Meri Kurisumasu

Well, it’s nearing Christmastime for everyone around the globe, and Japan’s no different! While they still put up the lights and give gifts and think about Santa, there are a few differences at least. Christmas is all in all a completely commercial holiday – less than 1% of the population is Christian, so that ‘birth of Jesus’ thing isn’t mentioned at all. It’s just a consumer-led holiday over here.

One thing that completely didn’t make any sense to anyone over here is: Americans don’t eat Christmas cakes! At all! What the heck!?!? Yes, here in Japan they sell Christmas cakes, which are basically cakes with white icing and strawberries on top. There’s a rush to buy them before Christmas, and after Christmas the unsold ones get tossed. Weird. Also, KFC (a pretty big chain over here) has convinced Japan that fried chicken dinners are the way to go on Christmas Eve. So, it’s also super-surprising that Americans don’t have fried chicken on Christmas Eve.

While most of us back home tend to see Christmas as a time to spend with family and friends, here it’s more of a romantic holiday, kind of like Valentine’s Day in the states. In a weird tie-in to the Christmas cakes, once a woman is past 25 and doesn’t have a boyfriend/husband, she’s considered an ‘old cake.’ (Just like if a cake’s around past December 25^th…)

I myself am not doing much on Christmas. (Well, besides feeling really homesick. I would have gone home but, honestly, a one-way ticket bought even a month in advance would have been about the cost of one month’s salary.) I have taught a few Christmas lessons and made my classes sing a few Christmas carols, and today I went to the kindergarten and dressed up as Santa. The costume was hilariously small on me and I wore the flimsiest beard ever but the kids loved it. They get cuter the tinier they get, I swear.

But in any case, the real reason for celebration around this time of year for me is two weeks off from work – the last week of December and the first week of January. Those are going to be quite welcome. I plan to relax and maybe travel around a bit in Kyoto, Tokyo and Omiya. Perhaps then I will have more stories to tell? The only entertainment I’ve been up to is last weekend, going to Kumagaya where my friends Erinn and Rebecca teach, and hitting the town. And by that I mean we did karaoke for hours and I sang Toto and David Bowie and Metallica and gosh it was fun.

Well, Merry Christmas to everyone out there! Hope your holidays are eventful and fun and safe. Sayonara!

(sidenote: my Japanese has not become any better. I’m terrible at this immersion thing.)

And We Saw Parade of Falling Stars

Hey everyone! I know I haven’t blogged in a while, but I’ve been busy with one thing or another. I took part in Nanowrimo this year, resulting in the worst 50,000 words known to man. I also started catching up on House and played EarthBound on an emulator. Life is exciting!

Actually, it truly isn’t. I have settled into a pretty regular routine of things. Work during the week, go to Tokyo on the weekend. Repeat. It’s just settling in on me that my time here is half-over – don’t know how to feel about that!

My camera is still being wonky, so no pictures for anyone. Sorry. But there will be a few stories here and there, mostly from school.

-I have one class on Mondays where one of the English teachers plays guitar and we all sing songs in English. These songs include a few Beatles classics (“Yesterday,” “Let it Be”), “Honesty” by Billy Joel, and… er… um… “My Heart Will Go On” and “Dancing Queen.” (Whatever, I like ABBA. Can’t say the same for Celine Dion.) So this past week we had a singing test, where students would come in groups of two or three and sing the song. I would judge them on their pronunciation of the lyrics – if they sounded like correct English. A lot of the girls did “My Heart Will Go On,” while pretty much all of the boys did “Honesty.” There were a couple of “Yesterday” fans, too. However, the highlight was clearly the last student, a boy who came in by himself and sang “My Heart Will Go On” with amazing gusto. His pronunciation was a little off and he was sort of tone-deaf, but I couldn’t NOT give him an A after that performance.

-One of my students asked me, “why are you gross?” :(

-One day a week I help out with the special education classes. (Actually it might be twice a week, one day last week I played badminton with some teachers and the special education students.) On Fridays I sit around and watch one of the students draw and maybe sometimes translate for him. This kid likes to come into the teachers’ room, speak Japanese really fast at me, and then get frustrated when I can’t answer in Japanese. So during class I get to watch him draw Mario getting in fights with this kid’s noisy neighbor or whoever he wants Mario to fight. Because this kid knows that Mario is awesome, and can do anything.

-I had dinner with a Japanese family a few weeks ago. It was pretty fun! The mother helps me out at one of the elementary schools, translating for me during lessons. The father was trying to learn English, as his company has a few American branches. He’s been to Kentucky and Tennessee. (Nashville, in fact.) He tried to out-drink me that night. I had to bike home, so he ended up winning. :(

-Some of my coworkers just gave me coffee-flavored Jell-O. I ate it to be polite. Yechh.

-What have I been doing in Tokyo? Well, not much; I visit Akihabara a lot (not an otaku, I promise!) and eating at this curry place that is out-of-this-world good. It’s seriously worth visiting Akihabara just for that. One time we visited a maid café in Akihabara (basically, a place where girls dress up in maid outfits and serve you food… my friend Tom was hilariously uncomfortable) and that was pretty interesting. The music was pretty generic Japanese pop except for one point when they started playing death metal. Huh?

-I’ve also been spending some time at Shinjuku and Shibuya, and sometimes Roppongi. Funny story: we went to Roppongi and found a restaurant where they’d prepare your food in front of you, and good food it was. Turns out that this is a pretty famous restaurant – they passed around a book of photos with celebrities like Stephen Spielberg, Tom Cruise, the cast of Lord of the Rings… yeah, after that we knew it was going to be expensive. About 70-80 dollars a head, altogether. We saved afterwards by not finding a place to stay for the night and huddling in Starbucks and McDonalds for warmth until the trains started up again. (Huddling in a McDonalds to hide from the cold in a foreign city? Flashbacks to Amsterdam…)

So yeah, sorry my life hasn’t been more exciting for those of you who choose to live vicariously through reading these things. I think over the Christmas – er, winter break – I’ll try and visit some places like Kyoto, Osaka, or Hokkaido. (It’s interesting how they treat Christmas here – pretty much totally commercial, since Christianity isn’t that big over here. Lots of lights and decorations anyway, though.) Maybe I’ll come back with crazy stories from there! Who knows? Later, y’all.