By the way, if you want to see my half of the blog-swap with Mary, it's over here. And if you want to see Mary's blog about Christmas and Boxing Day, it's over here. WHOO.
ANYWAY.
Our Christmas was pretty laid back. We opened presents, drank copious amounts of tea, and then hopped on a train over to Saga (the city, not the prefecture) where we had lunch with a bunch of Mary's ALT buddies. SO MUCH HAM. There was a white elephant gift exchange out of which I got a yearly planner and a calendar. (I contributed a Totoro washcloth.) Then we ate Mary's pumpkin pie (OM NOM NOM) and got on the train back to Takeo.
And then I made Mary watch Misfits, because I am all about Misfits.
Also, since I didn't have pictures of them before, here are the cups we got from Tatara-san!
TELL ME THIS IS NOT THE BEST CUP.
YOU ARE WRONG; IT IS THE BEST CUP.
Here's Mary's cup. It doesn't have The Little Prince on it, so it's not as cool.
Mary had extra pie dough so she sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar and maybe some other stuff I forget and then baked it and it tasted really good but probably clogs your arteries.
Mary's super tiny Christmas tree!
Also, you can totally see the Yubaaba cell phone strap I gave her hanging on it.
Anyway! We also had Christmas cake that evening.
OM NOM NOM NOM.
The next morning we decided to make cinnamon rolls, which was exciting, because the cinnamon roll dough was more interested in being glue than dough. So after thirty minutes of cajoling, begging, pleading, flouring, and punching, I finally managed to turn it into a semi-dough-like substance...only for it to turn back into glue after it rose. AUGH. So then there was some more negotiation and it finally decided that maybe it was in its best interest to at least somewhat resemble dough.
By the way, unbaked cinnamon rolls look GROSS.
But baked ones look delicious!
OM NOM NOM NOM.
So then we called up Tatara-san and said, "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, we have freshly baked, homemade cinnamon rolls for you mwahahahahaha." And we thought we'd won this round, 'cause, seriously, there was no possible way she could give us anything back...and then she showed up with salmon for us. I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW SHE MANAGED THIS. So much for our counterattack.
So then we went out and managed to somehow get lost in the mountains, but we didn't get eaten by bears, so it was all good.
I did, however, wind up tying Mary's scarf around my head (because it was COLD), which meant that I looked like a giant dork.
And then I made us dinner (with the salmon from Tatara-san) and we talked about Supremely Serious Things like werewolves and weremosquitoes.**
Today I just hopped on the train back to Nagoya, got really excited to see snow in Gifu, was mildly disappointed to discover that there wasn't really snow in Nagoya, was super excited that my Christmas package arrived from home (I am going to wear ALL MY SHAWLS AND SWEATERS AT ONCE; I will be so elegant), and now am definitely not counting down the hours until Nick arrives.***
I am totally not excited at all that I'll be kidnapping Nick and Miranda for the next few weeks. Not at all. NOT AT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.
*Not even kidding, Saga Prefecture has the highest rate of STDs and shotgun weddings in Japan. I would have visited an onsen, but I really don't want incurable strains of gonorrhea. On the upside, there're no real worries about population decline!
**What do you mean "weremosquitoes" isn't a word, spell check? DISCRIMINATION.
***27 1/2
IT IS THE BEST CUP.
ReplyDeleteOh course, I'm mildly fond of a teacup I have that ressembles my family's serving bowls in size and color because it holds ALL THE TEA (the handle makes it a teacup, though!)
Still, YOURS IS THE BEST CUP.