List making and Christmas lessons

Remember that episode of Saved By the Bell where Jessie gets addicted to caffeine pills while she struggles to keep up (in high school, honestly) while pursuing the girl band with Kelly and Lisa. When Zach catches her trying to pop some pills to get ready for their "gig" she declares she needs them, "there's no time, there's never any time" (followed shortly by the infamous breakdown embodied in the lines "I'm so excited.... i'm so.... scared).

In anycase, i feel for Jessie. I may not have caffeine pills, but these days my intake of coffee is steadily increasing as i try to get more done faster. No, its not that things have finally picked up in my lax school schedule (though this week is surprisingly full actually), rather i have only 3 more days to prepare for my trip for India! As many of you can imagine, my life is currently full of lists - on my desk at work, stuck up on the fridge, on the back of the door so i wont forget anything when i leave the apartment, taped next to my desk at home, and obviously spinning in my head. This is the week of lists and teaching Christmas to an entired school of Japanese middle schoolers. I'm a wee bit distracted, to say the least.

Because i'm leaving for India in 3 days! Holy Tits!

On Peanut Butter and Showers - or how we all just want things the way we want them

Over an hour long conversation with my ladies tonight (Keiko and Yoshiko) i stumbled upon a significant and possibly life altering discovery - cultural egoism is natural and universal. We all really think that the way we do things is what is best (at least for us). What does this mean? ow can i really find it even mildly remarkable and worth taking up inches in cyberspace (yes inches, i am american)? Because it frees me of guilt. Yoshiko can complain about having to empty the bath and refill the water when staying in a western hotel with her husband. Its okay for Keiko to regret that the Michigan University shower heads weren't of the detachable variety, and that she spent a whole semester without a bath. Oh, and did you know that in some parts of Australia they banned singing in the shower because it adds an extra 2 to 3 minutes to your shower time? Crazy. Keiko decided that would make showering really miserable.

And I dont have to feel guilty that i dont like showering outside the tub or that it pisses me off that my bathroom floor is always wet. I dont have to worry about my recent dislike of communal baths or that i crave central heating about fifty times a minute. Its okay that i wish i could spread around Japan an appreciation for peanut butter and skim milk, if only it would make it easier for me to get my hands on. I'm allowed to think that my way of doing things is the right way for ME without insulting anyone else or their lifestyle. And this idea, in and of itself, is freeing. It doesn't mean i dont have an open mind, or that i refuse to try new things. It just means that I am not capable of constantly abandoning my own habits, culture, and upbringing, and embracing everything new as better. And I can live with that.

Sundays - the joys of being the only person in the entire chugakko who actually gets a weekend

So i've discovered Sundays are my favorite days ever. No matter what i do, I like it. They are low pressure, unlike Saturdays, so its okay if i spend the entirety of a Sunday afternoon on my futon/couch in my sweats. They are great days for getting things done, making slow-cooked, heart-warming foods for the week, cleaning the apartment, making phone calls home, shopping, or checking to see. The last few Sundays have been fabulous.

Three weeks ago, inspite of my huge need for some R&R after Gabe's bday party, i spent Sunday at my J-Gpas art show. Keiko, Yoshiko and I got the royal treatment, as Oji-san and the other artists served us tea and cake and taught us some origami (i'm now famous for my spinning top). Two Sundays ago, again wishing i could just sleep the day away, I met up with Keiko to follow through with plans we'd had for months. We visited Kongo-Rinji (a temple very near to Hatasho, the town our school is in) on one of the last fall afternoons of the season. It was gorgeous, and well worth the outing.

And this last Sunday, after a quick stop at Starbucks to avoid wishing we were home sleeping off the effects of the weekend, Keiko and I met up with our school nurse and her family to tour the Christmas lights in Yokaichi (basically 3 houses, one of which was her fathers') and have dinner at their house. It was a fabulous evening, complete with good food, great conversation and completely adorable company. Shimizu sensei has three kids: Atsuki (boy 5), Nao (girl, 8) and Yuya (boy 9). They charmed me completely, so much so in fact that i was texting with a friend today about how i want one for myself. I'm thinking Yuya. He's the oldest, the smartest, and wears these adorable glasses.

In the midst of a sometimes depressing holiday season, a string of great Sundays reminds me
of how great i really do have it here.

THANK YOU!

Today was a blessed day. I had two deliveries from the yubinkyoku (post office): my visa for india and a Christmas package from my parents. The former carried with it good tidings - finally our hotel reservations and flights are arranged and booked and i can start worrying about the weather and what suitcase to pack in. The latter filled my belly with sweetness (mmm puppychow. and only the beginning) and my heart with love.

Then i finally got dressed around 3 and headed to my friend Nick's for a gourmet french feast, arriving early enough to whip up some creme brulee. Nick wowed a fairly large crowd (13 is alot for a japanese apartment) with coq au vin, beef bourguigon, potatoes dauphinois and crepes suzette. Candice added to the dessert pile with some fabulous chocolate mousse (made with tofu) and we had enough different kinds of Bordeaux to have our own sampling. All in all a fabulous evening, and the kind of night i haven't been able to enjoy since coming to Japan - cooking, eating, laughing, drinking, cleaning, sitting, talking, and more laughing. and then ditching out before the last round of cleaning.

Thanks to Nick and Merico for the lovely night, to my family and the Josephsons for the Christmas treats, and to the Indian Embassy in Tokyo for getting my visa processed on time!

