Refuge of a Maladjusted Moose

Christmas was a few days ago now and I thought I should post a bit about how I spent the holidays and how I intend to spend the rest of them.

My holidays started on the 23rd. Well at least, that was a day off Lok had in the run up to Christmas. December 23rd is the Emperor's Birthday and is therefor a National Holiday here in Japan. We took the time to bake Sweet Potato cake's for Lok's Colleagues and have Shabu Shabu (a kind of hot pot dish that involves cooking very thin slices of meat in a pot of boiling stock for a very short amount of time). It worked out pretty well even though we are sure we prepared it wrong. Still it was a chance to eat a lot of meat, which we don't get to do often.

The next day it was back to work (well not for me) as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are just another holiday over here. In the evening though we were able to eat a few things we'd been missing. Treating ourselves to food stuffs that are more difficult to find over here such as mozzarella, cheddar cheese, balsamic vinegar and cured ham. I was surprised how much I missed cheddar cheese.

On Christmas Day, as luck would have it, there was a Christmas Party being held that I was invited to and Lok had to attend through work. It was mostly for the benefit of a group of children who all get help from a teacher we happen to know. So we ate some Japanese style Curry, played a few games (..badly), and there was cake (bonus). There was also a couple of children's stories that were read out during the party. What was interesting (to me) about these was the methods used. One was read out by someone wearing an apron. Using said apron and numerous felt figures in the pouch in order to tell a much more visual story. The other method was essentially an over sized picture book that had been placed into a wooden frame. This was made to look like a small scale theatre. I don't know why there things stuck me as interesting, I guess I just found it an interesting way to make things a bit more visual.

On boxing day I had to work. I had a lesson in the afternoon. Fortunately it went better than expected.

That brings us almost up to now. We are currently both on holiday for about 9 days (including weekends) and are planning to use the time to do some much needed cleaning. We have already done 2 rooms in the last 2 days. Its going to be a long hard job I think, the windows of this place are filthy and may not have seen a good clean in years. And the cupboards are full of junk. Hopefully we will be able to get out a bit as well but we are conserving money for a later holiday at the moment so we probably won't get far. Also its been very cold so hiding in a heated sitting room is much more tempting.

This isn't anything like any other Christmas I've ever had, but it hasn't bothered me very much which is good.