Christmas Festivities in Kochi

Last Friday, several of my friends had a Christmas party at one of our apartments. We bought KFC (which is what you eat on Christmas in Japan, or so I have been told), brought side dishes and wine, and chipped in for ingredients for Julie to make us a Christmas cake. Christmas cake is not anything like fruitcake, and it typically has strawberries on it. We watched Christmas movies, played a Christmas trivia game made by Lindsay, and did a random gift exchange. I got a gift certificate I can use at the mall, which I should have no trouble at all spending. My present, a pillow that looked like a banana with a seal's features drawn onto it, went to Laura, who seemed to be quite happy with it. We tried to come up with a name for it, but I'm not sure we settled on one. Julie has a similar pillow, but hers is a plain banana, and it's called Spoonana (because it's good for spooning with). The others thought Laura's looked like a walrus (I still maintain that it's a seal), and the best we could come up with was Spoonanarus. Which sounds kind of like the name of some sort of dinosaur. Anyhow, it was a good party.

On the 23rd, I'll be celebrating Christmas with Tatsuya. Hopefully he won't work all day, but it's no major inconvenience to me if he does, because I have the next day off anyhow. So I don't mind staying up late. Although I had already bought him some gloves and a neck-warmer, I just recently found the perfect gift, so now he gets three things. On Saturday I found a men's sweater that is lined with a really soft fleece, just like the sweater of mine that he seems to like so much. I'm not sure the size is exactly right, but I think it'll be fine. So Tatsuya's Christmas present is a small collection of very soft things. We haven't made plans for what exactly we'll do to celebrate, but it's quite likely we'll go out to dinner, and I was thinking I might make a small Christmas cake for the two of us. I can make cake in my rice cooker; it has a very effective cake function. But it will have to be a non-traditional Christmas cake, since he doesn't like fruit.

And for Christmas Eve, Lindsay and Mary will come to my place for a sleepover. Not that many of us will be left in Kochi on Christmas since most of the group is either going home for vacation or taking a trip to somewhere warmer. So the three of us thought we'd spend Christmas Eve together. We'll probably watch more movies, and Lindsay said she could make us all pancakes for dinner, so I'm hoping that will become part of the finalized plan. It's nice to know that I won't be alone on Christmas morning, even if I'll still have to get up at the regular time and go in to work.

On the 25th, I get to go to AJHS and watch the students run their "marathon", a very long route around the neighborhoods and hills behind the school. I'm thinking it'll be pretty surreal to be at work, and doing something so pointless (I'm not even running), on Christmas Day. But hey, at least I might get invited to the bounenkai (end of year drinking party). A few of my friends on the staff are certainly gunning for me to go; they're already planning what songs I should sing at karaoke afterward. Though it's all pretty ridiculous, they do make me feel loved at that school. So working on Christmas doesn't really seem like that big of a deal.

However, if I do go to the bounenkai, I'll have to watch my alcohol intake (no mean feat at this kind of event) since the next morning I'm hopping a bus to Osaka and flying to South Korea with Jessica and Lisa. It's going to be a busy end of the year, alright. And I'm looking forward to it.