Tales of Japan 7

Continuing from here:

 

 

Christmas in Japan is very interesting.  I lived in Kobe, a port city and a very internationalized one at that.  There were temples and shrines and churches and mosques and this that and the other outside religion, but Japan was most definately Japanese in it’s observation of Christmas.

Japan is a gift-giving society.  It’s how you score points in the game of social interaction, and the retailers have gleefully adopted any foreign holiday that is little more than an excuse to SHOP.  Christmas there was all bright lights and endless Christmas music on the Musac and green and red and all but stripped of any excuse for being except that presents Had to be bought and exchanged.

Actually, that was one nice thing about teaching in Japan; the role of "teacher" is very highly regarded in Japanese society.  I got some wonderful gifts, and mine was that I was a teacher.  Sweet.

I taught a private group lesson with some women that I met in the English Coffee Shop the first time I lived there, so in 93, when I returned to Kobe to live, we set up our lessons again:

Christmas Party 1994.

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Instead of the "traditonal" turkey or goose or whatever, we had Nabe, a kind of stew of eggs and seaweed and noodles and stuff that sat in the center of the table that we all took portions from.  It was a very community like meal.

Japanese beer is pretty good too.

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Christmas Party 1995

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ALL the Christmas decorations disappeared December 26.  Christmas was foreign; the REAL holiday, New Years, was coming right up, and IT meant something, unlike that excuse to buy stuff that Christmas was seen as there.

Incidentally, my ex wife still meets with this group every month.  She comes here every summer and goes back and shares her trip and pictures with my former students; so we keeo up with each other even though I left Japan almost twelve years ago.

 

 

For this year’s Christmas Eve/Morning, I am working.  The boss called the other night and asked me it I could; that the normal guy had other plans.  I might as well earn some money as sit around, I thought, so I’ll be delivering 600 papers tonight on both routes.  Since a lot of stores are closed for Christmas Day, I don’t have as many drops as usual (93, the last time I did the Dailies) and it’s gonna be an early night for the papers too – I should be done by 2.

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Merry Christmas, everyone.

May 2008 be our best year yet.

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