Since Kuniko is stuck at school from Christmas Eve until the 27th, we decided to do our Christmas today. We got up this morning and Kuniko cooked me “medamayaki” (fried eggs in the Japanese style), and then we headed out to Umeda.
We’ve both been having lots of trouble finding gifts for each other. I had been looking for a bathrobe for Kuniko for the longest time, but size was a problem – I couldn’t find the right size anywhere. Kuniko was also having trouble coming up with something for me. Christmas is a little different in Japan, more of a romantic holiday, so she hasn’t had a lot of practice buying Christmas presents. In the end we decided that we’d go shopping together and find something for each other together.
We looked at jackets in a couple of stores and it was tough finding one that was my size. Also, there were some pretty expensive jackets out there – with Gore-Tex they can get pretty pricey. I knew what I wanted specifically, so I was pretty picky. Finally, I saw the one I wanted in a Timberland store. I tried it on and it fit well. It had all the features I wanted and wasn’t as expensive as some of the others out that we were looking at.
Kuniko insisted on buying it for me as a Christmas gift. I thought it was too expensive for her to pay for the whole thing, but she insisted – pushing me physically out of the way to pay for the thing. She had the clerk wrap it as a present, and we took it out of there.
Now as you are reading this, remember this point in the story. This is the point where I screwed up. I’ll explain later. Remember this point. OK?
Next we went to buy some of the ingredients for our Christmas dinner. We went from store to store. We got a cheap fondue set, some fondue cheese, a roasted ham, a bottle of champagne, and a couple of salads. We had to jump from store to store to find them, but eventually we collected everything.
Next stop was to pick up the Christmas cake. Like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Christmas cake is a big Christmas tradition in Japan. Kuniko had made a reservation for a cream cake, and we picked it up at the store. They were set up for volume – just about everyone was going to come pick up a Christmas cake in the next couple days.
Now that we had our arms full of stuff, most of it needing to be refrigerated, I suggested that we head back and put it in the fridge.
Well, as you see, we still hadn’t gone shopping for Kuniko, and we both misunderstood each other. We talked it out later, and really I should have taken her shopping at the point mentioned above. We rarely have miscommunications, and this was a big one. Her feeling were a little hurt, and I felt really bad.
Once we dropped everything off at her place, we went back to Umeda to do some shopping for her present. As luck would have it, we found a great bathrobe at “Mujirushiryohin” (No Label Goods) store. I also got her a sweater that she picked out. Later she tried out wearing the bathrobe and it worked out great, so I think it was a pretty good gift.
We took our gear back to her place and started on dinner. The dinner turned out great. The fondue was awesome – we used French bread and Dutch crunch, and it was definitely my favorite. The ham was good too. We tried dipping it in the fondue as well, and it was a good match.
We opened our presents, from each other (not a big surprise) and also Kuniko opened presents from my family. She’s never really had a Christmas like this, and I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the gifts. She was really happy with everything she got. For dessert we ate the Christmas cake, which was rich, creamy, and delicious. It was a good match with the champagne – finally we crashed out with full stomachs.
