Have a very Kentucky Christmas!

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The first snows arrived this week, and although it was exciting to see my car covered in a dusting of snow, and the surrounding mountain peaks all white, I was glad they only lasted the morning - I expect in a few weeks we'll have tons, and I still need to get out marathon training this weekend. Luckily I got my snow tires fitted last week - although they don't look that different to me. I'm not sure what I was expecting - maybe some kind of hard core, range-rover style treads....but I'll trust that whatever they've given me will do the trick on the icy, windy mountain roads when the heavy duty snow sets in.

I taught my first Christmas lesson at elementary this week and had great fun with it. I wore a santa hat into school, played them festive songs and we played pass the present, with small gifts for all the kids in my classes (it's only a small school, so it didn't break the bank buying stickers and erasers for them). The little ones get so excited it was a real treat to teach them.

You'd imagine living in a Buddhist country there would be little evidence of Christmas going on, but you'd be totally wrong. The Japanese have embraced Christmas in a purely commercial sense - like home in the UK, every Supermarket has been blasting out Careless Whisper since the 1st of December, and most shops have a section of Christmas tat on display. Christmas here is not a national holiday, and it is viewed as more of a social event and a romantic time for couples, then a family time (which is more important during the New Year).

Part of my lesson introduced the topic of typical Christmas food - so I taught the kids about a"Christmas dinner" with roast turkey and all the trimmings....they didn't quite get the gravy thing - I think most of them thought it was coffee. In turn, one of the teachers, Tomono-sensei, explained to me that the typical Christmas meal for the Japanese is Kentucky Fried Chicken. Those cunning KFC marketing gurus saw a juicy opportunity in the 1970s (when the Japanese were just starting to pick up on Christmas thing) to cement a tradition of "Kentucky Christmas" in a country where turkey isn't readily available. And it worked so well that now people can order their finger licking Christmas bucket of fun up to two months in advance. Initially I was highly amused by this, but reflecting on it, I suppose it is no different than the bizare range of traditions we've built up over the years - including the red santa introduced by Coca Cola and the card industries relentless production of Christmas cards....we are all inextricably caught in the marketing web.......bah humbug!

Confession.....utterly frivolous purchase of the weekend - a heated electric cushion for my computer desk seat. I am sat here writing this as snug as a bug on a warm rug....bliss.

Oh, and for those of you reading this who knew my last car in the UK, I "spotted" this car last weekend....this is the car they should of given me!!

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