The Friday before Christmas, my school had a "Chorus Concours," in which each middle school and high school class sang a song they'd been working on for weeks. With over 20 songs, and then songs for each grade, it got a bit long but was better than I expected. The worst part was the large awfully decorated Christmas tree on the end of the stage. There were three feather boas, white and pale pink, hanging vertically from random places. It hurt my eyes. But it was cute how nervous my classmates were, and fun seeing their excitement afterwards as they all shared how shaky their legs had been. With the whole second grade I sang "Joy to the World" in Japanese, after my friend had patiently taught me the words over and over the day before. It was a fun day, with everyone in good spirits, especially since it snowed for the first time during the morning. Everyone immediately opened the windows, as Hannah said her class did too, which just seems so Japanese. They do this sometimes when it's storming or really windy too, so they can feel the weather. In America, when it snows or storms, people might run to the windows, but not OPEN them. Here nature is just not shut out as much as in America, which is kind of cool but means inside it's really cold in the winter and hot in the summer, with bugs.
But on the cold note, they have a great thing called a kotatsu to deal with this. It's a low wooden table frame with a futon or thick blanket draped over it, then a table top over the blanket. Usually there is a heater in the table itself, or as in my house where just the carpet is heated, but the heat still gets trapped under the table. It's amazingly warm and comfortable, and brings people together because it's too cold elsewhere.
On Sunday the 22, I had my Rotary District Christmas party, where it was really nice to see everyone again. In the beginning, we all had to sing our national anthems, which I had missed last time. But fortunately, it turns out the other girl from America sings opera, so the American boy and I just let her take all the high parts. Then we all had to give two minute speeches in Japanese, without notes. I had written mine with the help of friends in school and memorized it the day before, and it actually went really smoothly. Then students going out next year did their best to give speeches in English, and there's a girl going to Illinois! After the speeches the "party" part started, and we played a card game, gestures, and bingo, which seems to be popular here. We had all brought $5 presents, which we got to pick from after getting a bingo. There must have been one left over so I got it for having the best speech, and it was a fluffy blanket so I was really happy :)
And finally Christmas itself! I had honestly not been looking forward to it, but it actually turned out to be a really nice day. The day before, a little fake tree had been put up, although we hadn't decorated it yet. So when I woke up before anyone else out of school habit, since I had school through the 24th, I decided to put everyone's presents under the tree. I was less stealthy than I'd hoped, first half running into my little sister on the way to the bathroom, then knocking over a ladder and making a huge crash, but it was ok! Everyone really enjoyed it when they woke up, like "Look! Santa-san came!" and set a cheery mood for the day, which everyone picked up. I spent most of the day cooking and baking with my sister, making beef stew and a Yule log cake, and we played Christmas music and it was very pleasant. Then I was like, "it would look much better if we decorated the tree before opening presents," so we finally did. We had a nice dinner and opened presents, and they really enjoyed the chocolate I got from home, especially pretzel m&m's. So overall I felt I successfully brought Christmas spirit to what would probably have been an ordinary day, so I was happy :)
A few days later, unrelated to Christmas, we had a mochi-tsuki party, literally "mochi making," an annual event held before the New Year. The process of making the mochi was very simple. Special sticky rice was soaked in water overnight, then steamed over a wood-burning stove in our small outdoor courtyard, where all of this was done. Then the rice was put in a big bowl and pounded with a large heavy mallet until it was a solid sticky lump, mochi. This was surprisingly difficult because the mallet was so heavy. The large lump was then rolled with cornstarch into smaller balls, and it was done! We dipped them in soy sauce and roasted them over a little fire, had them dusted with kinako (roasted soy flour), or ate them in a hot sweet red bean soup. The soup was my favorite, the mochi became melty and it was soo good. But now there is constantly mochi because we made so much.
I also ventured to get a haircut for the first time here, with Hannah. One of the American teachers at school had recommended a place that's near an international school and gets a lot of foreigners, but the directions were unclear. So we found a place, but I'm not sure if it was the same one. It was pretty amusing, we struggled along with the language barrier as best as we could. Hannah has really curly hair so her poor guy had quite a challenge. The stylists were almost all male, which my sister said is normal, while in America they seem to be mostly female. But in the end it was a success, and even though it was a nice looking place, much cheaper than I expected for Japan, about $28.
Also, I went bowling with some friends from school and there was an automatic shoe dispenser! So smart. At random times there was a "Moon Light Strike Game," when the lights were turned down and people came out with tambourines. If whoever was up got a strike if they were male or at least 9 if they were female (really??) or elementary students, they got to wear a lei for a while until someone came to take a picture of them holding a "Moon Light Strike Game" sign. I bowled unbelievably terribly all day, except for when it was my turn during one of these games, and I happened to get my only strike! Yay.
Andd now it's past New Years (Happy New Year!!) but that will be a new post soon.
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