Home for the Holidays - or how i wont be :(

So last year for Christmas we went to Mexico to spend a week relaxing on a beach and having fun as a family. I was paranoid in the months i heard about the trip that we'd leave before Christmas, interrupting our Christmas celebration (which i had missed the year before). I got lucky - we flew on the afternoon of Christmas day, allowing us to keep intact our ever-important Christmas eve rituals.

beach holiday?
or home?

I love Christmas. I love twinkle lights and red balls and evergreen branches and presents under the tree and mistletoe and baking cookies and going to holiday themed parties and watching 'White Christmas' and 'Miracle on 34th Street' and driving around to see the Christmas lights and spending many days shopping for the perfect gifts and wrapping them just so and planning the Christmas eve appetizer menu and the smells of cinnamon and pine and Christmas music, from the beautiful and orchestral to old school classics to the endlessly corny, and going home for the holidays to fight with my brother over the remote and whine about the empty pot of coffee and fires in our fireplace and wearing slippers and new pajamas and the mess in the living room after christmas eve present swapping is all over and the wine and Christmas eve church service and the requisite watching of a Christmas eve movie and feeling warm inside and out.

The only thing i dont like about Christmas is being away from it. Here in Japan nothing i do seems to get me into the Christmas mood. Its just becomming winter here and there has been no snow. Very occasionally i stumble across a house with lights on at night - invariably they are tacky and flashing. The most decorated places are the 711's and the grocery stores, which endlessly play the same bad Christmas covers that even I find annoying. Thanksgiving in Japan fell on Labor Day, but even though i had the day off the whole holiday was a non-event for me and therefore a lackluster beginning to a holiday season.

Doreamon is part of the Christmas display

I shopped for Christmas gifts in the wrong frame of mind, leaving me disappointed in my purchases. I couldn't really even wrap things because customs will open it all, so my gifts were sent in unimpressive packaging. I wont even be able to have a Christmas celebration with friends here or be at home to call my family as i'll be travelling.

And don't get me wrong, i'm still thrilled about India. I know that if i can't go home its very good that i'm not staying in Japan where i'd probably spend the holiday at Keiko's house, trespassing on their hospitality, eating Christmas Cake (i htink the Japanese equivalent to fruit cake), and being void of holiday cheer. I've just started to wonder why i'm not going home. Why i ever thought another Christmas away from home was a good idea.

So to all of you who will be home for Christmas - enjoy it. Revel in it. Soak up the warmth and the good smells and eat more than your share of calories. To anyone else away from home, family and friends this Christmas - i feel for you. Maybe you can help me remember that it will only make next Christmas and all the ones after all that much better.

Okonomiyaki Week - or how i may have to start watching my cholesterol

Okonomiyaki is one of my favorite Japanese foods. Its a pancake type food, made from a batter of egg, flour, water and cabbage, fried up with veggies and meat, served with mayo and a dark/sweet sauce (and, unfortunately seaweed and fish flakes). This week, without planning it or anything, i ate Okonomiyaki nearly everyday.

Monday night i decided to make it at home for the first time. It was absolutely delicious. So delicious that i enjoyed the leftovers the next day for lunch. Then Tuesday evening, after shopping with Keiko, she convinced me to go to her house and scrounge up something to eat. Her mom laid a full dinner, of course, complete with okonomiyaki. Wednesday night i was in a rush to get to japanese class and had no time to buy groceries, so of course its Okonomiyaki again. And, since leftovers are like my rule at lunch, it was okinomiyaki lunch on Thursday. By this point i was a little less thrilled about my plans to have okinomiyaki with Keiko and Takashi, another teacher, on Friday night.

Luckily Thursday with the J-gparents was a break from okinomiyaki to make another of my favorite Japanese foods (kind of): GYOZA!!! Keiko and I got to learn how to properly stuff the wonton dough and fold it, and all together i think we made over 200 gyoza for 5 people. Seriously. But since dinner was nothing but gyoza and soup, it worked out okay. And i somehow beat through the veil of my post-gyoza food coma to remember to take a picture!

Yoshiko, Keiko, and Donata (an elementary ALT who used to teach at my school)

Then tonight i was saved from day five of okinomiyaki when the aforementioned restaurant was closed - although to tell you the truth i was still excited about okonomiyaki. Even just saying it is fun. Luckily the alternative was fabulous: my first ever Japanese buffet. I'm disappointed in myself for failing to get photos, but the spread was amazing. We're talking sushi, raw meat (for korean barbeque at the table!), chinese dishes, pastas and meatballs, fried snacks (french fries, gyoza, tempura shrimp, takoyaki, fried chicken, etc.), salad bar, fruit section, massive drink bar, and a dessert corner featuring at least 10 different cakes and a cooler of ice cream!!! 6 different hand-scoopable flavors. It was pretty heavenly and turned out to be a fun excursion.

My favorite thing about nights/weeks like these is that what i think is one event (ie: me going to Keiko's for a quick bite, dinner with Takashi, Donata joining us for Thursday dinner...) is really just the beginning of a tradition. Keiko's mother and father have now started planning a time for me to go with them to make pottery and welcome me for dinner whenever i don't have enough food in my house. Takashi said next time we have dinner he'll make sure the okonomiyaki place is open first. Donata, Yoshiko, Keiko and I have high hopes of a girls night at Cannery Row in the near future. And this is just a handful of examples. Every day it seems someone knew wants to let me into their life. And feed me :)

**recently i have been notified about the rudeness of using others' photos on my blog without properly crediting them. Apologies to anyone offended. i meant no harm, only put up the pictures to help explain to readers at home what was meant by okonomiyaki and gyoza. If you're confused you'll have to figure it out on your own **