Christmas Decorating in Japan

I have been getting little bits here and there that make me feel a little nostalgic for home. Especially when Christmas is coming soon, times when friends would have Christmas parties, or just fun hangouts. When you’re away from home, being alone for Christmas is probably one of the hardest feelings to have, if you are usually one to celebrate that is.

Subconsciously Thinking…As I walked around the mall, I saw a familiar banner that read, London Drugs. I was so excited, it was like seeing a familiar face…only it’s a store with products I knew they had and I needed. I picked up my pace. Every corner I turned it wasn’t there, but I could still see the store banner off in the distance so I knew I would be there soon enough. Suddenly a sales lady came out and told me the store was having a promotion, two free pairs of shoes just for walking into the store.

“No thanks” I told her, “I have to get to London Drugs”.

“Are you sure? They’re really nice!” From the window, they did look pretty nice.

“Yes! Now excuse me!” With that I walked off.

No to shoes?!?…

That was a dream I had a few nights ago. After pondering over that dream during my periods of boredom, I’ve come to the conclusion that I must be crazy to pass up free shoes for London Drugs! That, and I’m sure my subconscious was hinting something to me…that I’m probably missing home to the extent that I would pass up free merchandise, just to spend money at another store. Wow, if I do say so myself.

Culture Readjustment

When I first got here it was a bit overwhelming since I had a difficult time finding items that would otherwise be easy to find in Canada. I really admire the many foreign friends I met in Vancouver.Not being able to read or recognize products, even though what you need is probably staring at you on the shelf. Or judging by the label, you hope you bought the right thing…only to second guess you didn’t after you bought it, then later (thank god) it was the right product. Yes, this has happened to me on numerous occasions.

Aside from that, I really am enjoying my life here in Japan. I’ve enjoyed decorating my place – which is something that I really shouldn’t be investing so much in. The food is better, pricing is sometimes awkward, but for the majority works in my favor – like quality/nice sweaters on sale for $3. You don’t see that in North America!

Christmas in Japan

Christmas is the Japanese version of Valentine’s Day. It’s only for couples, while New Year’s is spent with family. It’s not that popular here in Japan, and so there is a lack of Christmas decor around the are, making it a tad bit difficult to get into the Christmas spirit. A little bit confusing because my body and mind are going “Woot! Merry Christmas!”, and then my mind will connect with my eyes, which gives me this sudden halting feeling. Like when Wild E. Coyote chases after Road Runner and goes into a skid stop. This ends up creating some sort of confusing dialogue within me:

Right Brain: “Wow, hold up! Something seems…different…”

Eyes: “Well, that store has a tiny tree in the window.”

Left Brain: “Toto, mental note, we are not in Kansas anymore.”

Body: “…So…are we still getting psyched for Christmas or what?…”

On a brighter note, there is a small illumination display downtown (Tenjin).

Illumination in Tenjin

 

Illumination in Tenjin

Christmas in Japan
Having my own place this can only mean one thing, Christmas Party! I plan to invite some of my teachers over for Christmas dinner / festivities. My first little order of business, getting a Christmas tree ^^. Found at Nitori (similar to Ikea), a $10 tree that actually comes with a few ornaments to start. Extra ornaments were added from the dollar store. It’s beginning to feel a bit like Christmas…
I was also surprised to find musical Christmas lights at the mall ($25). Something that reminded me of home, because our tree has musical Christmas lights^^. A little big for the tree, but it’s long enough that I can hang it up around the room to decorate, now I just need to find some garland.

Small Tree with ornaments: ¥1000@ Nitori

Sumo & Shingu Beach

While sumo is a popular sport, I’m lucky enough to be in Fukuoka where we have one of the Sumo tournament arenas. There is a practice arena near my high school where the junior level sumo wrestlers go to prepare for matches. Apparently it’s their daily routine to practice very early in the morning, eat, and then sleep the rest of the day – or at least until they fight.

Sumo Practice Arena

I got up at 6:30 AM (on a Sunday…), met up with a friend and arrived at the area at 8AM. Completely deserted, we headed over to building nearby where they supposedly stay, and stay they did.

My friend poked his head inside. No one in sight. “Sumimasen” (excuse me), he called out four to five times. Suddenly, who should appear but a junior sumo! Awoken from a deep slumber, came around the corner rubbing his sleepy eyes, and scratching his belly… o how appealing. The wrestler informed us that practice for the day was over. Opps! Sorry, please go back to sleep!

