Merry Christmas! I woke up this morning around 11:30 – actually barely still in the morning category. I was dead tired after the late night pool antics.
I got cleaned up and organized, and then decided to open Christmas presents. My family had sent lots of stuff, so I got started tearing stuff open. I received a lot of cool stuff – DVDs from my brother, some new artwork from my parents, the Two Towers DVD from Nancy and Lynn, gloves from Kinsey, and lots of other stuff.
My parents had sent a light outer shell jacket to replace the one that had been stolen a while back. It was wrapped up in a small box – I was very surprised when I opened it. It’s a nice jacket – lightweight, but big enough to wear layers underneath. It’ll be great once the rainy season hits. The jacket Kuniko got me is great for the cold weather we’re having, so now I can finally stay warm during winter.
After opening presents I talked to my family on the phone, and we talked about the last couple days and all the great presents I got. Tomorrow they’ll open their presents, so I hope everything I sent made it OK.
For some reason I got a serious headache, and I was swallowing aspirin like candy trying to fight it off. I think it was caused by my glasses, because they are so old and the frames a slightly warped. Anyway, I struggled through, but I thought for a while that it might be time for a trip to the hospital. Ouch.
Later on that evening I went over to the yakitori to attend the softball team’s end of year party. There was a good turnout, and we toasted the year’s team and also a wished a very loud “Merry Christmas!” to everyone.
The master had created quite a spread of fish, meat, and soup. We made two big bowls of nabe, had lots of sashimi, and plenty of beers, sake, and sho-chu. The master also contributed a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. He handed the opener to one of the guys, and it was the Thornton Winery opener that I had given him a while back. Free advertising in Japan!
We all drank lots, and there were lots of questions about how strong I was at drinking, how I reacted to different foods, and once again they called for me to join the softball team. I declined – that’s the last thing I want to do – throw my back out running around the bases.
Finally we wrapped things up and went our separate ways. They wouldn’t let me pay for anything, which was nice. I’m planning on having a party at my place sometime in January, so everyone is invited to have a Mexican meal.
It was a different Christmas for me, but a good one. I had a traditional Japanese meal and was able to participate and converse with seven drunk people in a foreign language. I’m sure next year’s Christmas will be just as interesting.
