "savoury" with pineapple either! He's seemingly repulsed by the idea of it in sweet and sour dishes and once when we were visiting the UK I explained the dish gammon and pineapple to him and I thought his head was going to explode... Weird!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to be going home early for Christmas - I always hated the build up to it when I was there but have come to infinitely prefer it to here! Hope you have a great December :)