Christmas in Sanda

Sorry for not posting on this earlier, but our keyboard did not work back then....
Christmas was an interesting and sad time here in Japan as being away from family, friends and snow was hard, it seems I am never around for Christmas anymore. However, we made the best of it had a school Christmas party at the community centre and organized a few happenings of our own.

Firstly let me note that Japan is a very strange place in that they are not Christian but do celebrate the festivities, but there is a twist! Christmas is considered a "couples day" here in Japan and most people want to be out on dates or paired off in their respective couples. What really gets me though is the odd food choices. Most Japanese feel they must eat KFC buckets and "Christmas strawberry cake" as though these were two essential ingredients to Christmas time. I have Jewish friends that make sushi their family Christmas dinner as the Japanese are often the only ones in Toronto still open (now I know what the sushi chef is eating behind the counter!!).

We were invited over to our friend's Seiji and Yayoi's house for dinner (and strawberry cake) although they break tradition and have a family night with snow crab shabu shabu! This was comparable to Turkey's deliciousness indeed. They were excellent hosts and we spent the evening talking and playing with their children Cou and Nana. As Cou is only five he confuses Christmas with his birthday in that he gets gifts and cake so we had candles for him to blow out on our "Christmas cake". All around Seiji and Yayoi are great people and we hope to do many more interesting things together.











We then held a fireside boxing day party with our farm volunteer friends from Sasayama at our house. This was really melancholy as we know it would be a long time or maybe the last to see many of these people. They introduced us to Japan, showed us the ropes and key phrases and for that we are eternally grateful, thank you Yoshimi, Lawson, Nick, and Louie it was nice knowing all of you. Well all you back home, take care of yours and enjoy the New Year, more on what we did for that occassion tomorrow!