Nippon::Part Three::Christmas

i wrote earlier that our christmas would be a little different  than the "usual," western style one but even i was surprised at how un-christmasy it was.

christmas in japan is commonly celebrated with christmas cake and fried chicken. most people aren't christian and don't believe in its true meaning, but there are a few who do santa and presents. my family doesn't whatsoever but they believe in cake and fried chicken ;)

christmas day started off with waking up at 5:30 and going on a run with my dad and little brother. we sat at the kotatsu (a low table with a heater underneath) when we got back and it wasn't until 7:00 that i realized it was christmas day! we all looked at each other with wide eyes, sheepishly giggled, and shouted MERRY CHRISTMAS!! to each other. later that morning my aunt and uncle came to pick us up and we left for our mini vacation. the drive took about 3 1/2 hours but we broke it up.

we went to a shinto shrine called konpira. we had to climb 900 stairs to reach the top but there were shops on the way that kept it interesting. plus a creepy middle aged man with his friends who tried to say something to me in english but his accent was so thick, i thought he was saying something in japanese i didn't understand. then he thought my brother was my boyfriend. my mom asked me who it was and i said no idea. the man's friends heard and said don't worry, just a weird man! haha.

after we visited the shrine, we checked into our hotel and oh baby, it was nice. i've stayed at about three hotels in my entire life so i'm easily impressed but man, i liked that hotel (EXCEPT that the creepy man was there with his friends! the hotel was 2 hours away from the shrine and it was about 4 hours since we'd seen them. what are the odds?!)  our christmas dinner consisted of putting half the ocean on a table and i loved it. a lot of it was formal japanese food that i'm not used to but it was fun, tasty, and so pretty. if there was an award for beautiful presentation, that dinner would've gotten it hands down. i ate so much it hurt to move afterwards. i probably say this too much to make it valid but i've never eaten so much in my life.

after we ate, we headed upstairs to put on our yukata and went to the onsen. most people don't understand why anyone would ever want to go to a public bath so i won't try to explain it other than don't worry, boys and girls don't mix and it's fun.

then we said happy birthday Jesus and went to bed. and that was our christmas :)