Japanta Claus

I finished work last night, and went out drinking with everyone. It was a nice feeling to know that I have 10 days off. I'd like to say I woke up bright and early this morning, but I slept in.

I'm going to Sendai (Keiko's hometown) tomorrow for a few days, so have been packing and cleaning my room.

Christmas was strange, most of the students weren't interested at all and just wanted a regular lesson, although we all found it bizarre to be working. Just as the horribly mixed title of this blog, so too is the behaviour of the Japanese at Christmas:

Christmas trees, presents and cakes are important. However, their idea of a Christmas cake is with white icing and strawberries. Christmas Eve was crazy; the streets were lined with stalls selling such cakes, and queues stretching off at each one.

It's also traiditional to eat fried chicken for two ingenious reasons. Firstly, as most kitchens are without an oven, a turkey isn't a very convenient food to cook. Secondly, and just as wonderful a story as Santa being owned by Coke*, KFC invented the holiday past-time of eating fried chicken. It's a complete marketing stunt, but good for them I suppose, as KFCs all over the country were turning over huge profits.

Still, thanks to my own Christmas miracle, Keiko and I got to savour some Western Christmas pudding. Yummy!

The greatest thing about my current job is that no matter how crap a day, or how much something is bugging you, there'll be at least one student who will make it worthwhile. 95% couldn't really care less, but there are the 5% who really appreciate the time spent with them. One old lady, who I love to pieces, came over to me on Christmas day, said I was the best teacher, and handed me a huge bag of sweets. It cheered me up.

Additionally, the weather was pretty awful; the most torrential rain I've seen since I've been here, including the weekend I was stranded inside making origami. Tsurumi River nearly flooded, the lightning was so bright that one Japanese man turned around to me on the way home and gave me a "Whoah!" look as we were getting soaked, and, sadly, my new book got ruined.

However, it's a beautiful day today, and I'm hoping it will stay over the New Year.

*the students ate that one right up!