メリークリスマス！

Seasons Of Love- Rent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsj15wPpjLY

Upside Down- Jack Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYbNkE80NMo

Strut- Cheetah Girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpJfcj7FvTc

メリークリスマス (Merry Christmas)! I know it's a bit early but I have already decided on my New Years Resolution... it has been awhile since I last blogged and from now on I would like to try to blog at least once a week. I think it will be nice to try to be more consistent.


To try to sum up this last chunk of time I think I will start in the present and work backwards. I guess the best place to start would be by saying MERRY CHRISTMAS again. Christmas was a very different experience for me this year. In Japan, people don't really celebrate Christmas unless they have young children, even then they still might not celebrate (they do eat a Christmas cake, though). Most people actually work or have school on Christmas- for some reason high schoolers are the exception and we get a two week winter break that includes December 25.  That was the case for my host family, my host dad and sister were both gone on the 25th. So, in order to share a little of the US culture I gave my family Christmas presents, just a few days earlier so that our whole family could be there. They were super appreciative and even pulled out their Christmas tree (which they haven't put up since their kids were little) to hang up the ornaments I gave them! Christmas day it was just me and Okaasan BUT I also got to Skype in with my family back home and sit with them while they opened presents. Technology is amazing.

Christmas Eve is my dad's birthday. This year instead of celebrating his birthday with him (being in a different country makes that a bit difficult) I hung out with Evan, a fellow Northfielder. He is an exchange student in Hiroshima and one of his Rotarians was very kind in offering to bring him to Osaka to hang out for a couple of hours. We ate at an Udon restaurant then I took him to Namba. We hit up the two main touristy sites, the Glico Man and the Giant Crab. We also walked down the main shopping streets and went to Namba Parks. At the end of our time to hang out we went back the the Shinkansen Station where I got to see him off.

On December 22 I was invited, for the first time, to hang out with friends outside of school! I have done things with friends before but there has always been some time of school event connected with us hanging out. This time there were no ties. They took me to Osaka Castle, my first time being there, then we went back to one of their houses for snacks. That was also very neat because in Japan you don't normally go to people's houses. It was a great day and a lot of fun to be able to just hang out for a bit.

In the past couple of weeks I have been to a lot of Christmas parties, which I found interesting considering Japanese people don't celebrate Christmas. I had a Christmas party during a Rotary meeting (we played BINGO and a 'real life' Madlibs game), one at Tondabayashi Language School (ate a lot of food), one for English Speaking club (played Scrabble and ate chips), and one for Flower Arranging Club (we prepared a xmas dinner and did a Christmasy flower arrangement).

The other big thing that I have done recently is that I hung out with Tia in Namba. We watched the new 007 movie and at Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

As for the future, I am looking forward to New Years because that is Japan's big holiday. Instead of sending Christmas cards they send New Years cards called nengajo. Another friend from school has also invited me to go experience some type a traditional New Years event on January 3rd, I'll keep you posted. I also have a Japanese Speech Competition that I am preparing for on January 12th.

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.