The Year When All My Xmas Wishes Came True

It’s Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)- U2

Dear Santa,

Hey dude, what’s up? So, I hear from the kiddies that you hit up Japan on your quest to deliver happiness in a stocking in one night. That’s really cool, cause I have a few wishes myself. Oh and just so you know, the kids here got super stressed when some of the teachers forced them to write their wish lists in English. They are convinced that you aren’t all knowing and that you only speak Japanese. You should clear that up. Here in Japan, they are also unaware that the red nosed reindeers name is Rudolf. I suggest you talk to someone and get them to add the famous deers name in the Japanese version of the song. At least a Ru-chan would be nice.

Anyways, onto my needs.

For Christmas I would like to come home on Christmas Eve to find a package with a beautifully knit scarf, hand made by the sweetest girl in Guelph, with cookie dough mix and sunkist raisins, so that I too can enjoy cookies once again. The scarf will be perfect for when i need a warm hug. That would most likely bring me to tears.

I would also like to spend Christmas Eve with my best friend Ashleigh who is finally in Japan. A weekend of spooning and warm sleeps would be delightful. I would also like her to find her camera again when she loses it (which is inevitable, since she always loses her camera, and it would be so cliche).

I’d appreciate if you could make it so that all my wonderful friends that I have made in Toyama could all get together for a rockin Christmas party, where we drink and be merry the whole night through.

I wouldn’t mind (if you have the time) to wake up Christmas morning to sunshine, a phone call from someone with a heartwarming voice, emails from family and family, and a few presents from some of my favorite students that I will promise to save untill Christmas morning.

It would be great if my first lesson of the day could also be Daisuke Igarashi. He’s one of my faves, and his normal friday class needs to be rescheduled, since i’ll be off touring Japan. Seeing Daisuke Christmas morning would be great since we have so many special handshakes and games, it would make my morning easy breezy. I’d also wouldnt mind of one student could call in sick, so I at least have one hour of free time to chill with Leah and eat chocolate that students have brought in and colour crafts. Oh! and if it isn’t a bother could my buddies Katsunorei and Shohei come in? I don’t need to teach them, I just want their playful hugs and running and hiding games. Plus I want to give them presents for being my best young students. They try sooo hard.

I really miss “christmas in a cup” drink too. I’m sure you know that it is peppermint hot chocolate, my drink of choice since I worked at Tim Hortons (after coffee of course, but i can get that here). It would be extra special if it was from a friend that knows my love for every thing second cup and a wonderful note attached. Especially if it was a girl that has been by my side since high school, even when we are overseas.

A note from a dear friend, someone who is like an older brother to me, would be nice; just to know someone is worrying about me once in a while, and that i’m on someones mind enough that they need to ensure that I’m being a good girl (and also that they love me).

I’d like to make someones Christmas, and i’d like them to tell me so when I wake them up early Christmas morning cause I was thinking about them, and to make sure they remember to run to the tree and rip open those packages!

Okok, i know its getting long… but they just dont do Christmas here like they do back home! I know Clinton and Laura are coming… but i wont get to see them untill the 27th!! I already know New Years will rock, i’d just like a little bit of your help for the Christmas part. Plus, am I really asking for much?

A few last things: I’d like my Dad to help me out with my bills when I don’t even ask him too and a sweet message from him. I’d also like a message from the family in Ottawa… please have them include funny christmas memories that would be nothing without me, messages from all the dogs, and for one person to sign everyones name (even if some of them arn’t even there, and even the dogs names… when i know they are clearly sniffing each others buts and not typing).

Also! Please make sure that those I called get the messages on their answering machines on Christmas day! Make sure mom gets a feeling to check her phone, since i forgot to get my aunts number in Ottawa.

If it can’t snow, at least make the day clear enough so that I can see all the snow capped mountains!

Also, ( i promise this is one of the lasts) it would be a wonderful surprise to discover that for the winter months in Toyama, I get a “winter bonus” on my pay cheque every month, to pay for my heating bills, since its so damn wet and cold here!

Thanks for listening to my requests Santa! You always did get everything right! I especially liked how you’d match the wrapping paper to moms, so that the Christmas presents were colour coordinated!

oh last! For real! Please make my trip around Japan from the 27th to Jan 7th safe and fun with Clinton, Laura and Ashleigh!

