Merry Christmas!!

Before coming to Japan, I thought I would be indifferent to not spending Christmas at home in England, but as the day got closer and closer I became unexpectedly sad about it. My Christmas Day could not have been less Christmassy, but I ended up having a really nice time! It was an absolutely stunningly beautiful day and I discovered to my joy that Japanese post even delivers on Sundays, so my parents' Christmas package arrived on the very day, which made me so happy! This contained much chocolate and the full DVD set for series three of "24".

This has turned out to be unexpectedly problematic - ie, my parents may as well have sent me a bag of heroin: it's that addictive. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat, biting deep into my nails, literally feeling like my heart is going to explode out of my chest, it's so gripping. I actually burst into tears at the end of one episode, just out of pent up suspense.

I saw friends in the afternoon and ate a very unChristmassy lunch. Then met up with another Japanese friend just back from Canada, who I haven't seen for a year and a half, so that was cool. He took me to this really weird basement pub. After walking the jam-packed streets of Ikebukuro (and I associate Xmas Day with totally deserted streets in the UK) we go into this "pub," all brown wood and authentic-looking except that there are ventilation shafts all over the ceiling. We're greeted by a dead-serious waiter wearing a Rudolph the Raindeer furry mask, except it's an ultracheap version, so it looks more like a felt balaclava with a couple of small floppy horns and a red nose lolling off his schnozz. Almost as proof that I've spent too much time in Japan already, none of this actually struck me as odd to begin with, but then I looked at him later and I realised I was being served by a member of a comic splinter-group of the IRA.

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera. I wanted to make it up by getting another photo of that strange triceratops salaryman thing that was standing at the ticket gates at my station, because it was all kitted-up like Santa in the week before Xmas, but that too was gone... I guess he must have delivered all his presents already and gone back to his hut full of elfosauruses up in Northern Hokkaido somewhere.