Merry Christmas

Although Japanese people do understand that Christmas exists and all of the department stores are sure to get their Christmas decorations up as unseasonally early as in the UK, it isn't a national holiday and it is barely celebrated by most people. The extend of Japanese celebration tends to be eating friend chicken for dinner and a cake for desert, as this is their impression of what a western christmas is like (I think this may be the product of advertising by McD and KFC, but I can't yet be sure). How the drunken arguments and swearing over lunch managed to get left out I have no idea.

The most Christmassy thing that I have done so far this holiday season was to join the local JET community in Nagano city last weekend and to sing carols. We featured on Japanese TV, where 4 of our members were paraded like monkeys and forced to perform menial tasks with inneviatable mistakes, much to the ammusement of the presenters. After this charade, we then went to an old peoples home and performed there (they all gave us little christmas trees they had made from pine cones - it was super cute), with the final, climactic performance being held in the center of Nagano train station. We drew a good crowd, maybe 60 or so people at it's peak, and our performance was very well received.

So, apart from having several students tell me this week "I saw you on the telly!" (in Japanese, obviously), we also featured in the Nagano newspaper, as shown below:

1. Carols in Nagano train station.
2. Carols in Nagano train station - this is me.


This Christmas I will be in Japan, and it will be my first Christmas away from home. I think it will be a lonely one, but to prevent myself from spending all day crying, I will be going to Andy's house and meeting around 10 or so other foreigners from around Nagano city, and we will be celebrating it together. There is already a Christmas tree (my attempt at helping to decorate it involved turning up 45 mins late, putting the last decoration on as it was being finished and then drinking tea for half an hour), and Andrew has manged to find stuffing ingredients, a 14 lb turkey, crackers and a chocolate orange. I hope that I will be able to provide the few remaining Christmas ingredients, such as the bad jokes, japery and the innevitable drunken swearing.

Merry Christmas.

Craig

Winter has come

Yesterday there was no snow in my village, and almost nothing on the mountains. This morning, my village looked like this:

1. My car.
2. The street outside my house.
3. Venturing further into the village.
4. The hill by my school I. - This was my favorite photo spot in my village last winter.
5. The hill by my school II.
6. Outside school (the sign reads Iizuna Chuugakkou - Iizuna Junior High School).
7. The baseball and football pitch.
8. Our school garden.

The extend of crime in Japan

This was accidentally posted to a JET mailing list for the teachers in my prefecture. It was sent by one of the JETs who works in the Matsumoto Town office to another administrative JET who works in the Nagano City office regarding a Japanese employee that she works with.

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Hey, did you read today's Shinano Mainichi? Your boss is on the papers! He got caught at Ueda Eki! [trans. Udea Train Station] Isn't that disturbing! Read it. My whole office is talking about it. They let me read it.
From what I've understood, he was going up the escalator and the high school girl was in front of him and your boss was taking pictures under the poor girl's skirt. Sukebe da ne [trans. "What a pervert!"] . The girl noticed it and immediately reported it to the nearest Koban [trans. police box] and he got arrested. From the confiscated camera, they found pictures of other high school girls.

I guess nobody can be spared from the law. It's shocking coz I know him personally but at the same time, it just shows that no one can be excused from the law. Good thing, the girl reported it.

What a week!

M

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Regarding this blog, the reason I have hardly posted any updates over the last 6 months is because I don't particularly enjoy writing any more. For now, I'm must going to post photos on here and if the motivation comes back, I'll let you know.