Kate's Quests » Holidays

Christmas Party

Kate — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:56:00 +0000

DJ and I went to a Christmas party Saturday night. Kayo (Rina’s mom) hosted it at her house and she had a bunch of friends over. Luckily almost all of them spoke English so they were very nice and kept a lot of the conversation in English for us. At one point they asked our ages and they thought I seemed about my age (27 next month) and they thought DJ was about 28. When he told them that he had actually turned 35 earlier this month, the place erupted. “Most Americans look much older than they are and much older than us Japanese, so for you to look so much younger…that is so amazing.” They just couldn’t get over it. DJ, of course, was LOVING it.

They asked us pretty amusing questions like, “I heard that people in America often put peanuts in Coca-Cola, is that true?” The answer was no…at least not to our knowledge. And my favorite, “Is it true that in some states it’s illegal to put a hole in a donut?” Again…not true. It boggles my mind that they would think that it would actually be illegal to put a hole in a donut, but ok.

We had a gift exchange and lucky us, ended up with more jam. We have enough jam to last us years because our families like to send jam for Christmas every year. We got to listen to Rina sing her song that she and I have been practicing for a few weeks now (from High School Musical 2, which she LOVES). And DJ got to play video games with the kids. And we had a blast doing that. They have a foot pad where you run as fast as you can and so does the character in the game or you have stand on the pad in order to balance on a motorcycle. We spent quite a while on that.

We brought them some wine with the imprint of Marilyn Monroe (made by Kestrel Winery in Washington State) on the bottle which they referred to as the ’sexy wine’ for the night. They seemed quite happy with the fact that we weren’t like the other military families they knew. We were interested in their culture and wanted to try the food and alcoholic beverages. We want to see Japan from the inside and not just look at it as an outsider would. It’s important to us to try everything and experience as much as we can during our time in Japan. The culture is so different and I know I wouldn’t get to experience half as much as I get to without help from Japanese friends.

I won’t be posting this next week, because I’ll be in Kyoto! But, I’ll be back soon and post a lot of pictures!

Christmas and New Years Talk

Kate — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:54:11 +0000

While I was in class last night, the Japanese teacher that I often work with asked me what DJ and I were going to do on Christmas. I explained that we would probably just hang out at home with the kitties. We would have to be asleep fairly early because we have catch a very early train from Tokyo to Kyoto. She seemed shocked by my answer and her eyes got really big and she asked me, “aren’t you going to any parties?!” I said no and that we would just hang out at home. So she asked, “well…what about Christmas eve? Don’t you have any parties to go to on Christmas eve?” I said no again and that many people just spend time with their family on Christmas. She didn’t seem particularly satisfied with that answer and seemed to feel very very sorry for me. After a few minutes she asked if we went to church. I said no and she seemed even more surprised. As if all Americans go to church on Christmas, right? I then had to decide how much to tell her, especially since we were sitting with all of the students who were busy eating cake for a birthday party in which the birthday girl was absent that day (but that’s another subject entirely). I explained that while in college I had studied many religions and felt the Tibetan Buddhism resonated most closely with how I felt. So even though I had been raised Protestant, I had decided to follow Buddhism instead. She made the surprised noise the Japanese do (a high pitched raising of her voice) and said it was “so strange!”

In Japan, you don’t change religions or follow one path instead of another. You can pick bits and pieces from any religion and follow them all. You aren’t categorized the way you are in the states with one religion or another. You can believe some of buddhism, shinto, christian or nothing at all. It really doesn’t matter. And their celebration of Christmas is purely material. I asked one of my students the other day what she did to celebrate Christmas (it’s becoming very fashionable to celebrate Christmas here). She answered that she and her friends (she’s in her mid thirties, mind you) get together in a parking lot, exchange gifts and get really drunk.

The New Year is the really big holiday here, though. Since years are traditionally viewed as completely separate, they spend days before New Years eve cleaning the house so that they can usher in the new year with a clean slate. Everything is supposed to be finished so that you can leave last years worries and troubles behind. Everything is closed and people stay home with their families or visit the shrines until everything opens back up again on the 4th.

I’m can’t say I’m all that enthused about getting smashed in a freezing parking lot on Christmas, but I do fully get behind their New Years traditions. I like the idea of entering the year with a clean slate (and a clean house). I have to admit, the sparkling house thing might be a little tough for me…but I’m working on it!

