Christmas 2011: Separating the Women from the Girls

Winter break is finally here as of December 23! It was a bit late in coming, but that's okay; I needed a break from classes so badly that I didn't even mind that we weren't getting out of school until two days before Christmas.


I was a bit concerned at first since the homework I've been assigned seemed like a ridiculously large amount, but it actually hasn't been too bad, thanks to getting the largest assignment done while watching the Pack beat the Bears (YEEEEEAH!) on Monday morning. I've also been gradually chipping away at the pile of work each day, and I still have over a week of break left, so I'll probably be fine.

I was worried that Christmas was going to be lonely, but I'm lucky to have such great friends in this dorm, and we banded together to make our own little Christmas. Christmas in Japan is very different from how we do Christmas in the US; Christmas seems to have been imported to Japan primarily as a "date holiday" that is somewhat similar to Valentine's Day in the US (Valentine's Day in Japan is an entirely different creature. I'll be sure to do a post on that when it comes time>), wherein couples will spend Christmas Eve together, generally eating fried chicken (which you can get at your local supermarket, or if you're feeling PARTICULARLY fancy, the local KFC chain) and a cake known as a Christmas cake. Christmas cakes here are particularly elaborate and can cost quite a bit of money. Even the ones at our local convenience store, where Margaret and I thought we could find one for relatively cheap, had a base price of roughly $40. Unwilling to spend that much money on a cake just for the two of us, we decided to get a Christmas roll cake for the oh-so-high price of ￥525.

This is what a Christmas cake in Japan looks like.

This was our Christmas cake. We ate the entire thing too, just the two of us. :D

Our chicken boxes from the supermarket! So good, but SO MUCH FOOD.

 So, on Christmas Eve, Margaret and I enjoyed our chicken dinners and also our not-quite-Christmas cake and watched Hot Fuzz, and a good time was had by all.

For Christmas morning, we decided to make pancakes around 9:30 AM so we could Skype our families later that morning. I had gone in with low expectations, having never had Japanese pancake mix, but I was pleasantly surprised! I would even go so far as to say that it was probably better than a lot of the American mixes out there!

Good morning Margaret!

The ingredients!

This picture was taken by me, ten minutes after I had woken up. You can probably tell. xD

Batter!

These pancakes were so much better than I expected!

 We then had our alone time until 4:00 PM, when we were going to cook Christmas dinner... WITHOUT AN OVEN. I'm talking about the big time here -- where we separate the women from the girls. Each person was responsible for one dish: I made steaks (which I had never done before), Margaret made a broccoli stir-fry, and Inga made mashed potatoes. We also got rolls, because what kind of holiday dinner is complete without bread?? Since my dish was to be cooked last, I took a lot of pictures of the cooking process.

Hey there steaks, how's it going?

Margaret, going to town on some ginger.

The rolls -- they were the only kind the supermarket had, but they were really good!

Inga, peeling the potatoes.

Making steak: at first I was like this, but...

then I was like this

because they turned out like this!

Broccoli time!

Mashed potatoes!

The finished product!

It was good!

SO GOOD.

 The rest of this week has been pretty quiet; I've been keeping myself occupied with homework and running errands. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies with Amie to see 源氏物語 (English information here), and then on Sunday Margaret and I are going to Meiji Jingu for New Year's. It's the most crowded temple in Tokyo on New Year's; something like 200,000 visitors come over a period of 3 days (12/31 - 1/2), so it should be an adventure! I've also never been there, so I'm hoping to get some good pictures... we'll see about that though; I'm fully prepared to make another visit on a day when it's not quite so crowded!

Next week will be planning for a very exciting trip I'll likely be taking in March, more homework, and maybe another adventure in Tokyo if I can fit it in!