First, a little background on Christmas in Japan. This is definitely, noticeably, the Christmas season when you turn on the TV or are shopping in a commercial district, same as in America, but I guess the difference is, when you get into the residential areas, you can't really tell. The typical thing to do on Christmas if you're Japanese is to either stay at home with the family if you're married, or if you're young and single, it's a nice holiday to go out on a romantic date. If you're of the first persuasion, a really common thing is to get Kentucky Fried Chicken for Christmas dinner, for reasons no one has been able to clearly explain to me. Perhaps that was the chain that first made a really big deal of decorating restraunts for Christmas in Japan. It's a bit of a mystery. It looks to me like the Mos Burger (a big gourmet burger chain) has been trying to get in on some of that action, but I don't know how much success they're getting from the "Merry X-Mos" ad campaign. Anyway. The holiday is kind of seen as a romantic holiday for young people in love. Another big difference is that very few businesses and almost no people put up christmas lights and all. From what I've come to understand, an actual Christmas tree is fairly common, but illuminations, as Christmas lights have come to be called here, are pretty rare. Maybe it's that the lights are more expensive, maybe it's because it's a very energy-conscious nation, but the streets are definitely dark (although, admittedly, this is Gunma we're talking about - maybe more towards Tokyo, more people decorate). However, the spirit is still there, I'm doing Christmas-oriented lessons at my elementary school, and the kids are digging it. It's funny - I sometimes see racks of Christmas cards set up in stores, but Christmas card giving is not so much a Japanese thing - New Year's cards are MUCH more in demand. The cards in the racks, therefore, are largely written in English - they're targeting the gaijin market! Very interesting. ^_^
A big thing to do when the Christmas/New Year's holiday comes near is to have an Enkai with your co-workers (or just general friends). An enkai is a dinner party at a Japanese-style restraunt or ryokan (Japanese-style hotel). Sometimes they are just for an evening, but often they are overnight. At these parties, people often let go of all the inhibitions they usually have around the office, and cut loose and eat all the fancy food they want, and drink all the alcohol they want, and the mood is definitely informal and the idea is to improve cameraderie (spelling?) in the workplace. It definitely works, too. The enkai restraunts and fancy ryokans do big business this time of year, and many people have a wonderful time at them. Including us!!
The enkai that I attended Friday evening and Saturday morning was for all the assistant language teachers in the Gunma prefecture. It was advertised for a long time on the Gunma Jet website - www.gunmajet.net - they will probably be posting some photos and whatnot there soon. About 40 ALTs from all over the region attended, some came from pretty far away. It was really convenient for me and the people living in Shibukawa, because the enkai was held at a ryokan by a lake really near Mount Haruna (name literally means "Name of Spring), which is the closest mountain to Shibukawa. It was held at the Yuusuge ryokan, which was a really goregeous place with a nice onsen (ON-sen, Japanese style indoor/outdoor bath and/or hot spring) on premesis, and it was right on the lake. However, to get there, you had to drive up these really narrow, twisting roads in the dark. Now, driving on these roads even in ideal conditions is no picnic - they're pretty narrow, pretty steep, and have a lot of hairpin turns and double-backs. However, in winter, it gets really foggy, and we had trouble seeing five feet in front of the car. Scary times. We were lucky it hadn't snowed yet. We all got there and back safely, though, so enough caution was taken.
Dinner began at 8:30, and we had dinner with karaoke and nomihodai (all you can drink) for two hours. It was definitely interesting times. Here's some photos:
The spread, before everyone got in
The first to sit down, that's Diana smiling at the camera
Each place setting was the same, and each one was superb.
The group at my table. For those of you unfamiliar with ryokan etiquette, each ryokan has its own unique style of Yukata (relaxing robe). One of the first things you do when you get to your room is change into your yukata, and you stay in that all evening. We didn't just all randomly decide to wear the same thing.
The group starts to spread out a little, and the drink starts to flow more freely. That's Jonas, me, and CJ from left to right. CJ is a total ham when it comes to karaoke. Fun times. We started with Christmas carols, moved on to 70's classics (Get Down Tonight, Jungle Boogie, etc.) and from there, whatever fun.
A general idea of the scope of the party
The karaoke becomes more animated. CJ and, um, I think that's Christine are early casualties.
We also had a secred santa gift exchange - these were some of the gifts.
After we finished dinner and karaoke, everyone went to the onsen and relaxed for a bit. The party lasted far into the night, but onsen tends to relax me to the point of sleepiness, and I was an early casualty. I only lasted until about 1:00.
This is the view of Lake Haruna, taken from the window of our room.
A little floating dock on the lake
Chau, Rebecca (?) and me
The outside of the onsen
Well, that was pretty much our time. It was an absolute blast.
I did find out one very interesting thing on my way up Mount Haruna, on the roads with all those narrow, steep twists and turns. I used to watch an anime series called Initial D, which is a series about illegal street racing in the mountains of remote Japan, very cool, very well done. Much drifting is done around steep mountain turns, very suspenseful. I found out that the series is based on THE TOWN I LIVE IN!! It's based in Gunma. The mountain that the main character races on all the time is called Akina (literally, "Name of Autumn"), which is a deliberate misnomer of Haruna. The town the characters live in is called "S-city," and it's pretty obviously Shibukawa. The opposing racing club is called the Akagi Red Suns, and Akagi is a mountain that's, like, right over there, I see it every day. The main character works his day job at an Eneos gas station, and there's an Eneos RIGHT BY MY HOUSE. It could be the one! There was even Initial D merchandise for sale in the ryokan we stayed at. I call that pretty darn funny. However, after driving on that road, I have a new respect for how INSANE street racing is. Apparently, there are still many kids who go up on that mountain to drift, but the local government installed speed bumps and speed strips as a preventative measure. Interesting stuff. Here's some links about Initial D, if you want to know more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_D
http://www.crunchyroll.com/showseries?id=60
By the way, I'll be posting more about where I work and what I do, but I can't really send photos, since the principals might have issues with photos of the kids being seen on the internet, where anyone can look. Therefore, if you want to see pics of the places I work and the kids and events therein, please post a comment to the blog or send an e-mail to jeff.caffery@gmail.com, and I will verify who you are and send out a mass e-mail to everyone with many pics. Hopefully this will work.
It was awesome to hear from you, Charles, Aunt Suzy, Trent. Have a happy holidays! Charles, you still need to send me your address so I can send you some CC Lemon. My back is feeling much better, for those of you who were worried. Thanks for your concern. I've largely fininshed my Christmas shopping, and I'm going to get a car next weekend (finally), so hopefully things will get easier pretty soon, i.e. I will have more time to blog. We can but hope.
Ja, later everyone!!
1 comment:
Good pics. That was quite a Christmas spread of fine looking food you had there.
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