December 31, 2007
When I woke up and realized it was Christmas, I went to the kitchen and made raspberry hot chocolate that my family had sent me. I also put a cinnamon roll my mom sent me in the microwave. Mug and plate in hand, I went into my guest room, which I had gussied up with Christmas decorations. I put the lights on and admired the decorations. Then I went for the presents. I tried to go slowly, savoring each present under my tree.
Even so, I finished with all my presents after 20 minutes.
I was left feeling like, Now what? And suddenly, I was standing alone in my empty apartment with a strange feeling of bewilderment, wondering how you celebrate Christmas when you have nothing to do and no one to talk to.
So, I put on some Christmas music and called my family via skype.
That kept me busy the rest of the day.
My family knows this, because they were chit chatting with me all day—every hour someone would call. It was nice, because it was such a traditionally Christmas thing to do. I even got to see some of them open their presents. And so, Christmas passed pleasantly, much as it always does.
But I do want to tell you about Christmas dinner, because adapting it to Japan was an interesting experience. They don’t have turkey and they don’t have ovens, so obviously, oven-roasting a turkey was out. So I pan-fried a chicken instead. I fried it with a pan sauce of consommé, lemon, parsley, and cranberries. Mom had sent me stuffing, fancy mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Instead of candied yams, I had my pumpkin, which I’d made Christmas Eve to save time and pans. I made fruit salad and had my cake and a tiny portion of Haagan Daaz (flavor: rich milk) for dessert. I made my own spiced apple cider to drink, using my rice cooker (don’t laugh—it works just like a crock pot), with slices of mikan oranges floating on the top.
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Christmas Eve
December 31, 2007
Right before Christmas Eve, I suddenly ran out of things to do. It was a peculiar feeling. I had been rushing along, quite content, through the last week of school, when, bam!, I finished all my work. My house was clean, my decorations were up, my presents were shipped and sent and I had nothing to do.
It was a little scary.
When a holiday comes up, you want to celebrate it, or at the very least keep busy. I learned that my first Easter at college, when I decided to work in the cafeteria rather than go home to see my family. Big mistake! I was so depressed that day I felt like crying.
Now, I had Christmas Eve and Christmas day off, but I had no one to celebrate with. In the absence of work, I began to feel a tugging of loneliness. So I made a list of things to do, and then I did them. Guess what? I wasn’t so lonely after that.
On Christmas Eve, I woke up bright and moderately early (it was about 8:00) and went grocery shopping. (Yes, this was part of my big plan to keep myself occupied.) To keep myself in the Christmas mood, I only went shopping for Christmas dinner—no rice, olive oil, tofu, creamer, cereal—none of that allowed. Just Christmas food. Then I went to Tsutaya to rent a video.
Tsutaya is basically like Blockbusters, except that it also sells books and has a vastly larger foreign selection. But the dates and prices are about the same. I opened an account. Funny, but I hadn’t had the urge to rent movies before—if I had some extra time on the weekend, I’d go exploring. But with the weather getting increasingly cold, I’ve been less inclined to explore. Better to stay home and watch a flick.
After I decided on Shrek the Third (I’ve begun to associate Shrek with the holidays, for some reason) and Notes on a Scandal, I did some light shopping. I tried to find thank you notes and a particular comic, I wanted, but the store didn’t carry any cards I liked and the comic I wanted wasn’t out yet. By this time, it was around noon. I had lunch at a local coffee shop.
At Café the Launch (yes, that’s its real name), I had a pudding latte with whipped cream (that I had to pay extra for) and an (supposedly) Italian sandwich and Onion Gratin soup. I should stop and explain these items to you. The pudding latte was not exactly pudding flavored, but rather the coffee was served with actual pieces of a flan-like pudding inside it. (But since I’d had “jelly” drinks with actual pieces of Jell-O inside it, I wasn’t all that surprised.) I felt a little cheated at having to pay extra for whipped cream, but it was the thick, homemade kind, the kind they squirt from one of those pastry bags. There are no arsenal cans of whipped cream in Japan—you get the good stuff or none at all. The Italian sandwich was a hot basil chicken sandwich, but for some reason they put on cream cheese instead of provolone or mozzarella. I’m not sure why. It was good, but a little weird. The Onion Gratin was almost French Onion. Almost, but not quite. The crouton was a toasted piece of French bread and there wasn’t enough cheese.
Normally I don’t go out for “American” food, but once in a while I get nostalgic and attempt it anyway.
I bought a little bouquet of flowers for myself and I bought a slice of an Apple Chiffon cake—the closest I could get to pie. I had wanted to get a Christmas cake—which are so popular in Japan—but a tiny cake that could feed four at most and would have cost maybe $5 in America were going for 2300 yen—over four times the price. So I opted out.
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Shrek the Third. In the evening, I made stuffing and pumpkin with cinnamon, honey, and cream, for my Christmas dinner. Then I did the dishes and went to bed.
