Grocery shopping on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo is every bit as bad as grocery shopping on Christmas Eve in Belfast.  Normally I would avoid doing this but we only got back yesterday.  In Belfast, when I wanted to go food shopping before a major holiday, I would go to somewhere like Tesco in the middle of the night.  But here in Tokyo we don’t have 24 hour mega grocery stores. Normally I don’t miss them but being able to go to one shop would have made things easier today.

The first shop I went to was so crowded it was hard to get inside.  I persevered as it’s the only local shop where I can buy cheddar cheese.  The second shop I went to wasn’t much better. I wanted to see the display of crab and fish but I couldn’t face fighting my way through the crowds to do this.  I quickly decided that we weren’t going to have any traditional Japanese New Year food and instead bought the ingredients for making chicken soup, Irish stew, and chili.  The only Japanese thing I bought was a black Ebisu stout in the hope that I can use this instead of Guinness in my stew.

I’m also not going to eat soba to welcome the New Year.  Instead I’m thinking about chocolate and champagne, though neither of those things is likely to help me have a long life.

Happy New Year!

Marty and I spent a day at Disney Land so that we could watch the Hallowe’en parades.  He loves the silly songs and dances that the audience are taught.  I was impressed with the food.  We had a beautifully presented meal at the Blue Bayou restaurant.  My starter had a spider’s web drawn on the plate.  I don’t know what it was drawn with as it was so pretty I didn’t want to make a mess of it by eating it.

Scallop Starter

My dessert was shaped like a dragon. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but the sweet potato cream was lovely, though I still think that food shouldn’t be purple.

Dragon Dessert

The storm has passed.

Calm After the Storm

No More Rain

I have learnt many things since coming to Japan but I’m not always conscious of having learnt them.

During the summer I was taken on a boat trip on the Aegean sea.  It stopped a few times so that we could swim but the sea was cold and I found it more enjoyable to sit on the deck and read.  During one such stop there was suddenly a lot of commotion.  My little sister was screaming and running away from Mehmet, the captain.

Mehmet had gone diving and returned with an octopus.  He had put this on his head and was chasing the woman and children around the boat.  He came rushing up to me and waited for me to run away.  But sticking an octopus on your head is not going to scare me.  Even threatening to put in on my chest is not going to have much effect.  I have eaten small octopus whole, I have seen them on sushi, freeze dried as snacks, and had them cooked in batter.  A live one is not a frightening thing and certainly not one that’s safe enough for a person to carry about on their head.

Mehmet and the Octopus

On Saturday I went to watch Sumo.  This wasn’t on my list of things to do in Japan.  When I saw it on T.V. I found it really hard to watch the huge half-naked men slapping themselves and each other.  But Marty managed to get tickets and he wanted me to go with him.

Since moving to Japan I have started to pay attention to the flexibility of clothing.  When going out for dinner to a new restaurant I think of things like “how comfortable is it to kneel in this outfit”, or “are these socks O.K. if I have to take my shoes off”.  For watching Sumo the web was telling me that people wore “smart casual”.  In Japan this usually means some sort of skirt for woman.  Our tickets placed us in a “mass” seat.  This is quite a small area of the floor with four cushions to seat four people. I also knew that we would be there for at least four hours.  Looking through my wardrobe I managed to find a skirt that had lots of material that would make it easy to move around in.  I also decided to wear leggings underneath which made it very easy for me to sit either cross-legged or on my knees.

When we got there the seating area was a bit smaller than we were expecting but we managed to fit in and got fairly comfortable.  There was some sort of ceremony going on in the ring but I realised that not many people were paying attention. There was a stadium wide party going on with people chatting, eating, and drinking.  It reminded me of the parties that take place around cherry watching season or the large fireworks displays.  Thousands of people crammed together sitting on the ground enjoying themselves.

The top division goes on last with elaborate ceremonies.  By the time this started the arena was completely full and the audience was paying a lot more attention to the ring, yelling and chanting for their favourite Sumo stars.

Yokozuna Performing the Ring-Entering Ceremony

I enjoyed the whole thing much more than I was expecting.  We were with people who were really into Sumo that explained the rules, traditions, and personalities.  Their enthusiasm was infectious and I found myself wanting the Rikishi they supported to win their bout.

Sumo Fight

I don’t see Sumo becoming my favourite sport but I do think I would go back and watch another tournament.

It’s been a bad Japanese morning.  As I find it hard to understand people on the phone I try to avoid calls with strangers.  This morning, in my half awake state, I answered a call from a phone number I didn’t recognise.  From what little I could understand the caller had dialed the wrong number.  At one point during the short conversation the person I was speaking to said “Hai, wakarimashita” and I was so busy thinking that I was glad that at least one of us had understanding that I missed the rest of the sentence.

After I hang up I decided to comfort myself with reading some English.  But within 5 minutes of starting the intercom in the apartment sprung to life and an automated female voice started to speak.  I’m glad the building wasn’t burning down because the only word I caught of that announcement was “everyone”.

I went out today looking for the cherry blossom trees I could see from the  balcony.  I didn’t manage to find them all.  I have no sense of direction and managed to get lost even though I was trying to follow the river.

Cherry Blossom at Sumida River

The wind has been picking up and I was worried that all the flowers would have blown away.  There are still trees in flower and I got to stand under them and watch the blossoms fall like snow.

Cherry Blossoms Covering the Roads

I love the wooden floors in our apartment but I do tend to worry that they are never clean enough.  One of my friends joked that I should buy a pair of slippers with built in floor clothes so that I could clean simply by moving about.   And tonight I did just that.

Cute Floor Cleaning Slippers

I’ve been disappointed by the lack of winter weather in Tokyo.  My friends, who don’t live anywhere near me, keep talking about snow.  I would like to see some snow.  It was snowing briefly when I was in Northern Ireland but rushing through some wet slushy snow when walking to an airplane didn’t really count.  I want to spend time looking at snow and taking pictures of the world when it goes white.

The weather in Tokyo has been mild but it’s not overly warm inside today.  I have goosebumps on my arms as I write.  I should probably put the air heater on but I much prefer the underfloor heating.  Pity I can’t type and warm my arms up on the floor at the same time.

There has been a lot of noise today because of the gale in Tokyo.  In Northern Ireland we used to live in an old house and the wind could actually sound as if it was howling – very Gothic horror movie.  Here the wind sounds like a fan blowing.  Probably because the wind is coming in through the kitchen fan and the air vents.  For whatever reason I find the noise here much more irritating and keep glancing at the kitchen and wondering why we haven’t turned the fan off.  Hopefully the wind dies down soon.

Next weekend we are going to go and look for snow.

Apartment View towards Fuji

Today is the national holiday that celebrates the Emperor’s Birthday.  As it’s the start of our Christmas break we thought it would be fun to order some Christmas food from KFC.  We didn’t get our order in on time for the Roast Chicken Barrel but we did manage to get premium chicken breasts filled with a strange white, vegetable and shrimp sauce.  I wasn’t sure about the sauce at first but it was actually quite nice.

Christmas Dinner KFC Style