Christmas in Japan!

Next up is Christmas Eve. Every year they get together with a bunch of old friends from high school, etc. This year was the same and we headed over to one of the friend’s houses for lunch and stayed into the early evening. It’s pretty much like any get together in America-a bunch of food, drink and joking around. The only difference is what’s on the table. Along with a roast chicken are the onigiri (rice ‘balls’ with random stuff hidden inside), along with the beer is sake (alcoholic drink made from rice for those not in the loop). And apparently the sake they had was extremely high end, so much so that it isn’t widely sold and it is hard to just get a hold of it. It was noticeably better than other sake I’ve had, but I don’t think it lived up to its reputation. There was also some mashed potato-looking sort of thing with cucumber and other random stuff mixed in, and that was pretty good. Things quickly shifted focus as the family’s new Playstation 3 was booted up. They also had the Gundam game, and that quickly garnered all the attention of the kids and adult guys. I eventually tried my hand at it, and after a few rounds of getting acquainted with the lackluster control scheme, I made a reputation for myself as deadly with the beam saber. But basically, just like every other Gundam game, it is mediocre to the extreme, and the clunky controls hinder gameplay. But before this turns into more of a game review, suffice it to say that a good couple hours of the afternoon were spent on this game. It was sometimes hard to get a turn between all the kids, but eventually some of them started requesting to play a match against me. One kid in particular was dominating everyone, and then when me and the other kids started beating him, he burst into tears. I think he could handle losing to me, but when his friends even starting getting the upper hand, he lost it. But everyone’s mood brightened when Santa knocked on the window! Even I wasn’t expecting this. The guy whose house it was dressed up as Santa and came in the sliding door from the backyard…barefoot. Okay, so not the most convincing Santa impersonation I’ve ever seen, but he gets points for effort. The kids all called him out as not being the real Santa. (Apparently this was the first year that happened…maybe boots, or footwear of any sort, would have helped.) After a bit, the party ended, and we went over to Apita, the local department store to grab some dinner and Wii software, since my host dad also bought a Wii within the past week. The Christmas decorations already had huge discounts on them, so my host mom picked up some stuff for next year. Then we headed over to the video game section where I proved to be much more knowledgeable about the Wii than the store clerk. So it was basically me telling my host dad what he should and shouldn’t buy. I had him pick up a second nunchaku controller, the controller packed with Hamete no Wii (WiiPlay), WiiSports, and Odoru Made in Wario (WarioWare). I had to remember I was picking out multiplayer games the family could play, otherwise Zelda and Elebits would have gone in the cart, too. Then we headed to a Chinese restaurant within the department store, and it was really good. We all split a rice/vegetable dish in a thick, clear sauce, along with a whole slew of different dumpling-esque things. Busha, I’m looking to you for the Chinese name of these things. Don’t fail me. And I have completely fallen in love with gomadango, which is a dessert that consists of sweet bean paste inside rice paste, which is covered with toasted sesame seeds. Really, really, freakin tasty. I first had them while I was in Okinawa, and now jump at the chance to order the things. The only drawback is they sit in your stomach like a rock.
Onto Christmas!!!! Okay, so it started out kind of slow, but picked up after awhile. The night before at the department store, Yugo found a toy he wanted and whined like no other until my host dad decided to make it Yugo’s Christmas present if he promised to clean his toy room (which didn’t get touched during that cleaning day). Yugo wanted me to help him clean he toy room, and I had nothing better to do, so I told him we’d split the room and each do half. Of course, Yugo just putzed around while I cleaned my half. Once I finished and his half was still messy, he tried to get me to do to half of his half. But I refused and then he decided he was tired and wanted to sleep. I said that was fine and stretched out on the floor to take a nap, too. Yugo wasn’t actually tired, which I suspected; in reality he just didn’t want to clean. Later in the afternoon, Yugo wanted to draw dinosaurs. Specifically, he wanted me to take turns drawing dinosaurs with him. I quickly realized just how little artistic ability I possess when I could hardly tell which ones I had drawn and which ones Yugo had drawn.
One of the guys at the Christmas Eve gathering works at (and I think maybe owns) a hair salon, and since I needed a haircut and badly and my host dad did as well, he made an appointment for us at 5pm. Well, five rolls around and he isn’t back from whatever work he had to do. It was maybe 5:30 when he came back, and we left right away. We had to stop and drop off the platter at the sashimi place for them to use. Then we headed to the salon. This was the first time I had anything beyond a basic cut, and on Christmas no less! A santa cap clad girl rinsed and shampooed (sp?) my hair before and after the cut, which I thought was a bit overkill, but eh, whatever. And then afterwards they brought out tea. There were also two brown sugar cubes and a thing a cream, so I varied from my normal taking of tea (straight up) and threw all the sugar and cream in. Not a bad way to drink it, but I’d rather save my sugar intake for something that tastes better. After the salon we picked up the sashimi and then the birthday cake for Tayusuke (the baby) who turned one year old. Yeah, he gets the royal shaft on presents, having his birthday on Christmas. So we got back a little late for Tayusuke’s birthday party, as the grandparents had already arrived awhile ago. So we had a nice dinner, and then sang Happy Birthday for Tayusuke. For those curious, the song and the words are exactly the same, you only have to murder the pronounciation of the ‘th’ sound and you’ll fit right in! After the cake, it was present time! This was mainly comprised of presents that my mom and my dad and stepmom sent. Yugo was ecstatic over the Kamen Rider game, and to my surprise, already knew of and loves Pez, and ate (with everyone’s help) two of the three packs of candy that came with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dispenser mom sent him. He also thoroughly enjoyed the red mystic ranger my dad and stepmom sent him. The armor can even be constructed into a plane! He especially liked that part. Of course my host mom and dad were all completely surprised by the amount of stuff sent, and thanked me a million times over, but that still pales in comparison to the Nintendo DS my host dad got me for Christmas. And in his typical fashion he can’t wait to give it out, so I got it a couple weeks ahead of the holiday. My host mom got one as well. Then after a Rotary dinner (where I was cajoled into giving a little impromptu introduction speech), we went to Geo, a new/used media chain, to pick up some games. I picked out a kanji studying game, and the New Mario Bros., while my host mom picked up an English studying game and, with my guidance, Final Fantasy 3. Okay, getting a little off track. Back to Christmas… after opening the presents, we just chatted for awhile and then my Christmas in Japan came to a quiet close.