And that was my Christmas Eve.
Right before Christmas Eve, I suddenly ran out of things to do. It was a peculiar feeling. I had been rushing along, quite content, through the last week of school, when, bam!, I finished all my work. My house was clean, my decorations were up, my presents were shipped and sent and I had nothing to do.
It was a little scary.
When a holiday comes up, you want to celebrate it, or at the very least keep busy. I learned that my first Easter at college, when I decided to work in the cafeteria rather than go home to see my family. Big mistake! I was so depressed that day I felt like crying.
Now, I had Christmas Eve and Christmas day off, but I had no one to celebrate with. In the absence of work, I began to feel a tugging of loneliness. So I made a list of things to do, and then I did them. Guess what? I wasn’t so lonely after that.
On Christmas Eve, I woke up bright and moderately early (it was about 8:00) and went grocery shopping. (Yes, this was part of my big plan to keep myself occupied.) To keep myself in the Christmas mood, I only went shopping for Christmas dinner—no rice, olive oil, tofu, creamer, cereal—none of that allowed. Just Christmas food. Then I went to Tsutaya to rent a video.
Tsutaya is basically like Blockbusters, except that it also sells books and has a vastly larger foreign selection. But the dates and prices are about the same. I opened an account. Funny, but I hadn’t had the urge to rent movies before—if I had some extra time on the weekend, I’d go exploring. But with the weather getting increasingly cold, I’ve been less inclined to explore. Better to stay home and watch a flick.
After I decided on Shrek the Third (I’ve begun to associate Shrek with the holidays, for some reason) and Notes on a Scandal, I did some light shopping. I tried to find thank you notes and a particular comic, I wanted, but the store didn’t carry any cards I liked and the comic I wanted wasn’t out yet. By this time, it was around noon. I had lunch at a local coffee shop.
At Café the Launch (yes, that’s its real name), I had a pudding latte with whipped cream (that I had to pay extra for) and an (supposedly) Italian sandwich and Onion Gratin soup. I should stop and explain these items to you. The pudding latte was not exactly pudding flavored, but rather the coffee was served with actual pieces of a flan-like pudding inside it. (But since I’d had “jelly” drinks with actual pieces of Jell-O inside it, I wasn’t all that surprised.) I felt a little cheated at having to pay extra for whipped cream, but it was the thick, homemade kind, the kind they squirt from one of those pastry bags. There are no arsenal cans of whipped cream in Japan—you get the good stuff or none at all. The Italian sandwich was a hot basil chicken sandwich, but for some reason they put on cream cheese instead of provolone or mozzarella. I’m not sure why. It was good, but a little weird. The Onion Gratin was almost French Onion. Almost, but not quite. The crouton was a toasted piece of French bread and there wasn’t enough cheese.
Normally I don’t go out for “American” food, but once in a while I get nostalgic and attempt it anyway.
I bought a little bouquet of flowers for myself and I bought a slice of an Apple Chiffon cake—the closest I could get to pie. I had wanted to get a Christmas cake—which are so popular in Japan—but a tiny cake that could feed four at most and would have cost maybe $5 in America were going for 2300 yen—over four times the price. So I opted out.
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Shrek the Third. In the evening, I made stuffing and pumpkin with cinnamon, honey, and cream, for my Christmas dinner. Then I did the dishes and went to bed.
And that was my Christmas Eve.
Candybread Houses
December 17, 2007
One of my Christmas decorations with which I've been decorating my house is a newly made gingerbread house—or rather, a candybread house; it’s made out of graham crackers, for crying outloud. I made it myself yesterday at the KAPIC Center. The KAPIC Center is a sort of International Culture Center just outside Kanoya in the middle of the forest. Yesterday, Sunday, they had an event where we got to make our own candy houses.
Rachelle told me about the event and as she was going, I tagged along. After all, what is Christmas without decorating a little house with candy? Besides me and Rachelle, there were four other ALTs: Cara and Brett.
Sandy, the CIR, gave instructions in Japanese. The model house had a tall sloped roof, but as I knew from experience those things never stay standing, I disregarded the model and built my house my own way. I was inspired by a round Ritz cracker to make a hobbit house, with a round door—but it didn’t quite work out. I’ll send you a picture so you can see the final result.
Out of the 4 ALTs, however, I would like to point out that mine was the only one whose roof stood. Rachelle couldn’t get her roof to stay and, growing impatient, stacked two Graham crackers flat, like a cross. Cara’s roof splintered. She put the pieces inside her hollow house and raised a marshmallow as a white flag. Brett, who did such a meticulous job of picking out different colored sprinkles to decorate his house, found his roof sliding down. He yelled for me to take a picture. Three seconds after I snapped the shot, the roof came down, squashing walls and yard flat. Giving the project up for loss, Brett dumped the remains of his candy on the remains, and we made up an elaborate story about an earthquake reducing the house to rubble.
In short, we had a good time.
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