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Published: December 8th 2008
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Jammin'
Half the band. Gregg (guitar) and Blair (drums) and me Ahh the holidays! A time when we Americans reconnect with family, friends, loved ones and share gifts, holiday cheer, great food, and even a religious ceremony or two. In Boston, the prospect of waking up a freshly fallen snow on Christmas Morning is something I looked forward to during this season. Despite the frigid weather, there was always warmth in the old friends I would reunite with.
Fast forward to 2008 and I find myself several thousands of miles away from the people I have spent the past 24 Christmases with. A few weeks ago, I missed my first ever Thanksgiving. Since there is obviously no Thanksgiving holiday in Japan, I found myself having an incredibly routine and normal day. Just another Thursday, but this time I got to spend loads of time checking ESPN.com for football and basketball updates! I’m sure everyone ate enough to make up for my absence.
What Japan lacks in Thanksgiving it makes up for in Christmas. This is yet another example of how Japanese people have adopted a Western Tradition, yet probably can’t grasp its entirety or its facets. One day in mid-November, I went to my local grocery store and was
Clap yo hands!
Getting the crowd fired up! surprised to see the clerks decked out in red coats and Santa hats! A walk down the shotengai (shopping arcade) in Takamatsu will show you banners declaring “Happy Christmas”. Quick tangent: In the previous sentence, I wrote the words “show you”. If I were to say to my students “I’ll SHOW YOU a picture of my family”, they would burst out laughing. Why? “Show you” or “Shou-yu” in Japanese means “soy sauce”. You should know these things. Ok, back to the topic on hand. Yet, despite their knowledge of the EXISTENCE of Christmas, they are yet to master the individual rituals we’ve come to enjoy and stress out over. For example, they do not know that we exchange presents. This surprised me, since exchanging small gifts of sweets or trinkets is part of everyday life in Japan (it’s called “omiyage”). Maybe they can’t understand why would set aside a special day to do something as ordinary as giving gifts. I’m sure they are not aware of the Biblical Christmas story, and they are certainly unaware of the commercial bedlam that seems to overshadow everything else (I wanted to use a compound word involving the word “cluster”). All in all, it
Starry eyes
serenading the crowd will be strange to not celebrate Christmas at home this year, but luckily Japan still keeps me in the spirit while simultaneously scratching my head.
BUT, I won’t even be spending Christmas or New Year’s in Japan this year at all! A few months back (before the protests shut down the airports), I booked a flight to Bangkok, Thailand for a much anticipated 2.5-week tropical vacation! Of course, in light of recent events in Thailand, it did not look like a slam dunk. I was definitely up against the clock, weighing whetther I should cancel my flight in order to book something else, or hope that the protests would cease in time for my flight to land. Luckily, the organized protests flexed their muscles, and despite nearly crippling Thailand’s all-important tourism industry, dispersed from the airport allowing stranded travelers to leave and wide-eyed newcomers to enter. Needless to say, I am very excited to see Thailand. I’ve heard nothing but great things, and I can’t wait to relax on the beach and travel for cheap.
In other very exciting news, I have been playing in a band here for a few months and we had our debut concert this past weekend! We’re made up of all foreign English teachers, and we play mostly rock music. Our concert was a great success and we had about 40 of our friends show up to support us. We were the final act of a 4-band line-up, played an encore, and hopefully made some new fans. You can even see most of our show on Youtube - just search “paper tiger dime” and you’ll NOT see me. No, seriously. The club took this video and didn’t get me in the frame. I am in the top right corner - you’ll still hear me loud and clear though. Enjoy!
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elan
non-member comment
The Thrill is Gone
Dude, you rocked Higher ground!! Everything was all good until they showed your ugly mug on camera on that last song though... talk about tha thrill is gone, haha! Happy Christmas