And since all work is to be finished and you’re not supposed to be worried about cooking or cleaning, you can stock up with these ready made food items. You see them on sale in the grocery stores everywhere. As long as you’re a fan of gelatinous muck and other fishy and veggie items, you’re good to go! (I’ll have to pass – I’ve got some yummy Christmas cookies that Mom and Gram sent in the mail. They could last me. Maybe. Or not.) So, in the spirit of Japanese traditions, I’ll pick and choose what to follow and what not to! You can’t make me eat what’s in those boxes for three days. It’s just not gonna happen.

Osechi Ryori

Thanksgiving

Kate — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:40:00 +0000

Since we couldn’t go home to see family for Thanksgiving, I invited my two seven year old students and their moms over (Kayo and Tomoko). Since their lesson is on Thursday anyway, it seemed like the perfect solution. They had never had turkey before and were quite curious about it. Tomoko was so funny when she saw the entire bird in the pan. She was so shocked that it was SO HUGE! But, it was really only an 11 pound bird and there were 6 of us! Kayo liked the cranberries a lot, but I think the rest of them were turned off by them. Rina LOVED mashed potatoes and the stuffing seemed to go over well, too. We drank a bottle of Syrah and DJ brought out episodes of MXC. If you haven’t heard of MXC, the channel Spike TV in the U.S. bought old episodes of the 1980’s Japanese classic, Takeshi’s Castle. It’s a reality game show where the contestants have to go through many different obstacle courses. And MXC mixes clips from the show together and dubs over their voices with funny American banter. Luckily the banter is a little too fast for them to catch all the dirty jokes. The moms were really excited by the fact that they were watching the TV show they grew up with and that their kids were loving it too. And, of course, they came bearing gifts. Being invited over to someone’s home is very rare and usually only done between close friends. So, I think they enjoyed an American Thanksgiving! I know I did!

Halloween

Kate — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:53:00 +0000

They don’t celebrate Halloween here in Japan, but they do get excited about doing so on base. And I mean both the American and Japanese kids. So I took my two seven year old students trick or treating. They have to be with an American military ID holder to get on base so they were pretty excited. Rina had gone the year before, but Risa had never been. I picked them up at 4pm and we got to base around 4:30. DJ met us at the gate and we started. It took us a little while to get into a groove, but soon we were knocking on doors and running down the stairs of the towers like mad. Risa had these pink plastic shoes on with little plastic balls in the heel so every time she took a step (especially down the hallway of stairs) she clattered like crazy. I was thankful that I wasn’t trying to rest in any of those apartments. They were both adorable though. Oddly, all the pictures came out blurry. I blame the incompetent photographer. They scored a ton of candy. The bags started to get a little heavy about halfway through and so we put some of it into plastic bags and left them in the car. At the end of the night, those bags were FULL. Their mothers probably want to kill me. It was a good night, though. I loved seeing all the kids in their costumes. I saw quite a few transformers, black spidermen and princesses. Very fun. Very fun, indeed.

Oktoberfest

Kate — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:17:00 +0000

DJ has the week off and I went through some websites to find us something to do. I found an Oktoberfest going on in Yokohama so we wandered on down to find it. All I knew was that it was close to the Ferris Wheel in MM21. So..once we got there I found some Americans wandering around and asked them if they knew where it was. Luckily they did and half way there (and about 30 seconds after the found out DJ was in the Navy) they ditched us. “Uh…we’re going to go buy some beer before we go to the festival,” they shouted while backing up and quickly running into the mall that we had just happened upon. DJ and I just shook our heads and and continued on. Until, of course, I spilled my coffee all down the front of my shirt. Luckily it hadn’t happened before the little hippies ditched us, because we really would have made an even bigger impression. So we wandered into the mall too, to find me a new shirt. I got a sweater and 20 minutes later we were strolling into the Oktoberfest.

It cost 200 yen to get in (about $1.70) and we immediately were confronted with this.
I wish I had gotten video, but it’s a Japanese band singing a Garth Brooks song on stage at the Oktoberfest. Now, nothing says Oktoberfest to me like that. We made our way over to the beer station and got a beer. A $15 beer. I think that had to be the most expensive beer I have ever drank in my entire life. But, this is Japan. So, DJ and I split it and after smelling the sauerkraut (not my favorite to say the least) and walking around the building we left. I have to mention that there were a ton of tables outside as well, but it had started raining while we were there and everyone came rushing inside. That was our cue to leave and after we finished our beer we headed out. We spent the rest of the day in Yokohama, but nothing really compared to the Oktoberfest. You just can’t get more Japanese than that. I loved watching people eat sauerkraut and sausage with chopsticks. That and they also had noodles and sushi for sale. Because really…nothing says Oktoberfest like sushi and a Japanese Garth Brooks.