Christmas in Japan
Well, as I post this, I know most of you are probably still enjoying holiday dinners and the slow winding-down of family gatherings/parties/etc. Here, it's the morning after Christmas, and I'm feeling that usual, "What? It's already over?" feeling. But I'll have the tree up for another two weeks or so, until Christmas officially ends according to the church year. Then I get to figure out if I want to send it back home for future use or if I want to "bequeath" it to the Ichimiya interns of the future. XD (Although, apparently because of the recession, the program is going to be suspended for a while, and I might be the last intern they have for at least a year, if not several. I'm just glad they're not telling me to leave early.)
So, once again, Happy Holidays to all of you.
As for me, I had the day off on the 23rd for the Emperor's birthday, where Fujita-san and her husband took me to a "Christmas dinner" at a restaurant owned by a fellow Ichimiya person. His wife runs the place as a sort of hobby, and the husband and daughter help out. The place was small and cozy, and the dinner was a very nice set course meal. The tiny, nicely presented portions struck me as something somewhere between Japanese and European-style food... I don't know if it was really stereotypical Christmas food or not, because my family does something a little different each year. We just make whatever sounds good, usually involving some splurging on a bit of crab or lobster to go with the rest of the usual side dishes. Sometimes we do ham, but turkey is reserved pretty much just for Thanksgiving. We certainly don't have fried chicken, as many Japanese have asked me. ^^;;; Anyway, whatever, it was very good, and it was nice to have a break from Japanese food for a while. Then we went to some light shows in Saijou. Pictures of one of the places are up on Facebook.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were regular days of work, like usual. And I had very, very little to do besides homework and last-minute revisions of my December report. I get really annoyed with Fujita-san because she has to print out my report--all 10-15 pages of it--to check it, and she has a bunch of niggling things for me to fix, re-send to her, and then she prints another full copy, and finds more niggling things to fix, and I'm like, "Could you please, please, please just thoroughly check the first time and get all the problems highlighted in one go instead of putting me--and the printer--through all this?" Argh. It's not like little things, either. This is about what sections are called, where to have titles, etc, nothing that could easily escape notice the first time around, and this happens *every month.* My vocabulary is getting better, but I still have a hard time figuring out how to format this stuff, they're so fussy about things. I like the Japanese attention to detail, and hate it at the same time.
So for the rest of the time I chatted on Facebook and revised my NaNo. Yay!
I went to Mass at my church for Christmas Eve. There were some lights up at the front, and a few more decorations inside, and the church was comfortably full for Mass. We had a foreigner priest for Mass, and his Japanese was good enough that he could say the regular Mass parts without too much trouble, but his vocabulary was limited enough that for Homily he had to speak slowly and simply. I'm not complaining here--it was the first Homily I've ever understood ever since coming here. The message was nothing I haven't heard before, Jesus is love, let's all love each other, etc, but hearing it in Japanese, and understanding it, made it feel new in some wonderful way.
Music was a little better and a little worse at the same time with the choir. Some of the harmonies were quite nice and added some depth to the music we don't normally have, but others were dreadfully off. We had special Christmas booklets with all the songs we would sing, including Japanese versions of some Christmas songs. I was fine with this, except the choir director lady was a real control freak about it, basically treating the entire congregation as her choir. She had even highlighted the parts of the songs we were allowed to sing! I mean, at my churches in America there are parts where it's understood it's the choir's/cantor's "turn" to sing, but no one actually *says* "Please sing only this part" before singing the song. If you know the song and you want to sing too, that's completely acceptable. This lady's directions throughout the Mass really broke the flow and the atmosphere for me, so that was a disappointment. I miss my choir back home.
I don't know if anyone's ever done something like this, but just before the end of Mass, we all lit candles and went out into the churchyard. While we sang carols--choir lady would call out the next line to sing as we went along, which was even more grating than before--the priest and the servers walked around the yard with bigger candles. Then we went back inside for the final blessing. I've never done this at any church for Christmas before... I wonder if it's a Japan thing, or a more traditional thing?? It was interesting, in any case.
