クリスマスin東京！ (Christmas in Tokyo!)

 First of all I would like to wish all you lovely readers a very Merry Christmas! I am also very sorry for the recent lack of postings. (I know you all must be going simply crazy not knowing what I am up to on this side of the world... ha!) My parents and both of my brothers have been in Tokyo for about a week and a half now and it's been a little hectic! This is my parents first time back to Japan since we moved away.. way back when.. in about 1993, so basically they have been trying to fit about 18 years worth of reunions into their little two week trip. I think this Christmas is also the first time that the 5 of us have all been together in quite some time.. I'd be more specific but I'm actually not sure of when the last time all of us were together. Anyways, it's been very busy (no time for jet lag!) but it's been a lot of fun!

Our dorm has become like a little family! We organized a 'Secret Santa' swap and made sure that everyone was covered and able to enjoy a nice Christmas away from home. Since my real family was here on Christmas I only spent a brief morning with all the 留学生（international students) on Christmas Day, it was a lot of fun though. Everyone came downstairs to open presents in our little basement kitchen, which was as decorated as we could get it. We even thumb-tacked socks to the wall as stockings!

I think it was some time in November that my mom sent me this little charlie brown Christmas tree. It had no decorations on it at first, but luckily my friend Dan got sent some ornaments, chocolates, and tinsel which we used to make the tree a bit more festive.

Our Christmas tree topper this year was an angelic Justin Bieber.. we cut him out from a People magazine that was also conveniently sent by my mom. 

At about noon on Christmas Day, I met up with my family and we all went to Shinbashi to a 焼肉(yakiniku -  grilled meat) restaurant with my whole extended family! In the above picture is from left: Brendan, Pampers, Big T, me, Aya, and Alex. For those of you who don't know, Aya is Alex's fiance! 

The whole gang! Not entirely where to start for naming everyone so I think I'll skip it, basically the man in the middle, Tatsuru, and the man giving the thumbs up on the top left, Yutaka, are my mom's two cousins. Everyone else is either a wife/husband or a child or a grandchild! It was really nice to be able to see them all again. There were a lot of 'remember when' and 'you used to be this big' talks and stories that day.

And now for a brief history of Christmas in Japan!

First off, it's not a national holiday (it was on a Sunday this year but usually it's just like any old regular day...). It's also super commercialized. Starting from mid-November (maybe even earlier) it seemed that every single store you went into played some variation of Christmas music. Or at least what they thought was Christmas Music, occasionally you would hear songs you recognize. Some examples, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and Last Christmas by George Michael.

Christmas in Japan is more like New Years Eve or maybe even Valentines Day. It's not the jolly, spend the day lounging by the warm fire in matching pajamas while it snows outside, read books, rent movies,and drink eggnog with your family kind of day that we're used to. Actually I don't know what I just described, I can't even begin to picture my family in matching pajamas, but you get the idea. Christmas Eve is a big night for couples in Japan, they typically go out to eat (yes, Japanese people do actually eat Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas! Kind of a weird tradition, but they had good intentions. Ovens in Japan are a rarity, and so are birds other than chicken, so instead of a big turkey the next best thing is chicken!) and couples also go look at イルミネーション（illuminations!) Christmas lights.

This was in 六本木（Roppongi), which is a nice area of Tokyo. The place that my parent's are staying is nearby so it was about a 10 minute walk to see all these pretty lights. I went here with a few friends and Brendan since he arrived a few days before my parents but on Christmas Eve (the day my parents got here) we couldn't really get through the massive crowds of couples to get close enough to see the lights. You can kind of tell how crowded this area got from the picture above, it was massively crowded, especially on Christmas Eve night.