About Christmas

So, as you may or may not know, Christmas is not such an important holiday here in Japan. Its more of a commercial thing, like Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick's Day in the US. People put up lights and the shopping malls play carols from the start of November, but come the 25th, the big hooha consists of eating strawberry Christmas cake and taking English lessons at NOVA. Fortunately, my Christmas was not as bland as Japanese strawberry cake.

James arrived in Tokyo on the 21st and, as soon as we got on the train, he promptly fell asleep. No worries though, we were very busy in the following two weeks, he would need the rest. We toured Fukushima a bit over the next few days and James even got to see a high school music group play carols with bells. On Christmas Eve we went to Matsushima where we took a ferry on a tour of the "islands" (or rocks) scattered around the city. It was very beautiful. Matsushima has been ranked the 3rd most scenic place to visit in Japan. These pictures may not do it justice but I tried.

Christmas day was the best ever. I got to set up my web cam and open all my presents with my family right there with me. I think I got about 40 pairs of socks, thanks everyone, my toes are very warm. I actually had to buy an extra box to keep them all in. We spent the rest of the day recuperating from James' early birthday bash the night before.

We took the recuperating a step further the next day when we caught a train to Izaka to bathe in an Onsen (or hot spring). It was one of the coldest days and raining on top of that so the hot bath was just what we needed. Fortunately, we received some advise on Onsen manners before we went so we knew what to expect. Leaving the Onsen was one to the nicest experiences ever. I felt warm and relaxed even despite the nasty weather.

That night, all the NOVA teachers and staff got together at a local restaurant for a Christmas party. Nomihodai and tabehodai are the best invention ever. After two hours of all you can drink and eat and a very traditional secret Santa exchange, a group of us continued the festivities at a local karaoke. That's really all I have to say about that.

The next day, the 27th, was spent climbing Mount Shinobu and searching for food. I'm not sure how many of you know how it feels to be illiterate but it sucks. Its hard enough trying to read another language but staring at a book full of strange symbols rather than letters is beyond frustrating. In order to survive, I have honed in on my skill of deciphering pictures. I can even tell apart some of the different fried foods, which is the hardest to tell apart as you can imagine. This was especially frustrating to James who was not only trying to adjust to the new food but who often (inadvertently) ordered some of the strangest items on the menu.

On the 28th, I took my little Miami native to Minowa, a ski resort in Inawashiro, to see his first snow flakes! He was like a kid with a candy cane. We threw snowballs, made snow angels, and attempted to make a snow man. However, with both of us being Floridians, neither one of us had a clue. We sort of figured it was like building a sand castle, at first. We shoved together a big pile of snow and tried making it look like a snowman. Wasn't really going so well so I started watching these two kids who were making one and we were clearly doing it all wrong. How embarrassing. Apparently you have to start with a little snowball and keep adding and adding until it gets big enough. We started but it was taking way too long so we threw them at each other instead.

That night we packed up our bags and prepared for our adventures in Kyoto and Tokyo.

TO BE CONTINUED...

*please note that the links to my pictures only contain one or two photos. I will be adding to these groups over the next few days. I will post an update when all the pics are up, for now just enjoy whats there.