Junior Sumo Practice Arena.
The ring is covered with a tarp held down with car tires.

Shingu Beach

A bit disappointed that we missed the practice, we both agreed that we wouldn’t have made it any earlier if we did it all over again :P. So my friend took me to Shingu Beach, a beach that’s about a 15-20 minute walk from Shingu-Chuo station. The view was really pretty, but it was so windy and cold that our stay was probably no more than 5 minutes. However, the weather didn’t stop the many fishermen that came out that morning.

Shingu Island, off in the distance

Not the greatest of beaches in terms of look, or swimming. But it can be just a decent place to sit and relax near the water.

On the sea defense wall (to protect against strong currents).

View towards Shingu Beach

 

I Ate Fugu And LIVED! :D

I went out for dinner with my supervisor and her friend who is also a teacher from another school. We went into Tenjin and into this very stylish restaurant. Completely forgot the name but it was really cute. My supervisor has been going there since her university days, and really loves the place~I can tell why too~** 😀

Restaurant in Tenjin

Best of all, it was Happy Hour time!! Good food, and a nice little happy hour drink menu (alcoholic drinks for $1) if you buy 3 main dishes.

Ginger Wine – with a huge block of ice.

Ginger Wine: This can be drunk either on the rocks or with coke. Pretty good. It reminded me of this hot wine I had in Quebec, only this one is served cold. Delicate herb aroma and the taste was sweet & herby. Next time I’ll try with Coke.

 

Mango Rashu
– Mango yogurt slush, with real shredded mango, so yummy^^

Eating Fugu!
Blow fish. Probably the one thing I never really made a plan to try at any time I was in Japan. I do recall two years ago, how my friend Andy really wanted to try it…then we thought about how it would suck, being on vacation and being that “lucky” 1% that dies from Fugu poisoning.

Well I can now say that I’ve eaten Fugu and survived! 😀 I had it in tempura formation though, not sashimi. It was pretty much tasteless, but the restaurant matcha garlic seasoning made it taste really good. It’s a bit of a wet fish, and kind of reminds me of eating halibut…mmm…halibut.

However that’s in tempura style. I should try sashimi one day, if Andy’s voice doesn’t resonate in my head every time I consider it :P.

Tempura Fugu (Blow fish)

Kyoho Winery, Fukuoka

When thinking about Japan, in terms of drinks, we usually think of sake, and or shochu. I had no idea that Japan had their own wineries around town…lucky, there’s one relatively close in Fukuoka. A friend and I decided to do a day trip to the winery!

Kyoho Winery

It took us a little more than an hour and a half to train out to the country, and then a 5 minute taxi ride to the winery. As soon as we crossed the parking lot, before even setting one foot onto cement pathway we were hit by a strong smell of brewing wine! The area was a bit smaller than we anticipated, but it was still a beautiful sight. We wandered down to the “Wine Cave”, where they had old wine making machines. Some imported from France, and others as old as 1975.

Kyoho Winery’s “Wine Cave”

Inside the Wine Cave, there were old memorabilia’s of wine making technology.

 

Corridor of aged wine.

Oldest bottle of wine in Japan

Kyoho Winery Restaurant

After walking through the cave we headed to the restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is small but cozy, so if anyone is planning to go here it would probably be best to check out the wait and put your name on the list before wandering around. Or, there are picnic spaces available, which is what many did.

We sat outside, as it was such a nice day. The view was absolutely gorgeous!

View from the restaurant

Kyoho Winery Wine Tasting

Next, we headed down to the store. We both anticipated that there would be some sort of a tour with wine tasting after wards. There was no tour, but there was tasting!

The shop had gorgeous rustic wine barrels set up as tables. On top were the different wines to sample, but where were the wine glasses we wondered? No wine glasses available unfortunately, but there were plastic shot glasses! There were some wines that you had to go to the staff counter to sample, and those were either the popular or expensive ones.

Wine Tasting Enjoyments

I really like sweet wines, and usually not that big of a fan for dry. But I have tasted some good dry wines before. The wines I enjoyed most was the Riesling and Satsuma Wine. Other wines that were most enjoyable were their Strawberry Wine, Sweet Blueberry Wine, and Blueberry Sparkling Wine. Next time I head back I’ll probably get some bottles of those…sigh…I really miss Elephant Island.

Wine tasting in the shop,