You know, you read a statement like the one above and your brain takes off and finishes the line -maybe without you wanting to finish it. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Christmas comes just as surely as the missing word in a catchy, or know-y phrase. And yup, there’s nothing wrong with that either.
Some people take solace, happiness in the holidays. Other people, so I have heard it circulated again this holiday season, care to spend their Christmases alone -and sometimes not because they want to.
Whereabouts did my Christmas fall this year? In the alone bracket. But again, I didn’t mind that. Being the good google-ite that I am -if you promise not to laugh- I will tell you that last week before the Friday holiday here in Japan, I searched online about how best to spend Christmas alone. Now with all the help online searching can be many search results and articles can be chalked full of nonsense. And so was most of what I found online -nonsense.
But the jist of what I came away with was this, if you are spending Christmas alone make a list of things you wanna do and then do them. And so I did.
Hobbling back to the talk of last week pre-Christmas, I had mentioned that I was only in the office until Thursday. So I made the most of that Thursday and brought some jingle-y, ribbon-wrapped reindeer antlers to work and wore them around the office. Now I wasn’t parading around like some supermodel just lapping up any and all attention that I got, but the antlers-in-office thing proved to be kind of fun.
From the moment I walked in the door, donned the horny decorations on head and trotted around it was amazing to see that smiles, laughs and jolts that the reindeer antlers brought about (you can look up my use of that word, I assure you it is in the right). That was my first bit of fun for the day.
After a few minutes in office and organizing my things I sped off to the kindergarten in town for their annual Christmas celebration event and candle light service.
We watched songs and dances, candles glowing, chairs a-rowing and enjoyed even a film before lunch. Usually all us students eat in our classrooms at little kindergarten-like tables and then play in the large hall after a yummy meal. Well, on that Thursday we set up tables side by side in the great hall and in a Dickens-y way and had a Noel of a feast fit for any Christmas Carol.
So Thursday came to a sweet end following a fried chicken lunch -something of a Christmas tradition in Japan. (You may have to ~oogle that one for yourself because I am just as blumbered on the histories of fried chicken at Christmas as you may be)
The Christmas weekend then was fun. On Friday I huffled out to a nearby town making the trip for my first time by inter-city bus. Radio blaring classic Christmas tunes and J-pop all the way from town to town the bus-ride, costing only a few hundred yen, was fun and flightful.
I took in a short Christmas service, in the spirit of the holiday, had some cake and tea, and then fluttered on by to a cafe in town to enjoy a fat plate of katsu-curry (I am really getting my fill of breaded pork cutlet and Japanese curry roux this holiday season)!
And that, my dear friends, is when the winter winds really began to blow. We were, here in northern Japan, forewarned of some wicked winter storminess to follow in the Christmas days. And let me tell you, as I rode that bus back to my town with Christmas jingles humming on the radio aboard bus, ice, winds, snow and everything the North Pole was saving for this year’s winter attack was blowing across the highway -and continued blowing for the next two days of Christmas.
That’s fine.
When I finally survived and muffled my way back home I pretty much locked myself up for Christmas and began celebrating without pause. Just like any good television junkie would do I accessed online television via gaming console and plowed my way through episode after episode of Grey’s Anatomy all day and all night. But don’t you worry, I hung candy canes from the walls, wrapped old tissue boxes and fish stock cartons in Christmas wrapping paper and wore the reindeer antlers and Christmas cap (that I very kindly received from the kindergarten) all around the house while lounging in long Christmas underwear. Okay, the underwear was just long underwear -cozy, in case you were thinking to ask.
And that was Christmas. Those days spent online calling with family, chattering about what foods are good and not, cooking for myself at home and then daring the blistering blizzard outside to nearby eatery for rice and tempura -it was a fine week-end.
I really liked Christmas this year. I even slep in front of the fireplace. Okay, well, I don’t really have a fireplace out here it’s more like a stove but cozy nonetheless.
Did you have great poke of a Christmas? My only regret is that the holiday was just too short as I sit back in the office and paddle my way away at another Japanese language exam and continue to study, study, study like any good university junky would do in their spare time.
But back to this week, I am only in the office for a handle of days. Friday I will board bus to shove off to Sapporo -again. My city of a city, I tell you. After a little rest and a pack-ed chest full of ramen I will plane my way to Tokyo and spend a few good days enjoying the very/seemingly un-wintery weather they are having down there. Sights, food, friends, and boiled loach. Remember the picture of simmering sweetwater fish from my day one arrival in Tokyo? Well, I will feed on those fish this o-shogatsu Japanese holiday season if I can help it. Any suggestions for Tokyo? Wishes, hopes, sightfuls -things you think I should see? You can always let me know if you call the hotline. Or just fire me a question. Haha.
This will be my winter escape, Tokyo -with a few hot onsen baths involved. How will you enjoy your wintery holidays?
I am hoping that you find some flashing Christmas-y lights, hot holiday-like beveragres, and some fine company to bore the work-a-holic-ness out of you. Or maybe you are like the more fortunate people I know who are relaxed enough to view Christmas as a special day without need to duct tape onself to the couch in need of better rest.
Whoops, there I go starting not to make sense again.
A good sign that you need to stop reading, and I need to stop writing.
Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas. And if you are need of a good holiday read I highly recommend Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to you.
And if you need to meet, you know where to find me -window seat, back to the glass, book in hand with pen and scrawl-ish paper nearby with steaming brew, coffee breathing steam into the space of my cafe table. Enjoy yours.
Ciao
And why not again, Merry Christmas to you.
The Traveller's Typewriter 