Thanksgiving Vacation

11.21.07

As of this current moment (Wednesday night), Hands on English, will be closed for the next two days. Normally, my vacation days do not necessarily coincide with holidays; however, since there happened to be five Thursdays and Fridays in the month of November, the remaining days are considered vacation days. This is mainly because our students only pay for four lessons each month.

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Japan, but there is still a national holiday this Friday. A few of my students were excited to have Friday off from school. My older class of boys told me what they how they were going to spend their day off. One was going out to lunch with his Grandfather, the other was going to play tennis, and the third was going to stay up all night long at his friends house playing video games. Sounds good to me!

Getting back to the matter of Thanksgiving. Besides the fact Japan does not have a Thanksgiving story involving Squanto and the Plymouth settlers, most homes also lack an oven which is a necessity when preparing a Thanksgiving meal. I'm not even sure if you can buy a turkey. Actually, if I remember correctly, Lauren and I saw 10kg (about 5 pounds) turkeys for sale; which is considered big by Japanese standards. Compared to a 15 pound turkey that my family back in America buys, 5 pounds is pretty small. I was trying to think of what I could bring to the Thanksgiving Party that I'm going to and all I could come up with was mashed potatoes. Lauren is making tuna and macaroni salad. Let's hope for the best.

Overall, I am excited to get together with friends for a Japanese Thanksgiving Meal, but I think I'm going to miss all the American foods like cranberry sauce (with out the berries), mashed potatoes, my mother's stuffing, salad, and Mom Hensen's pumpkin/apple pie. I would be missing turkey if I ate it, but it's more likely that I will miss The Binghamton University Food Coops' Quinoa Loaf!

Tomorrow before I meet up with friends for Thanksgiving Dinner, I'm going to Harijuku to meet my friend Johanne. She offered to show Lauren and I all of her favorite shops. Hopefully I'll be able to find some unique Christmas gifts. On Friday, I will be heading to Mihama to spend the Day with 5 friends (Lauren, Azusa, Min Soo, and two of Min Soo's friends) at Tokyo Disney Sea! We are all really excited to spend the entire day there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is a list of things that I'm thankful for. What are you thankful for?
- my family and friends
- my health and the health of family and friends
- laughter and smiles
- tuna onegiri
- people that are dedicated to changing the world for the better i.e. Al Gore
- trees, plants, and living things in general
- sleep
- being given the opportunity to work and live in Japan for a year

Random Side Note: There was a cat walking around the school neighborhood today. Hiroko and I first saw him by the restaurant next store around 1pm and then at 6pm he came to the door of our school. He was meowing so loudly just like Mitzu, my cat at home in Buffalo, NY. He had the exact same meow as Mitzu. I wanted to scoop him up and pat his little head like I do when I come back after being away from home, but I had a lesson so I couldn't leave. Later on Lauren filled me in on what had happened. At first Hiroko thought he was cold so they (Lauren and her) actually brought him into the classroom in a box. When that didn't work they took him back outside and Lauren fed him bread; apparently he ate quite a bit of it. Poor kit kat.