Christmastime in Sapporo...

...means chicken dinner frenzies at KFC, unnecessarily necessary overload of Wham's "Last Christmas" and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" (over and over and over again), expensive "traditional" Christmas cakes flying off the department store shelves...

...and this:

Jacob's annual stint as Santa-san at the local elementary school near us is always a hit with the kiddos, as well as with my little camera (which I always send along on the journey)! Japan seems to have a shortage of skinny, gaijin (foreigner) Santas that are all the rage in popular culture here, so the Shinkawa Elementary School makes sure to book him up as soon as possible! Warning: cuteness overload:

It also means a full month of the Munich German Christmas Market, featuring among other seasonal goodies, hot mulled wine and Rudolph (reindeer) burgers!

And, of course, the colorful season wouldn't be complete without the White Illumination down in Odori Park:

Sapporo actually knows how to do Christmas up right. Like, storybook right. And that has always been a nice send-off each year on our way out the door to South East Asia where garland-decorated tuk-tuks are awesome, but just don't have the same seasonal appeal!

ハーピクリスマス！

Sake, Sushi, and Hip Hop Abs

Mori sensei is somewhat of a legend at our school. He's fun, likes to dress in drag (for teacher parties, of course), and is always ready to provide a good time for all. This weekend he invited the other native English teacher, John, and I to his hometown of Otaru to give us just that...sadly, minus the drag-dressing, but nevertheless a grand 'ol time.

Our first stop, Otaru's sake brewery and museum:

Mori sensei and John...it's all fun and games until somebody busts out the REALLY big bottle:

Afterwards, it was back to the Mori household, where Mr. Mori and his wife wined and dined us with cheese and crackers, salads, and crab & tofu nabe (Japanese hot pot-like stew):

And just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, the doorbell rang. It was the sushi delivery guy:

Good thing John noticed that the Moris are connoisseurs of that timeless classic DVD, "Hip Hop Abs." In true Mori-fashion, it was then popped in and turned on for all to partake:

What a party. What a guy. What a country! And for the record, the Mori couple is the best darn Japanese couple I think I've ever met. The proof is in the photos, folks.

Welcome, さとる！

My Japanese teacher and her husband welcomed a new baby boy into the world in November and I finally got a chance to visit him! Sooooooo かわいい！

All the best to you and your FANTASTIC hair, little Satoru!

Mochi Madness

The end of the year is nearing, and that can only signal one thing: mochi.

Okay, so the end of the year usually signals a lot more than this mysterious Japanese oddity I speak of (Does she mean "mooch?"), but at our school (and in most of Japan, for that matter) mochi-making is a celebrated event marking many endings: the end of the school term, the end of the year, and the end of the 3rd year students' school life as they leave to study for university entrance exams:

So what the heck is mochi, anyway? It is a soft, glutenous, blob of pounded rice which is sometimes filled with sweet or savory fillings, and eaten in a variety of dishes and snacks. As with the cult obsession here with plain, white rice itself, mochi can be considered a national, cultural point of pride in Japan. In Western culture, we envision a boring old man on the moon...for the Japanese there are two rabbits living up there pounding out mochi:

Our school's PTA moms host a mochi-pounding event for the 3rd year students (basically, our seniors) so that they can experience the old, traditional way of making mochi in Japan. I especially like this event because of it's guaranteed-free-food factor:

The guy on the left is a hardcore mochi master who's been coming here all three years that I've been here, and probably longer:

The principal and vice-principals have their go at the sticky rice:

As did I...

Whacking grains into submission is most definitely an excellent way to say "sayonara" to 2010.