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Published: December 27th 2005
Oh Christmas Tree
Our christmas tree and presents... it comes up to my waist, but we like it.Merry Christmas everybody! A little late, I know... I hope everyone is warm and toasty. Here in Morioka it's been snowing like mad for the past few days, probably about 3 and 1/2 feet in the past 3 days, and it's snowing just as hard today. I borrowed a car from a co-worker while he's on vacation back to Canada so getting around hasn't been too bad, although driving is slow (I'm a Vancouver Island kid).
We went out for dinner and a movie the other night and returned to find a foot and a half of snow covering our car! We started digging it out and 10 minutes later we could leave the parkade. We pulled up to the pay machine and found it was going to cost us about $25 for parking (we thought the sign said $1/hour, but it's closer to $4/hour) and we didn't have small enough bills to pay so I had to run 3 blocks to find change in deep snow!
The snow's not all bad though, we just bought snowboards and all the gear and went to the park near our apartment to try them out on Christmas day. It was loads
Downtown in the snow.
Coming back to the car after dinner. of fun and made me appreciate the snow. We have season passes to a nearby ski hill, we figured we'd go all out since we've heard from many people that skiing/snowboarding is the only thing that makes winter bearable!
We were invited to a couple of Nomihodais which translates to "all you can drink" but it's more like a big party with all you can eat and drink. One was with an english conversation group who were having their year end party. It was at a Thai restaurant and was tons of fun! We met lots of people who spoke english (decently) and some other foreigners as well. Easily one of the best nights since we've been here!
The second was a welcoming party at my work. It was much more formal with lots of speeches in Japanese, very boring. It was at a fancy restaurant with a 4 course meal that had a $50 mushroom, cow tongue, oysters, a delicious squash soup and other good stuff, but the food got cold while we wait for the speeches to end. The restaurant is about an hour drive from my work, so they rented a bus and we all
More nomihodai
Dinner and drinks at the Thai restaurant. We played musical chairs all night so we got to meet everyone. piled in after work. On the way back we sang songs and people told jokes. The bus ride was definitely the best part of the night!
Christmas hasn't really felt like Christmas without family and friends, but we're making the most of it! We have a live Christmas tree (it comes up to my waist!) and Christmas lights in the shape of snowmen and lots of presents and Christmas cards (thanks everybody!).
Christmas dinner was yummy, we were going to go out but we didn't have any cash and the bank machines were closed, Japan is pretty much cash only... thankfully there's a grocery store near us that takes credit cards. So we made our first western meal with chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and squash (in out microwave which is also an oven!) plus a really good desert. When my boss started his company a baker let him set up his office in the back of his bakery so every year he buys Christmas cakes from him for the new employees and foreigners. It was delicious! The advertising slogan for their Christmas cakes is
"Original cake we made by warm heart.
This taste make people who eatthis
Playing in the snow
Trying out our new snowboards at the park. cake warm.
Please enjoy delicious time with your important person."
Kawaii! (Japanese for cute) a lot of the advertising is in english here and it usually makes no sense at all. At least with this one you can get what they're trying to say, even if it is bad english.. Maddy's gonna have her work cut out for her! Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody we miss you all!
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Zoe Dams
non-member comment
Happy New Year
Your blogs bring so much laughter -- great to see all the funny pictures and you having so much fun. All of us missed you at Christmas too. Had a very nice Christmas with Barb, Doug, Greg, Becky and Sean. Heard from Nolan by email the other day -- from somewhere in Africa-- small world hey. I'll send you some pictures of New year in Hawaii (: snorkelling, sufing swimming in warm water (got all sunburnt) Would really like to get up to Mount Washington skate-skiing but it has been warm and raining and the mountain didn't open. Hope it improves for them -- they would love some of your snow. Love ya lots HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE would love to hear from everyone else on this too