I had to go to work this morning which was a bit naff. I ended up cleaning the junior high school and then participating in a little end of year assembly/speech thing. It doesn't feel that much like Christmas morning so it wasn't all bad I guess. I worked on Christmas once before when I worked in a charity shop part-time a few years ago anyway so whatever. Everyone apart from my supervisor is off work in the Board of Education today which took me by surprise a bit... but their big New Year holiday is just around the corner. I've taken the rest of the week off and I only have 40 minutes of work left until the 7th January. Hurrah

I had a really excellent long weekend (had Monday off for the emperor's birthday... cheers) just there. I was a bit miserable last week at work and I didn't know what I was going to do but everything worked out pretty well. I went to this small Christmas shindig in Tano on Saturday for kids/old women and Noah and I sang some songs. I had one or two people over that night which developed into a little festive thing. Andrew and I went up to this remote mountain house on Sunday and had a good time. We went with some of the girls from Nankoku (Marissa, Erin and Hank) and met up with Yasuda David and some cool Japanese people. I cut up stuff with a hatchet, made a fire and picked some fruit the next morning. Me man. Me at one with nature.

Last night we all headed (along with others) to Rock Green Cafe for a big proper Christmas dinner. I thought it was just going to be some music but some people had put loads of effort into making an amazing Christmas dinner. I was honestly blown away and impressed by everyone. Turkey, Christmas pudding... damn right. The weekend has cheered me up and I opened my presents this morning before work so it's all good. I might be heading up to Nankoku for some drunken Christmas karaoke... we'll see we'll see.

I'm going to travel Japan a bit in the next few days but I have no plans. My friend Joey has inspired me just to head off without caring. He left a few days ago and didn't know where he was going or what time the trains were leaving. I'll probably hit Osaka ad Kyoto on my travels though and I'll probably get the bullet train woohoo.

I found the following Japanese Christmas card to be distasteful and exceptionally amusing.