Down for the Count at Christmas

Christmas isn't as big in Japan as it is in North America, but most parents still indulge their kids with a present on Christmas morning.  Many Japanese celebrate Christmas in a non-religious fashion with  beautifully crafted (and rather expensive) Christmas cakes and many consider a big bucket of KFC a special Christmas dinner!  In many ways, Christmas is a young couples holiday here with young lovers going out for dinner and an evening stroll. Shops are still fairly busy, though, and there is still the hustle & bustle of Christmas in the air when one is in department stores and shopping arcades.

As for me, I hurt my back on the morning before Christmas day and spent most of the next 48 hours lying on a futon, except for a daily, pain-filled, walk to a chiropractor about two or three hundred yards from our apartment.  Luckily, after three days of misery, I was finally able to get on the subway (the start and stop, herky-jerky motions can trigger a spasm) and travel to a clinic where I was prescribed muscle relaxants and pain killers. So, while the kids were happy to get toys and candies, I'm just happy to be able to get up and move around a bit.  I'm still crooked, twisted, and tight, but at least it doesn't hurt to sit anymore and I can finally walk a reasonable distance. Most of all, I'm just thankful that I'm on the track to recovery and that, despite being in severe discomfort, I was able to quietly sit and observe my kids during the holiday.  It seems that life flies by so fast while we're busy raising children that it's easy to miss their growing up.  This Christmas, rather than worrying about who was opening what or what to do with the wrapping paper, I was able to simply lie there and enjoy their expressions of joy and the priceless idiosyncrasies of my children at play.

Lumineria and Iranian Chit-Chat

Entrance to Kobe Lumineria

Exit of Kobe Lumineria

On Tuesday evening, we went to see "Lumineria" in downtown Kobe.  It was a beautiful display of lights standing 40 feet high or so and stretching for several blocks. It began in December of 1995 to serve as a memorial for those who died in the Great Hanshin Earthquake that had taken place in January of the same year and to serve as a symbol of hope for those who survived.  This year it served in the same capacity as we all remember the earthquake and tsunami of 3/11.

On Wednesday evening, as I was working out in the gym, I happened to meet an Iranian who was competing in the adjacent arena's international power-lifting competition.  We went from small talk to a discussion about the differences between media perception and reality within our two countries and how people were really a lot more alike than not.  Before he let me say goodbye, he insisted I wait for him to return quickly to the arena so that he could give me a small gift for me and my family--an interesting buttery sweet with saffron and cardamom  spices and a bag of Iranian pistachios.  It was a sincere gesture of kindness and I wish I'd had something to give him on behalf of Americans as well, but I simply said farewell in the Farsi blessing he'd taught me earlier.

The rest of the week was rather ordinary: a trip to the library, some window shopping and eating out with the kids since my wife was sick.

A Real Living Room

A relatively boring week at school was capped off with a rather nice weekend.  After hitting the gym on Saturday morning and having lunch, we took the kids to a little Christmas festival with a magician, singing, story telling--and best of all, no cliche manger drama!  Then we and an Australian family we're friends with were invited to a little welcome party held by two Japanese families.  We drank beer, ate sushi and shot the breeze while all of our kids ran around and entertained each other.  Both of the Japanese fathers spoke decent English and one who hosted the party had lived in Virginia for several months and remembered how lonely and frustrating it was for him before he met people who began to show him around a bit. Nothing like a little ex-pat empathy to build common ground--he even offered to lend us an extra TV he had when he found out the kids were watching DVDs on a little seven-inch portable player.

On Sunday, the kids and I walked a mile or two to nearby Taisan-ji temple to enjoy the colors of fall and explore the temple grounds.  Afterward, we soaked our tired feet in a small hot springs foot bath located outside of Taisan-ji onsen (hot springs), before taking a free bus back up to the train station near our house.  Then we walked over to McDonalds for a cheap & easy kids meal and a nostalgic taste of home.  Early in the afternoon, we got the TV, went shopping for a small book case to put it on, and a carpet for the floor, came home and now--voila!--we have a cozy little living room set up where we can watch TV or DVDs though out the could winter months ahead. Can't beat that.