Christmas in Japan

A bunch of my friends in the area had decided to stay in Japan over the holidays for one reason or another so my friends Alice and Sean decided to have people over to their place on Christmas so that everyone had somewhere to go (and that no one was left alone and crying in their apartment). It was christened the Orphans’ Christmas Party.

After work on Christmas Eve I went to the grocery store so that I could pick up stuff to make Nanaimo bars, mimosas and my Christmas breakfast. I had been planning to have croissants and nutella all week so I was super excited that I was able to get the last 4 mini-croissants at the bakery.

When I got home I started to whip up some Nanaimo bars for people that would be at the party the next day because I felt I needed to bring in a little bit of Canada considering that everyone there would be American. They turned out super de-lish and the whole pan was gone by the end of the party. What really surprised me was that half the people there had never even heard of Nanaimo bars! What sad lives they must have led. I’m glad that I could show them the light.

I skyped with a bunch of people back home on Christmas morning and opened presents with family back home so I still got to have a taste of the Christmas I was missing. It was great to get to talk with everyone and catch up.

Around noon Graham came by and picked my up for the party which was in full swing by the time we got there. Isaac had made some homemade eggnog that was so potent that I was hesitant to drink it around any open flames! Sean made everyone fantastic eggs benedict as we settled around the tv to watch Christmas specials from back home.

We wanted to have a traditional Japanese Christmas dinner of KFC and strawberry shortcake but you have reserve your bucket of chicken in advance and none of us knew enough Japanese to do that! Instead we decided to go to a Chinese restaurant by the name of Very & verY. Unfortunately the place was full by the time we got there so we headed to the mall to find something there.

I cannot describe to you how very strange it felt to be walking around a mall at 8pm on Christmas day! But that’s what we did and we found a pretty decent Chinese restaurant too.

And so ended my first and only Christmas in Japan. All in all I would say that it was a pretty good Christmas even though I was half a world away from my friends and family. Next year I plan on going big for Christmas to make up for it. Prepare yourselves.