Happy holiday season festivities...
This blog is proving harder to maintain than i originally thought. well, as promised, here comes another one....
AKEMASHITE OMENDETO GOZAIMASU!!! (happy new year) i hope everyone had happy, eventful Christmas and New Years celebations, i know i did. it all started on Christmas day. the company i work for organised a Christmas party for the weekend. we loaded 120 school children onto a bus and headed to the snowy Karuizawa Mountain ski resort where over the course of the Christmas weekend we held our party. what i had originally thought would be an enjoyable, somewhat relaxing camp turned out to be a hell of a lot of work!! i think i managed to fit in about 2 hours sleep, that combined with two full days of entertaining the kids and hosting numerous activities and games proved quite exhausting and when i returned home to Takasaki the Monday after, i was shattered and even a little homesick .... hey, it was my first and only bout since arriving in Japan over 6 months ago so cut me some slack, ok! i was surprised at how much i was missing mum's Christmas dinner and the whole Thomson family-Christmas day ritual which i knew was happening without me for the first time. despite this, i soldiered on through the weekend. it wasn't all bad though, actually it was great to spend Christms day with a huge group of excited kids (some of the youngest being only 4 years old) and to reminisce about what the day meant to me when i was that age. there were lots of games like Pass the Parcel, decoration making, and even a pinyata full of chocolatey goodness (this was my favourite activity for obvious reasons). there was beautiful, thick snow outside the windows and our hotel was really lush. on the last day everyone gathered around the Christmas tree and myself, Sarah and Megan handed out hoards of presents to all the kids - needless to say their excitment was insurmountable. Japanese don't really celebrate Christmas day although you wouldn't know it, they go all out with lavish decorations and tacky 80s Christmas music everywhere you go but the day itself is usually just like any other, so for the kids, to be receiving presents was a big treat.
My real Christmas day happened on the 27th. some friends of mine who live in an apartment block together organised a Christmas dinner for a big group of us foreigners. there was chicken (couldn't find any turkey), mashed potatoes, pumpkin, delicious gravey and tastey apple crumble with vanilla icecream (mmmm, thanks Megan!). the meal was perfect, i was full and having slept the entire previous day, managed to curb any lingering homesickness, thankfully it hasn't returned but next time i'll be prepared!!
New years eve was spent in bustling Tokyo city. a small group of us headed to Shinjuku to a club called The Wire Bar which isn't dissimilar to The Press Club in Brisbane. there, after paying a cheap 2000yen entry fee, we each received complimentary candy-parcels and indulged in free sake which was flowing all night (ouch!). the Djs played really cool music and i danced my arse off to the likes of such dancefloor classics as "Fire in the Disco" and Talking Heads "Psycho Killer". needless to say i was trashed by the time we left but it was a great night out and well worth the 3 hour train trip back to Takasaki the next morning. we got back at 8am (ouch again! it was the sake....)
check out the photos here.
AKEMASHITE OMENDETO GOZAIMASU!!! (happy new year) i hope everyone had happy, eventful Christmas and New Years celebations, i know i did. it all started on Christmas day. the company i work for organised a Christmas party for the weekend. we loaded 120 school children onto a bus and headed to the snowy Karuizawa Mountain ski resort where over the course of the Christmas weekend we held our party. what i had originally thought would be an enjoyable, somewhat relaxing camp turned out to be a hell of a lot of work!! i think i managed to fit in about 2 hours sleep, that combined with two full days of entertaining the kids and hosting numerous activities and games proved quite exhausting and when i returned home to Takasaki the Monday after, i was shattered and even a little homesick .... hey, it was my first and only bout since arriving in Japan over 6 months ago so cut me some slack, ok! i was surprised at how much i was missing mum's Christmas dinner and the whole Thomson family-Christmas day ritual which i knew was happening without me for the first time. despite this, i soldiered on through the weekend. it wasn't all bad though, actually it was great to spend Christms day with a huge group of excited kids (some of the youngest being only 4 years old) and to reminisce about what the day meant to me when i was that age. there were lots of games like Pass the Parcel, decoration making, and even a pinyata full of chocolatey goodness (this was my favourite activity for obvious reasons). there was beautiful, thick snow outside the windows and our hotel was really lush. on the last day everyone gathered around the Christmas tree and myself, Sarah and Megan handed out hoards of presents to all the kids - needless to say their excitment was insurmountable. Japanese don't really celebrate Christmas day although you wouldn't know it, they go all out with lavish decorations and tacky 80s Christmas music everywhere you go but the day itself is usually just like any other, so for the kids, to be receiving presents was a big treat.
My real Christmas day happened on the 27th. some friends of mine who live in an apartment block together organised a Christmas dinner for a big group of us foreigners. there was chicken (couldn't find any turkey), mashed potatoes, pumpkin, delicious gravey and tastey apple crumble with vanilla icecream (mmmm, thanks Megan!). the meal was perfect, i was full and having slept the entire previous day, managed to curb any lingering homesickness, thankfully it hasn't returned but next time i'll be prepared!!
New years eve was spent in bustling Tokyo city. a small group of us headed to Shinjuku to a club called The Wire Bar which isn't dissimilar to The Press Club in Brisbane. there, after paying a cheap 2000yen entry fee, we each received complimentary candy-parcels and indulged in free sake which was flowing all night (ouch!). the Djs played really cool music and i danced my arse off to the likes of such dancefloor classics as "Fire in the Disco" and Talking Heads "Psycho Killer". needless to say i was trashed by the time we left but it was a great night out and well worth the 3 hour train trip back to Takasaki the next morning. we got back at 8am (ouch again! it was the sake....)
check out the photos here.
posted by Emily Thomson at 10:33 PM
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