All Over

After three years, I have now returned to the UK and so will not be adding any more posts here. Thank you all for reading

これからもよろしくお願いします!

Until the day I return to Japan-land...

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Christmas at Nami's




Christmas is Christmas but slightly different.


This is to be expected because the traditional design of Japanese houses doesn't make things easy. There's no chimney for Santa to come down, no beds to hang a stocking on, let alone mince pies and sherry to snack on.

Everything has been slightly re-arranged. So Christmas Day is actually Christmas Eve, and the 25th a normal working day. In fact Christmas Eve is more famous, but then as a kind of early Valentine's Day. Forget being at home with the family, or enjoying a pint in the pub with friends, this is worse than being without a date to the prom. (That is, as I understand proms from watching Hollywood - I went to an all-boys high-school.)

Westerners haven't always helped in correcting mistaken impressions. Thanks to a fantastically audacious 1980s advertising campaign by KFC, "Christmas Chicken", rather than turkey, is the dish of choice through-out the land.

Strawberries are a choice delicacy at Christmas. So at Nami's we all ate a lovely Strawberry Christmas cake, preceded by a sashimi (raw fish) starter, and steak main-course.

...

Beautiful Wakamatsu. Nami and family showed me around...





That's the bridge. It's significant. It crosses one bank of factories and smog-machines with another. Its red. Nami and family did their best to "show me the sights", but like actors with a bad script the material was just lacking.

Cultural exchange: I struggle to eat squid, while Sami struggles to eat Santa.






















Scary Dad... and not so scary dog.



Perhaps the most unnerving moment was when Dad asked:
"My daughters are beautiful aren't they?"

er... yes?? I mean, no not that I have any such intentions, er... but yes they are beautiful...















I also had some interesting conversations with the granny. She explained the significance behind all her belongings. Did I understand? No. Did she mind? No.

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