Month: December 2015

Yesterday, I went to two bonenkai, year-end parties. Such a party usually takes place some time in December, and is an opportunity for friends or colleagues to go out and, well, get drunk. It is one of those times when even the Japanese let their hair down.

My first bonenkai was with my English students, we simply met in the afternoon in one of my favourite cafes and had some ice cream. Only one of them had known about the place before, and I have the impression that the rest enjoyed the food – mission accomplished! I even received a little present: a package of red rice – rice with adzuki beans – something that is eaten on special occasions only.

Afterwards, I went straight to another meeting with a friend of mine, and we had a real bonenkai dinner, although a slightly unconventional one: I took my friend down to Osaka, where until December 25 there is a German Christmas Market. Apparently, the Umeda Sky Building near Osaka Station houses the German Consulate of Osaka, and thus, on the plaza outside (or rather, underneath) there has been a German style Christmas Market for years already.

We had a blast – and an enormous amount of food! There were a number of stalls with food imported from Germany: Würstel! Laugenbrezen! Spätzle! Bratkartoffeln! Leberkässemmerln! And of course, lots and lots of Glühwein… The only food I found a bit overpriced were the cookies – 600 YEN for 8 Spekulatius is too much, even if you can only buy them there. The market had quite a good size, there was a large Christmas tree in the middle where people were performing Christmas songs (English ones, unfortunately), there was an Advent wreath and a small train and a carousel for children. There were also stalls selling Christmas items, but I did not find anything I wanted to have; I was looking at a nice traditional nutcracker though, but not for 11.000 YEN, sorry.

My friend, being from Eastern Europe, had never seen a Christmas Market like this before, and he followed my every step with respect to food and drinks. Once we were not hungry any more and had enough Glühwein for the night, we left and made our way down to the river, where until January 17 there is one of the main displays of the Osaka Festival of the Lights. We strolled along the river and underneath the lights near Osaka City Hall, the night was relatively warm (or was that the Glühwein?) and it was a very nice ending to a very nice evening.

I am not sure whether this has something to do with the Oseibo tradition I was talking about the other day, or with the end of the year or Christmas in general, but these days I keep receiving lots and lots of fruits. I have been given apples (from Aomori) and tangerines (from Kyushu) and even some small yuzu, Japanese type lemons. I also received yuzu marmalade, so those at least will keep for a while.

It’s interesting that fruits are considered a good gift, but maybe that’s because tangerines and apples are expensive, even now. Of course all of the fruits I received are immaculate and obviously store-bought, so I am wondering whether people would be happy about getting tiny apples like the ones that were growing in our garden when I was a child…

For quite a while now, I have been regularly meeting a Japanese woman. She is great fun and we do a lot of things together: cooking, going out, visiting temples and shrines,… Most of the time however, we meet in her house and then we sit and chat – in both English and Japanese. We have recently started keeping a short diary (mine is in Japanese, hers in English), and when we meet, we exchange it and correct the other’s mistakes.

I greatly enjoy meeting her, and we teach each other aspects of our culture. For example, she has helped me choosing the right Oseibo presents, and she has shown me how to cook some Japanese dishes. In return, I have recently explained why it is rude to have Christmas cards arrive after the holidays, even if they include new year wishes.

What I also enjoy is that – although she has never lived abroad – she is very open when it comes to answering more private questions about the Japanese. For example, she has explained that Japanese prefer group travel because of a need for security; and that they don’t bother much with elections because Tokyo (and thus the government) is “far away”.

She has also made a personal confession or two: She hopes that in her next life – she’s a practising Buddhist – she will get to marry a foreigner. Her biggest crush is Sean Connery (in his time as James Bond), which is something I don’t understand at all – I certainly draw the line at chest hair! She was greatly disappointed when I told her that all my European lovers were not very endowed in that respect, but then again, maybe Scottish men are different?

All in all, I hope that we can continue to build this friendship, and that it will last for a long time to come…

Yesterday, at 9:45 in the morning – I was barely out of bed – the doorbell rang and three men in work overalls carrying equipment and enthusiastic smiles were standing in front of my door. Their enthusiasm immediately gripped me as well when they explained they were here to clean my bathroom – hey guys, any time! – but it was a bit dampened when it turned out they only meant the bathroom drain pipes, and not the bathroom itself. When they had also finished with the kitchen pipes and I had signed some paperwork (of course), they had left, after maybe 10 minutes at most.

And in the early afternoon, just when I was finished with lunch, there was another ring at the bell; this time it was a postman carrying the official letter with information pertaining to “MyNumber”, a new kind of identity card for all residents in Japan, including foreigners. As far as I can make out, they need me to send in a photo for the real card; and that card will only be issued starting next year, so I have some time before I do anything with this (and write about it, too).

In any case, those two occurrences show that the Japanese do take their work seriously. Many small companies not involved in selling goods to tourists are closed in the weekends, and although mail is delivered on Saturdays (something completely unthinkable in Europe by now), even the postmen have Sundays off. I can only assume that in these two cases it was easier to come at a time when it can be hoped that most people are at home, so as to make things less complicated for everyone involved.

Still, I would wish that the Japanese would not consider Sunday morning as a good time to do anything…