Thanks!

I’ll leave out rice crackers, hot sake and sweet red beans in pounded rice for you and some cabbage for the reindeer.

Lots of love,

Lindzy

PS. Christmas really is all about family and friends. Not what’s under the tree.

Easier Said Than Done

All I Want for Christmas is You-Mariah Carey

I did it.  It was inevitable, but I had to.  I went to a hairstylist in Japan.  Terrifying, thrilling, stressful, a rush to say the least.  I have one thing to say on the topic: I want Jay back in my life (my hairstylist in Guelph)… actually two things: the saying ‘lost in translation’ became all too real.  My hair looks alright…nooow, but, it’s seen better days.  The haircut, is awesome though, and very Japanese. 

Eri (one of my coworkers, who I have decided needs to brush up on  her English) offered to take me and Leah to get our hair done.  Yaaay!!!  I love the salon!!!  So much fun getting pampered.  The train ride there was positive and Leah and I were both looking forward to the crazyness that was to be expected.  We were both realistic about the situation, and knew that anything could happen… changes were going to occur, and they weren’t necessarily going to be all good.

Somehow, something, somewhere got messed up, but the girls fixed it up, and we all walked away happy (a little scarred, but happy nonetheless).  Just another adventure in Japan .  (and yes, the day was filled with lots of ‘Kawaiis!’)

One of the hardest things about leaving home and coming to Japan was leaving all of my amazing friends.  Life was really good in Guelph, so it was tough to leave when life was so fantastic.  The last few weeks in Guelph were especially amazing, as were my goodbye parties, saying goodbye to my best friends made me sad.  When I first moved here I was convinced I would never find such a good group of friends ever again.  Thankfully, I was wrong.  Tannis and Natalie have made my life that much better, not only am I in the sweetest country in the world, but now I have wicked friends too!  Yay!  I feel like i’m on an episode of Friends every time i’m around them.  They moved in together last weekend, making it even more Friends like, because Tannis’ living situation sucked. (Tannis is totally Monica) 

The three of us have the best time ever.  Luckily Leah fits right in.  She has joined in on Tan, Nats and my quest to take over Toyama.  Leah is hilarious and I’m always laughing in her presence.  There is no need to worry about Lindzy anymore, she is getting plenty of hugs and love.  This is not to say that anyone back home could ever get replaced, but I’m really happy to have some wicked girlfriends here.  Theres nothing better than cuddling with them and Tofus and watching cheese movies like ‘Love Actually’ and having after work beers and destroying Toyama on the weekends and coffees at starbucks and curry night and listening and singing christmas songs. 

I got my first winter electricity bill of my life.  Suddenly I understand my  mother a lot more.  “Lindzy!  Turn off the lights!”  “Lindzy!!  turn down the heat!  Put a sweater on!” “Lindzy decide what you want to eat and then open the fridge!”.  Tannis popped by my place one day while I wasn’t at work to make something, and she left for a bit.  When I got home from work, my light was on, and as soon as she came back to my place I transformed into my mother within seconds “Tannis!  Do you want to pay my electricity bills?”.  Turning my heater on is for special occasions, and putting on an extra sweater is a-ok.  Just another example of moms always being right….

Merci Grandmaman pour la carte de Noel!!!  T’a oublier la carte de Bingo .  Thanks for Christmas cards and letters friends and family!  There is nothing better than opening up your mailbox to see something that isn’t a bill (even if they are so brightly coloured and darn cute) or junk mail, which is crazy popular here.

aurevoir mes amours! xoxoxox

Iki Masho Dance Party

Music: Reunion-The Stars

Gueesssss who’s baaaaaaaack (together)???  Lindzy and Ashleigh!!!!  This time, we’re bigger and better than ever:

a) our clothes are way cuter.  Not that we weren’t adorable before, but common, Japanese fashion roooocks.  Where else can I wear a sweater with a cartoon panda superhero on it with a bib that says, I <3 milk?

b) we’re strolling the streets of Ja-mother-effin-pan.

c) we meet up in sweet cities like Nagoya

d) we are in Japan for New Years… way bigger than the West Keyes.

