'Tis the Season

For me, the 27th of December was more of a Christmas than any Christmas day could have been.

After work we celebrated a bit of a Bonenkai(end of year)-like party with work. We had drinks and food and gift exchange (and tears, as some of the girls are getting transferred) and good vibes. The food was delicious, the drinks were alocholic and the company was fabulous; it couldn't have been better.

We all caught our last trains home but my night was not yet through. When I got home, I celebrated a proper Christmas with some roommates and friends. And did we EVER celebrate! My French roommate cooked an AMAZING 4 course dinner, including bacon-wrapped scallops, mushroom chicken with potatoes, yams, and carrots, plus of course baguette, cheese, and fabulous wine. Dinner started at midnight and we ate, drank, and talked until first train at about 5 am.

Only the first course

An American and a Japanese washing dishes
Sam in heaven with his wine and cheese

With a group of people I barely knew I had one of the most memorable Christmases - how lucky am I

Me-ri Ku-ri-su-ma-su!

Even the Christmas trees are smaller in Japan

The Festivities for this year's Christmas are over. I had yesterday (Christmas eve) off and I spent the day skype-ing with family then cooking and watching Christmas movies all day.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL yesterday but it was bizarre trying to get into the Christmas mood when I was cooking with the windows open, and running to the corner store without so much as a sweater on. I never thought I would say this, but I really miss the snow and the cold! My good spirits were bolstered when I checked the mail in the afternoon and received a package from home (what perfect timing Ms. Rugg, thank you!!!) After eating quite a bit for supper I went out to Roppongi to a Catholic mass - so I could at least do a little caroling. After I got home, I watched Home Alone 2 with my roommate and ate and drank a little more.

This morning I have to admit I was a bit bitter and depressed - not only a Christmas alone but having to work on Christmas, what was I thinking when agreeing to this schedule?! On the train this morning I got my first creeper too. Some dude totally creeped and sat down RIGHT next to me and stared directly at me; I cranked my ipod and took no (visible) notice and, lucky me, he left in about one station. The day was off to a rocky start.

I've been feeling like this city is a bit soul-less lately and the lack of reverence of Christmas (even though there sure is a commercial presence of the holiday) started to irritate me this morning. Somehow though, my sky is never cloudy for long lately. As soon as I got to work I was laughing and relaxing with students and coworkers alike. It probably helped that it was payday today (Merry Christmas indeed!) but by the end of the day, after we had an international potluck, my mood had changed. Even the students I was not really looking forward to today were incredibly pleasant and the work today flew by.

All in all, I can't possibly be more thankful and sincerely grateful for the people I have. How lucky am I?! I live in this fabulous city, with absolutely no one obliged to support me, but somehow, someway or another, someone always cares.

A few more photos for all you worry-warts *cough*mom*cough* to prove I'm doing ok:

One course of my delicious Christmas Eve dinner, the other two courses being perogies and wild-mushroom soup - all from scratch!


My Christmas gift to myself - REAL COFFEE!!

Christmas dinner - Oishii!

Celebrating Christmas with one of my favourite students

It's That Time of Year

These are some images of Harajuku all lit up with Christmas cheer. I went shopping today in the area it was the first time I felt all warm and cozy and Christmasy. I can't wait for Christmas eve I plan on making a traditional Polish Christmas eve dinner while listening to some cheesy Christmas music, splurging on good food, and watching the must-see Christmas classics: Home Alone and A Christmas Story. I'll post more about that after the fact.

For now, I hope you all are feeling as warm and cozy as I am :)

Your Japan Survival Kit

For anyone wanting to visit/stay in Japan for any period of time I suggest the following:

1) a phrasebook - ughhhhh the language barrier is the worst

2) AN IPOD! - the other day I was riding the train home from work and this old crazy dude got on and he looked a little spazzy but, whatever, it's Tokyo right? His full crazy would only come out the second the doors would close between each stop. As soon as the warning tune ended and the doors shut he would procede to go into his own little freak-out world and grind his teeth like teeth have never been ground before. I'm not just talking you-can-see-the-jaw-tighten type of grinding, this was FULL ON screeching with sound effects to the max. Needless to say this sent me into my own spazzy world (wouldn't it you?) and the only thing to block out the noise was to play some Yeah Yeah Yeahs; Fleet Foxes was not going to cut it with this guy - too many quiet bits.

Earthquake!

I was woken up this morning by an earthquake!

It was probably a good 15 seconds at 5:40 in the morning and after google-ing it I found out it was a magnitude 5.3

I remember once being in an earthquake before this, when I still lived in BC. I remember all of a sudden just feeling a little dizzy or disoriented. Today's earthquake was MUCH stronger. I woke up as if someone had literally been shaking my bed with the force of their whole body. I happened to be incredibly disoriented due to some unfortunate fever dreams and aspirin the night before but even through that I had already hopped out of bed and was heading for my door-frame. After it stopped there were a few tiny aftershocks but those just felt like someone rocking me to sleep in a cradle.

weird

Birthday

Hello all!

I thought my birthday without my regular friends and my family would be somehow, incomplete. I just returned home from celebrating with new friends and it's amazing how inexpressibly grateful I am. I am speechless at the love that exists in this world.

I maybe thought someone might buy me a drink today, but I did not expect this much. Yesterday I was not only cooked a fabulous dinner by some fabulous Canadian friends but I was also treated to some cake (with singing and everything) and Canadian-style gifts (cozy clothing and beer - how perfect with few places having central heating here). Then today, after having a nice sleep in I did a little non-window shopping (finally!) and bought myself a few articles of clothing that I've been dying for. Afterward, I met up with some Japanese girlfriends from work to spend the day in a novelty-theme-park kind of shopping mall (with house-of-horror and all). After much food and treats and birthday surprises, we headed to my area for an AMAZING meal of real korean barbeque. I was treated to dinner and on top of that friends of friends brought not only gifts buy cake as well!

How amazing the human spirit is - we are all the same, we all want to be happy and the joy of others just magnifies our own. It's amazing how lucky I am to not only be here, but to secondly to have so many people show they care about me so much!

Life is beautiful.

Days off

I find myself often just wandering around town when I have days off and the weather is nice. Yesterday I discovered an area quite close to my house that had some of the coolest little shops and cafes. One shop had amazingly beautiful shoes that were handmade (unfortunately all for the low low price of just $500).

And then sometimes I find myself just wandering through cemeteries. They're a great place to get away from the crazy neon signs of Tokyo. It's always incredibly peaceful there.

Autumn Foliage

Hello all,

The reason I haven't been blogging lately is 'cause really, even though this may seem like a cool thing to do in premise (move to Japan), I'm just living my normal life (plus a couple more challenges) but half-way across the world from home. Lately, I've just been going to work, coming home, cooking dinner, doing my laundry, running errands, etc, etc.

But today I had a day off and it was BEAUTIFUL outside and I met up with a new friend to go check out Mount Takao. Mount Takao is only about an hour away (which is nothing here, that's like driving across the city - in fact it IS driving across the city, the city never ends). So we headed out and took a chair-lift like thing up the mountain and got an amazing view of the city. At the top there was a really cool temple which we checked out and then we got some lunch - soba (buckwheat noodles) and tempura veggies and shrimp. After a while we hiked back down the mountain and took in some more amazing colors in the autumn light (yes, I know it's December 7th and I said autumn).

Anyway, thought I should post some pics. Check them out!

As usual, the pictures DO NOT do it justice