'Twas Christmas Eve..

Yoko and Richard learn about advent calendars..



December 22nd For all you astronomy fans out there, this year's Winter Solstice (冬至) coincided with a rare lunar eclipse (月食). Regrettably, Tokyo was being treated to pouring rain at the time, so I was unable to see the moon :'( But to celebrate the Winter Solstice, I had pumpkin salad for lunch with Fumiko, my student, and that night, I took a yuzu bath (an orange citrus fruit)- a combination which is said to prevent one from catching a cold the following year!

December 23rd National holiday- fake-early-Christmas day!!!

The itinerary was:

Watching Tron Legacy  ..

Listening to the Salvation Army play ..

Christmas Karaoke ..

 Christmas dinner..

and ..

Christmas Dinner Posing with Illuminations

A lovely day with lovely people :D

 

December 24th Merry Christmas Eve!

Quote of the day: 

Me: What will you be eating for Christmas tomorrow?

10 year old student: Hamburger!

A Christmas message and an apology..

 

December 25th I worked a full day at AEON..

..followed by meeting Branwen (my school friend) and her friends at a British pub.

 Dipping nachos into cranberry sauce!

The night ended at a club, where I got to speak to my favourite Japanese DJ, Shinichi Osawa. Christmas magic!

It's a Saturday night, but there are no cocktails in sight!
I'm keeping warm under my kotatsu (table heater) while studying for my JLPT Japanese exam tomorrow (on Sunday 5th) requiring listening, reading, grammar and kanji knowledge.
Wish me luck!

Edit: I'm confident I did well enough to pass :) Yay! Wow, it felt just like being at school again. A Japanese-speaking school, that is.

F is for..

Festive

Happy December everyone! I've heard it's been severely cold back in the UK so please take care everyone!  After enduring the hottest summer in Tokyo ever, I'm glad I didn't go through the coldest November in 17 years! 

As it's the 1st of December, I've put up my decorations and I'm playing christmas music. We've also been giving christmas-themed kids lessons at Aeon too.

Thank you to my Grandma for the surprise advent calendar:





Of course Japan isn't a Christian country, so there are bound to be a few differences...

A christmas cake in Japan is a white sponge with strawberries and cream:

Only £23.76!!

Santa is Japanese and has bad teeth:

Christmas tree decorations can be a little different...

But I'm very happy they put up a Coca-Cola advert on my way to work!!

 "Let's unwrap happiness"

F is for..
Fall

Ginkgo trees (which smell awful but look lovely) in Hikarigaoka and trees in Nerima

F is for..
Food

Giant apples @ £3.04 each!!

Yakitori,  a photo of my very first meal in Japan, and raw duck

Natto, fermented soybeans (I wasn't smiling after trying it!) and making takoyaki (octopus balls)

 Sushi at a 'train sushi' restaurant and grilled tuna head!

E is for..

E is for.. English (in Japan)

English is taught in Japan from Junior High school (from 11 years old) often until University. So, as someone who studied French from 10-16, you'd think that the Japanese would be more profficient at English than I am at French.

Unfortunately, the English education system in Japan, is for lack of a better word, fail. Since the learning system is biased towards passing paper exams, the focus is pulled away from actually speaking the language. Good for me, since I have a job at Aeon, but bad for the population of Japan.

Another issue is the pronunciation difference between Japanese and English. Firstly, English has many more vowel and consonant sounds, and has a variable rhythm, whereas Japanese assigns each syllable its own 'beat', so that it's a lot more static and each word is clearly pronounced. This leads to a few misspellings..

So I would like to share with you some amusing English failages I've come across in Japan :)

(I apologise in advance for the rude ones, and I do not mean to offend anyone)

• Misspelled Signs

A street in Shinjuku with tiles pointing towards famous world sites,
you all know the Gland Canyon, right?

• Interesting Product Names (perhaps many Japanese people have always aspired to have the body of Jesus..)

Actually tasty

Also tasty

 

You want a loan, you say? Then what better company to call than
NoLoan!!??

• Misspelled Menus

 

•  Grammar gone out the window

•  Interesting Shop Names

 

• Finally.. Miscellaneous (aka.. what???)

---
Although it's getting cold and the air is so dry it hurts my nose to breathe outside, and even though I've conceded to working on Christmas Day again, Winter brings snowboarding, hot springs and vacation time! Can't wait!
In my personal news, I'm going to India in February to visit my friend Kartik! Got the time off work, just looking for flights now ^^
Edit: Flights booked for February 9th to Hyderabad, India :)