クリスマス

Christmas has come and gone in Japan just like any other day. I spent my Christmas morning at school participating in the year end volunteer clean up. I was partially wrong about what I said before about it not actually being a volunteer event, but rather mandatory. For those who didn't have sports club practice it was voluntary, but for the students who were here practicing for sports, their participation was pretty much mandatory. I guess technically you could say you didn't want to do it, but your entire team would look down on your for it most likely.

I ended up on garbage duty with the baseball team. A couple 2nd year students and I walked about the small residential area behind the school for about an hour picking trash up. Halfway through we me the younger brother of another 2nd year student who was outside playing. With nothing else really to do, and probably wanting to look cool with the older kids, he decided to help us out. He was actually really into it as well, and was diving into narrow spaces trying to find any piece of trash he could.

The principal let me go home at 12:30 so I met up with Keiko and we went to an electronics store to get her Christmas present (DS Lite).　Imagine that, shopping for a Christmas present, on Christmas! After we went for dinner to this really nice buffet style place. The shape of the buffet and style of plates is very American country buffet style, but the foods themselves are all very Japanese so it was pretty interesting, and delicious. Most of the ingredients and foods are all locally grown and handmade as well so it seemed very healthy.

Even though it didn't feel like Christmas at all, all in all it was a pretty decent day. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as well. All the best for you and yours this holiday season.