So I'm Not A Reporter...

Apparently on December 20th I started a post where I decided to chronicle any instances of Christmas celebrations. Not only did I only write about one such happening, I didn't even publish the post. Until tonight - so take a look at Kristmas Karaoke (December archives).

So here are the rest of the holidays until now:

Christmas Monday was like any other Monday in Japan, so Nova was open. But it's not as if any Nova teachers come from countries that don't celebrate Christmas, so every branch closed early to at least give us the night off.

I brought my Santa hat with me to work, in case I felt festive. I actually never wore it, but Saori (one of the Japanese part-time staff), and one of my students wore the hat. The student randomly wanted to take a picture with me and Sean (maybe he celebrates Christmas?), and I was like ok - if you wear the hat! And he did.

I had dinner in Roppongi with the other two children of Meidaimae (Sean and Allison) and Sean's roommate, Aidan. Quite a few restaurants and pubs were advertising Christmas Dinner specials, so we all went to a place called Paddy Foley's. While the back part of the pub was decorated and done up, it was still very much an Irish pub in Roppongi. Towards the end of dinner Aidan started chatting with the manager of the bar who ended up sitting down with us for I don't know how long. Aidan was really enjoying his company, but he also had a few more drinks than Sean, Allison or I. This was my 3rd time having a traditional holiday dinner out of the country, and much like the 1st time (but not the 2nd), before I began eating I tried my best to identify the colors, shapes, and textures on my plate. As it turns out I think the Japanese (or maybe the Irish) translate the concept of stuffing into meatloaf.

New Year's Eve turned out to be a series of party fouls, but there were a couple of highlights:

• my sister roommate and I had a fun photo shoot on the train

• we joined the huge party at the busiest intersection in the world (in Shibuya, featured in Lost in Translation), for the countdown. No countdown ever materialized, so 'HAPPY NEW YEAR' cheers spontaneously erupted from various pockets within the crowd. It was happy and chaotic.