Christmas in Japan 1: The Cruise

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On Sunday before Christmas the family went on a Christmas lunch cruise around Tokyo Bay. Lunch was spectacular and I'm going to put the details of that on my food blog. Anyway, the host fam, along with all Japanese, love Christmas. In November the Christmas onslaught began, everywhere had the music playing, the sales going, the stores were all packed. There were christmas trees in most public places, and I already posted the pic of Santa outside the butcher. Speaking of stores, I don't know what the atmosphere was back at home as far as shopping and the economic picture. From what I've been reading, it's been tough on families and vendors alike because of the economic mess the USA is getting into. So far, that has not affected Japan as far as retail has been going. People love to shop in Tokyo no matter how expensive things are and apparently how bad the economic outlook may be.

On to the Cruise...beautiful day, probably about 60 degrees so the weather was perfect for on the water in a shirt and tie. I got to wear my Christmas tie and was very excited. Love Jerry Garica. Thanks for sending it over Mom. The cruise was 3 hours long, started off with an excellent lunch and the chef came out to talk to us. I liked that alot. The appetizer was a cold mixed plate with scallops, prosciutto (learned how they write it in Japanese!! 生ハム）． Second course was a crab/seafood cake topped with a sauteed mushroom mixture. Main course was some type of grilled water fowl (didn't recognize the Kanji), some interesting type of vegetable or seaweed, and a stuffed onion with potato and venison (want to try at home). A house red wine was included. For some reason, Japanese serve red wine chilled. Even if it is very good. More on that later...

After the lunch we went above deck for a great view of Tokyo and Yokohama from the water. Some of the sights were the Rainbow Bridge between Tokyo mainland and Odaiba and the air hole for the tunnel between Tokyo and Chiba. The tunnel is at least 2 miles long and the air vent is the size of a baseball stadium.

There was a small violin, piano, voice Christmas performance. Japanese have translated most of the Christmas classics from English so there was a mixed bag. Music is still tough to understand but I wonder how well it was translated. Is it word for word, same meaning, or just same melody. Either way, I got a little teary. For all of the amazing experiences I have had in Japan, and all the fun I've had this past week, there is no place like home for Christmas. Christmas is special and this is definitely the hardest time to be away.

On that note, I can't be more thankful for my host family. They are obviously the best in the waseda program, and probably the best family to be with in Japan. Time, me being able to speak and understand more and more, and the fact that host mother and father are the Japanese copies of my parents have made me very much a part of the family. The decision to stay with a family is one of the best I have made in my life. A year is a long time, and being in a dorm seems less and less attractive an option each day. At this time of hte year, I'd probably just be consuming vast amounts of alcohol if I lived in the international dorm. Or maybe I'd be home, which would be great for December 23rd to 29th, but after that I think I made the right decision to stay here, surrounded by Japanese to get that language going. And its definitely happening...3 months, they don't lie.

We hit up COSTCO afterwards. Probably the widest building in Tokyo.

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Photos

The fam
We get some weird looks. 5 normal japanese people, 2 gaijin, and not even 2 gaijin that look the same

Tree
Everywhere in Japan

Bar
Drinks on the house!