I bought some Christmas cake and youtubed Christmas movies before going to bed. I did the same thing for Christmas day, only I finally opened my presents. I was hoping to Skype with my parents while I did it, but their Internet doesn't seem to be cooperating. I still haven't been able to get a hold of them. :(
I got several small gifts from people here, too, mostly sweets. One of the sisters from church also gave me a book written by a guy I had just read about for Japanese lessons, so that was an interesting coincidence. His name was Takashi Nagai, a Christian doctor living in Nagasaki at the time of the A-bomb attack... the book is in English, and I think it'll either be very depressing, or very uplifting, depending on my mood when I read it.
I told my parents to keep things to a minimum, since I've already asked them to send me so much stuff since getting here, and I would like a PS3 for FFXIII when I get back, and a new laptop, since this one is a piece of shit. So I got some bath bombs (bath salts molded into balls, you can get them at Macy's. The appeal for me is that everything's all natural, so even with sensitive skin I can enjoy them without worry of irritation... yay for tmi...), a book called Ice Land (set in Iceland, with the Norse Gods, I'm very excited to read it!), Godiva chocolate, and some jewelry.
Here's where I'm going to be an immature bitch. The jewelry, a necklace and some small hoop earrings, are pretty, but they're awfully... mature in style. I guess they figured they'd get me something I could wear at work without getting in trouble, but I've been wearing my normal stuff there just fine, and besides.... I know this isn't what they were trying to tell me, or at least I hope not, but it felt like a not-so-subtle hint that I have to wear more subdued pieces now that I'm getting older. This still isn't me! I don't mind just getting costume jewelry, as long as it's interesting. So it's not so much just this present, but I'm worried if I don't say anything, that not only will I not wear these much, but every present from here on is going to be this gray procession of old-lady jewelry. And since I can't get a hold of them on Skype still, I just keep thinking about how I will tell them when I finally catch them. I can't just write it in an E-mail, I'm grateful they sent me the presents and the tree and everything, and it's not like the jewelry is ugly, it's just... I want to know what they were thinking when they bought it for me.
So, shortly after that I went to bed, and here I am, the day after. Tonight I'm going to another end-of-year party, this time with Kyoko from Ichimiya. It's at her place, and apparently there are going to be bands, some of whom will be playing anime songs! So I'm looking forward to that. Then I have my last day of work for the year on Monday, and six days of vacation. On the 29th, I'm planning a day trip to Uwajima, about 4-5 hours away, to see two shrines and a castle, if time allows. (I have to catch buses and stuff, so the schedule might be tight if I get there late.) One shrine has a three-floor sex museum next to it, and that's the main reason I'm going. ^^;; Pictures aren't allowed inside, of course, but no one said anything about sketchbooks.... so if I see anything really really interesting, I might scribble something down at least... I also hear you can get some pretty kinky souvenirs in the gift shop, so I'm looking forward to that as well. The other shrine is more run-of-the-mill, and the castle is apparently one of the few original castles, rather than being restored, so that should be cool. Here's hoping I get on the right buses this time. XD
From the 31st to the 3rd of January, I'll be doing a homestay. A lady living in Niihama is driving up to Fukui prefecture, north of Kyoto, for New Year's with her daughters, and when my teacher told her I was looking for a homestay, she offered to have me come along. We've been exchanging E-mails. It looks like Fukui is a cold place, and there's lots of snow there right now, so I'll be packing my warmest clothes and boots. I'll be with her, her three daughters, maybe her husband (I couldn't tell by the E-mail), to join her sister, her nephew, and her father in Fukui, it seems, and the house is more traditional Japanese style, which I'm looking forward to, actually. We'll be helping with the end-of-year cleaning, which I hope I can be of use, but other than that, I don't know what we'll be doing. I hope we do a New Year's shrine visit for sure! ^^
Depending on how much time I have before leaving, I might be able to post about Uwajima and the strange things I hope to see there, but if not, have a Happy New Year everyone! <33