christmas is for lovers

gaudiness and consumerism have both been imported to japan as necessary parts of christmas. what we didn't expect was that the holiday is a sort of valentine's day that hallmark could only dream of instilling in the american consumer. couples buy eachother expensive gifts, flowers and cards and usually dine out at fancy restaurants. the entire country is draped in 'kurisumasu illlumination" depicting western images of trees, fireplaces, angels, trains, sleighs, reindeer, toys, snowmen and stars. the stores are packed (although that does seem to be a year round occurance) and butchered carols are played in every public space. george michael's 'last christmas' seems to be the anthem and can even be heard on the subway platforms.

christmas 'cakey' is an important part of the holiday too. the bakeries turn out elaborate cakes that look like they came from a science fair/betty crocker cook off hybrid event. miniature scenes of sugar sculptures depicting iceskaters or fireplaces with stockings and loot adorn each cakey. they are colored in dyes that certainly don't look edible. the family choice for cristmas dinner appeared to be fried chicken which was sold in copius amounts at every deli and fast food resutaurant. tv commercials depicted women dressed like elves happily buying their own weight in fried chicken (which actually isn't that much, i guess, compared to a single serving at kfc back home).

we both had to work on christmas eve, christmas day and boxing day. with the lack of halloween, thanksgiving and snow, it really feels like october something - a bit of a time trap, i suppose. anyway, mom sent us a little tree and miniature ornaments to decorate it. we did that on christmas eve and opened gifts from her and the rest of the family on christmas night. john joined the natives and took me out for dinner to a very nice restaurant as part of my christmas gift. instead of fried chicken we ate hokkaido lobster, salmon, salmon roe, cavier, abalone, avocado, pork, proscuittto, asparagus, and soup. our meal was served with a desert plate that included a sugar santa. i took one bite of his backside and all my teeth went numb from the shock. the chocolate cakey was delicious though.

so we are now finished with work for two weeks! amanda and marshall are in the air now, somewhere over russia i think. they will be here for 13 days. we'll be travelling to hiroshima, kyoto, tokyo and a small onsen town south of fukuoka. we're looking forward to skiing/snowboarding in hiroshima and travelling by the famous shinkansen - the bullet train. we are also anticipating hours of euchre, as no one in japan or england knows what the hell it is.

in the near future i will have lots of pictures to post and stories to tell. whether or not i actually do it is another matter altogether. hope you all had a wonderful christmas and happy new year! good luck with those resolutions and hangovers. lots of love, -natalie

dreaming of a whitish christmas

the weather has finally decided to match the season. kind of. the temperature dropped quite suddenly last week and we are now donning winter coats and scarves, gloves and hats. it's so nice. it feels much colder than i imagined because of the ocean and all the moisture in the air. it's the kind of cold humidity that creeps down your neck and up the small of your back.

it turns out that living on the 7th floor next to the harbor, although pleasantly breezy in summer, is not ideal in winter. for some reason japan, one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, doesn't use insulation. one side of our appartment consists of two huge glass doorwalls which lead to our balcony. the other side has a hollow metal door (with no rubber stripping) that leads to the stairwell. when the wind blows, you can feel the cold air blow though the appartment. you can hear the doors rattle. you can see the blinds move in the wind.

but - i'm not complaining. it's much nicer than the oppressive summer heat and i love wool socks, hot tea, flannel pajamas and sweaters. it's definitely warmer than last year in ohio when we suffered the icestorm over christmas and had no heat for five days. i am thinking though there's a pretty good business opportunity here for all my friends in the carpentry business.

last sunday night i was bringing in laundry and saw what i thought was a little gift from the pigeons on my laundry. just as i was ready to curse, i noticed some more and then thought, "could it be?" i looked over the edge and could see snow swirling in the street lights below! i was so happy. i screamed and made poor johnny come out on the balcony in his pajamas to watch the snow with me. of course nothing stayed, but i'm hoping that we've brought the snow with us and we will get some accumulation this winter. all the locals say that it's unlikely, but we managed to bring snow to georgia six years ago on a spring camping trip, so maybe . . .

shuji

well, it's been two months now that i've been studying shuji in addition to my regular language classes. shuji is japanese calligriphy. because it's so cool and i imagined it would be excellent language exposure, i've been interested in taking a class since i got here. i just wasn't sure where to start. i figured that it would be quite difficult to convince an instructor to take on a 98% illiterate foreigner in a writing class. it wasn't possible for me to actually call a studio and ask about class times, locations, and prices either.

we were having dinner at tomohara-san's and i was lamenting to him in broken japanese about this wish and dilema and he told us that his son studies shuji. his son is 8 years old. "oh, that's so nice. what a talented boy," etc. i wasn't really sure how to respond. what i didn't understand was that he was thinking i should join the class. before i knew it, he was on the phone with the teacher and asking me about my schedule. turns out she was willing to let me join on a trial basis. i was so excited.

i had to wait two weeks before my first trial lesson. i was so nervous it reminded of catching the bus the first time without amanda to hold my hand and sit next to me. i rode my bike to class and tomohara-san and his son, kenta, met me in front of the building. they escorted me inside and introduced me to the teacher. there were about 15 other students. apparently i passed the trial lessons and am now a regular.

my classmates are all between the ages of 7 and 10 years. hah. can you imagine how intimidating a class full of foreign children are? they have the ability to be as mean to me as children can and i have no idea. i can't understand most of what they say because they speak so quickly. japanese is also a language built with a structure of conjugation based on politeness. the language that i am learning is standard polite/stranger speech. the language that children first learn is completely different and slighty regional.

the first day, kenta sat next to me and helped me with the routine, but after that i was on my own. he sits on the boy's side and i sit on the girl's side. i've made a few friends although we don't say much to eachother. they know i have three sisters and two cats and that i'm from america and teach english. i know roughly the same about them. it's nice.