Ash and I didn’t waste any time meeting up.  Only two weeks after her arrival, and one week after moving into her apartment (i didn’t even give her a chance to get settled), we met up in Nagoya, one of the largest cities in Japan.  Alyssa lives a short train ride away so she was on board for the reunion.  My new co-worker, Leah, came along as well.  Her and Ash hit it off during their week of training so they were quite happy to be together again.

Let me tell you how sureal this was.  Ash wasn’t half as blown away, but for the first 20 minutes of our reunion (yes after screaming our faces off in the middle of one of the busiest train stations in Japan) it was the weeeeeirdest thing to hear her voice.  I have never experienced something so familiar, sound so foreign to my ears.  It was really strange.  It honestly felt like a dream, my ears couldn’t comprehend how I was hearing this voice again or something.  Either way, it was sooo exciting to see my best friend again in Japan.  Who meets up in Japan?

It was just like old times though, hugs and smiles and laughing and holding hands and skipping and hugs and kisses and spooning and love and hearts exploding everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.

The four of us ladies had a wonderful time in Nagoya.  We strolled the streets, shopped, made new friends every store we went into (we even met one of the sales assistants moms… oh the Japanese), hit up a giant ferris wheel and drank all day.  We classed it up (after getting ready in a train station bathroom…) and had a wonderful dinner at this fancy restaurant overlooking the city.  Bling bling, money ain’t a thang…  After dinner, we hit those streets with our dancing shoes on (actually with hot boots on).

We were walking along when we saw four (or five…?) of the hottest Japanese women ever (who am I kidding, they’re all smokin’).  In case you are in Japan and you don’t understand Japanese, everyone undertands “Dance party?  Dance party?  yah!! Dance Party!”

The ladies took us to a dance party where we partied the night away…and once we had to leave that one, we just went to another.  It was a loooooong night, but a blast none the least.  I don’t know how my life could get any better… well I have a few ideas… but that’s just being selfish.

It was a bummer to leave Ashleigh again.  After finally seeing each other again, we were being pulled apart once more.  It was a teary goodbye, but we promised to see each other in two weeks… for Christmas.  Whaaa???  Christmas already?!  My life is a nonstop crazy whirlwind.  I hate the way time goes by so fast, but at the same time it means i’m having fun right?  Every time I take notice a week has quickly disappeared and another exciting weekend is on the verge.  Next thing I know, Clinton and Laura will be here (ten days), i’ll be meeting them in Osaka (15 days) and we’ll be celebrating life into January 2008.

J’aime Cette Vie

Things I do in Japan, that would never happen in Canada:

1. Dinner party at coworkers house:

            Eri had Lacey and I over for dinner.  It was a delicious Japanese meal, served in a little Tatami room ( a room with bamboo floor) right next to their huge gold shrine.  The dinner included a kotatsu table, which is a (obviously traditional) Japanese table that families eat their dinner on in the winter.  It has a feet warming wonderful heater underneath it, and the top sits on top of a blanket so your body is all cozy while you eat .  There was a big pot of food, something like a shabu-shabu dish,but vegetarian.  It’s pretty much a stewed pot of deliciousness.  And when you stroke your beated rice through it, you say “shabu-shabu”, and everyone knows, its always fun to sing while you eat weird food…

Dinner also included sushi, sashimi and Eri’s wonderful parents who cracked open 15 year old gooooooood Sake and a half decent bottle of wine.  The sake was really impressive, cause Eri’s father had been saving it forever.  Amazing.  It tasted amazing too. 

It was honestly a great time going out to the country to meet Eri’s parents, see her cute little country home (which is huge and beautiful by the way); it just made me look forward to the summer nights i’ll be spending there looking at the firefly’s.

Hang out with the Coolest 30 year old:

I am so thankful I got to teach Nami, and even more thankful that she wants to hang out with me.  I know that half of it is because I’m from overseas, but, who can blame her?  We all want some wordly experience… really, why else (other than her amazing personality) am I hanging out with her?

Nami has not only taken me to make pottery (which turned out faaaaaabulous by the way), but she has also taken me out on lunch dates, to her house, to amazing coffee bean shops, brings me chick peas after I am done teaching her daughter, brings me out to get bagles and lox on saturdays during my lunch, but she has also taken me to her Ikebana classes. 

