Here are the details for November:
I wrote 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Supposedly that makes me a novelist, but honestly what I chucked on the page really doesn't have the flow of a nice cohesive piece of work. When I can stand to look at it again, I will try to edit it into something readable.
My year 7 students also took part in the challenge, and set their own goals for the young writer's program. A couple of them almost made it to their personal goals, two kids wrote over 10,000 words. For a 12 year old, I think that's amazing. They did fundraising during November and early December towards their goal, and I'm happy to say they were able to raise ￥20,000 which they will donate to Save the Children in the new year.
Also in November, we had a guest appearance on the Arwen and Jason sitcom.....
Emma!
After a couple of days of sightseeing we let her loose on the city, and I think it managed to survive after the initial impact of awesome. Thanks for coming on the show!
Then there was a long stretch of work work work for the both of us until suddenly it was a week before Christmas and I realised that I hadn't made a Christmas pudding (this is usually something that sits in the pantry for a month and a half prior to Christmas becoming amazing). Spent some time decorating the apartment to look vaguely Christmassy, got the makings together for a pudding.
Christmas isn't really celebrated in Japan, not in the same way as back home at all. At home Christmas is all about family, New Year's is about friends. Here Christmas is for friends and/or couples - Christmas night is a big date night apparently. When it comes to New Years here - it's all about family, in a huge way. People travel home to their families, everything shuts down for a few days - restaurants and ATMs included. Something that Japan does well however, is Christmas lights.
The Sunday before Christmas we went to Odaiba and checked out the giant Gundam which was lit up all pretty for Christmas.
Christmas Day and Boxing Day are both working days for Jason and me. Most of the people in my office took the days off, but Jason wasn't able to, and I wasn't about to hang out at home on Christmas Day by myself. So...Christmas Eve became our Christmas Day. The 24th of December was a holiday because of the Emperor's birthday, so we did all our present opening and feasting on Monday.
The haul from Kris Kringle in Melbourne.
We had a chat with Jason's folks over Skype before lunch, and it was lovely to catch up with what everyone's doing. Time is passing so quickly.
Here's the damage: LUNCH
I roasted some pork ribs in a red wine/garlicy oniony type marinade, roasted some parmesan potatoes too, bought a rotisserie chicken which I chucked in the oven, as well as some steamed brocolli and carrots on the side. We had some of the Christmas pudding when we had digested enough to move off the couch
Breakfast and dinner was divided between this care package from Jason's folks:
and leftovers from lunch.
On Christmas Day, we both went to work. No classes meant that I had a chance to tidy up things I don't get a chance to look at during the term. I also got a chance to Skype with folks back in Melbourne, which was lovely. On Christmas night we took part in the time-honoured Japanese tradition of having KFC for dinner over Christmas. To get the special package, I had to pre-order at the end of November. I picked up my package and we had a second go at a Christmas feast.
No pics this time, it was just KFC, you're not missing much.
That brings us to today. I'm off work from the 27th until Jan 7th, Jason gets fewer days off than me. Nonetheless, we're going to make the most of our time. We'll be in Nagoya over New Year, and the next update will be a post-New Year Nagoya extravaganza!
Until then, click on some photos!!
Yay!!
