It is rather strange being in Japan on the holidays and not taking a holiday. Last year I used some of my ''holiday days'' to take off the week of Christmas....b/c well it's Christmas and the students aren't 'in school' so there wasn't a need for me to go to work. Well, due to a shortage of holiday days I am at work....on Christmas. I figured the students had this week off too but I was wrong. Monday was a holiday (the emperor's birthday) so there was no school and yesterday, Christmas Eve, was a half day. Today it is a half day but only for those in clubs.
Now, in Japan they know about Christmas, some celebrate Christmas.....though most don't celebrate it the same way due to the majority of them being Buddhist. But they'll buy gifts and the stores are filled with Christmas music and supplies---though wrapping paper comes in very very very small amounts and is rather expensive---and trees and lights. Houses...well very few of them have lights where I am, I've only seen one, and they only have lights on their one small tree in front of their house. Though in that department outdoor Christmas decorations are hard to find and expensive when you do find them. So, Christmas is definitely here, but it's more like Valentine's day in feel, a lot of commercial and little spirit. They do have Christmas Cakes to celebrate the occasion, and most people order KFC---though they have to place their order months and months in advance if they want to make sure they get some chicken. Yup, you read right. KFC. Kentucky Fried Chicken is the go to, wait in long lines and fight crazy people, holiday meal in Japan. From what I can tell Xmas morning people might exchange gifts with family, then go to work, then more of a date night at night....or family dinner of KFC....but it really is treated more as a dating scene Xmas night.
One of my coworkers was recently married and she was telling me how she bought her husband a Christmas gift, but doesn't think he bought her one. So, her hope was that by being 'Santa' this year her husband will be 'Santa' next year and get her something nice. I don't know about you guys, but this wouldn't go over well at my house hahaha. Mom having to go give a gift to dad just so that she has a better chance of getting something next year......yeah, not something that would go over well.
I had a Xmas/birthday party around the 20th with some of my co-workers. We went to a karaoke place. Karaoke in Japan is a big area with a lot of smaller rooms for groups to do karaoke in private with just their friends, and you can order 'all you can drink' and drink the drinks available.....mostly nonalcoholic at the place we went, they had pops and juices and coffees and teas. You can also order food, appetizer or larger....probably an 'all you can eat' option too, but we stuck with just drinks. That was a lot of fun....I am hopelessly horrible at karaoke. I need either a wingman that I can back up, or my ipod so I can listen to the song and sing with it. If it's just instrumental and the words on the screen it doesn't matter how well I know the song, I bomb it.....granted certain songs, mostly Disney, I do better than others, but overall no ipod or lead to backup no way you're gonna get a decent song out of me. But I luckily had my ipod and even managed to do a song in Japanese (thank you ipod :D!!), and the teachers tried to sing with me on some English songs and we all sang 'A Whole New World' hahaha. After karaoke, we went to the same house I had my Christmas party at last year....let's just call him K, he's married to M now (last time they were just engaged). It was A's birthday the day before our party so that's why it was an Xmas/birthday thing. We had some great miso soup and little mixed rice and veggie rolled up things, dried fish, pickled radishes and such. And of course Xmas cake!! Xmas cake is delicious, it's a shortcake with really nice whipped cream and strawberries in the middle layers of cream and different fruits (blueberries, kiwi, strawberries to name a few). But it is soo good, way better than fruit cake XP. Just google images ''japanese christmas cake'' and you'll come across a lot of amazing pictures of Christmas cakes :D. ( https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=japanese+christmas+cake&safe=active&rlz=1C1CHVN_jaJP525JP525&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_Sq6Uo6rNImnkQW9r4HoCQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=891&bih=450 a link if you'd rather just click it :) ).
So that was a lot of fun....a little scary driving there and back....well I was in the passenger seat of A's car.....but K lives on a small mountain in the middle of the mountain, so winding small mountain road along the cliff and covered in snow....definitely a bit of a nervous ride. I can't imagine living there and having to drive along those snow covered, cliff-side roads day in and day out 0_o, I think I'd be a hermit or park my car at the bottom and hike it.....get a reindeer to carry me up or something.
That aside, that's it for this post, but more stories to come. :)
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