This is one of the coolest things Ihave done here ( i know, i know, i say that about everything).  Ikebana has been practiced in Japan for more than 600 years.  It has to do with buddhist and offering flowers to the dead (at least that’s what i understood from Sensei).  Nami informed me that it is now seperate from religion, and has taken on its own independent art form.   After taking the class, I wanted to know more about it, and wether or not I was arranging my flowers properly, and apparently, the arrangement of the flowers is meant to look like a triangle, with three main points, HEAVEN, EARTH AND MAN.  Hmmm…. don’t really think Heaven exists, dig earth, but fuck men, go women… i think that that is where the seperation from religion came in.

Either way, my art made me uuuuuuuber happy, and being a little celebraty for an hour didnt hurt either (does it ever?).  I’m pretty much a walking advertisement for Amity.  Nami is now introducing me as my friend and not just her Sensei after I asked her : “Arn’t we friends too?” which I shouldn’t have done, cause clearly it made her feel super bad. 

Dinner’s with Crazy Ladies:

I took over for my buddy Simon, teaching this women a town a short train ride away from here.  He called her ‘crazy lady’, but I dig her.  First of all, she’s totally cultured, has travelled around the world, and owns an art museum.  Furthermore, she loves wine… big fat gaping mouth.  I don’t mean good red wine by Japanese standards… I mean goooooood red wine.  After one bottle between one of my coworkers, who got forced into coming in, Crazy Lady and I; Crazy Lady asked me what kind of wine I enjoyed… I mentioned something about Chili, and she brings out an Argentinian Malbec.  MALBEC IS ONLY MY FAAAAVORITEEE!!!!!  (Ash, you’ll appreciate this).

To top that off, she feeds me all night.  Guys: I. HAD. PIZZA.  It was thin crust and had shrimp on it, but it was delicious.  It was a great night.  She was interesting to talk to , and wants to know your opinion about everything. 

Plus, one of my coworkers came, Ayaka.  I really love my coworkers, and I want to get to know them better, but it’s hard when everyone is sooo busy.  So far I think I have done a pretty good job of it at work (as a result my Japanese gets better every day since I bombard them with questions), but it was suuuuuuper cool to talk with her outside of work. 

Meeting Random People:

Walking into our weekly curry place on monday night, we hear some hollars by some innnnnnncrdibly tall Americans.  They informed us that they hated their lives here in Japan, and that they played for the basketballl team (my question: “Is basketball big here?”  got incredibly weird stares… ).  They dug our positive vibe, and were some of the funniest people I have ever met.  We made some new friends and made plans to go out for Mexican food (since they hadnt been to the place yet) and drink some margueritas.  The smile on their faces when we mentioned tacos (yes it is better than Taco Bell…effing Americans…)  The randomness makes me smiiiiiile.

The week has also been fuuuuuuull off goodbye parties.  From Davey, to Daniel, to Lacey (after the painful Nova stint), i was getting kind of bummed.  But my new co-worker promises to be awesome, and to test it out, we are heading to Nagoya early sunday morning for the weekend.  We are meeting up with Ashleigh and Alyssa.  I actually started to cry when I thought about seeing Ashleigh again.  I’m really excited to see her!!!!  Familiar faces!!!  Before I know it, Clinton and Laura will be here!!! 

Dear dad:I’m sorry for the late blog entry… i’m only one person.

Dear everyone: I miss you all.  I know I say that every blog, but i think it’s hard for anyone to understand how much it hits you once you are actually away from home, hours apart from everyone you know and love.  TGFSAM (Thank God For Skype and Messenger… I made that up myself).  I got an email from Erik and teared up a bit.  Can every one please go out for Erik’s birthday for me?  (Obviously I know you are already going, but I mean like, give him a hug for me and drink with him and hug him some more).  It’ll be really weird not to be home for that day.  Erik’s bday was always so much fun;  Alice St. Christmas party, Alice st. secret santa exchange, almost end of exams, writting on Erik after he had passed out… all good times. (Happy Birthday my little gentleman xoxoxox)

LOVE YOU ALL xoxoxoxox