xmas

a trifle late merry christmas and happy new year to all you lot out there. you'll have to forgive my tardiness. i blame the fact i had to work on christmas eve and christmas day and boxing day. and thankyou for all the cards, letters, presents, emails and comments. they are all warmly received.


homestay

i spent the days follow christmas with someone else's family. they invited me to stay and i couldn't refuse. i literately couldn't refuse because they can't speak english well and i don't know how to say no politely in japanese, so i ended up saying yes politely.

they are the mori family. they live in the suburbs of nagoya; an area called kariya. there is a grandfather, father, mother and 3 children. a 9 (i think) year old son, a 6 year old daughter and a 2 year old daughter. there house is very big in comparison to my apartment: the seating area of the living room is bigger than my whole shoebox flat. it was nice to have some walking space and not have to worry about kicking the fridge when i went to bed.

i was welcomed in and took off my shoes as i entered. i then had to put my shoes back on again as we left to go to the hospital. grandpa had a pain in his chest and they wanted to have it checked out. they apologised. i said it was ok. the pain turned out to be nothing. we drove back home. the driver watched the road as the passengers watched tv on the GPS screen. they were cooking fish.

it was the afternoon so father was still at work and the children at play school. we went to pick up the 2 daughters. as i walked into the class, the mother announced to every kid that i spoke no japanese and that i was an english teacher. about 20 six year old kids surround me and start questioning me in japanese. i stood and grinned and said things like "the medical care system in japan seem exemplary in my experience" and "what are the perceived negative effects of a declining birth rate on an aging society?"

back at home, i realised i couldn't understand what the 6 year old girl was saying to me, and could only just understand what the 2 year old was saying. i found my communicative level.

i stayed for dinner, but had to go back to my apartment. they invited me back again tomorrow. again i couldn't say no.

father mori picked me up outside a supermarket near my place. by train, kariya was about 30 minutes away. by car, it was an hour. as we zoomed along the raised freeways and lowered highways, i marveled at the concrete pillars holding all the roads in all the right places.

in a combination of my broken japanese and their broken english they told me we were going to an annual fish market at 3.30am. i said ok. they have this special market to get ready for new year celebrations. i went to bed at 10pm and woke at 3am. it was cold. the market was again about an hours drive. floodlights lit an industrial estate; open warehouses and stalls loaded with chunks of red tuna, orange octopus and cases of snow crab from canada. it was packed and it was freezing. we wondered around, through hoards of people, bright lights and dark shadows. the ice did not melt. the atmosphere reminded me of glastonbury at 4am but a lot colder and without music or drugs.

we got back at 7am and i went straight to bed again, to be awoken at 10am. i got dressed and had no idea where we were going. we were going to a barbecue. some friends were making mochi (a foodstuff consisting of pounded rice eaten at new year). to my surprise everyone was drinking beer. they asked if i wanted a beer. again, i couldn't say no. at 10am we drank beer and roasted crab on the open fire. toward the back of the garden was a kind of klin where they were cooking rice to make into mochi. the mochi making equipment was basically a massive mortar and pestle. the pestle was shaped like an oversized polo mallet. the mortar was heavy grey stone and large enough to fit a human head. the rice is placed in the mortar and pounded repeatedly, until it reaches the right consistency. it was hard work after the first 50 swings. smashing duty was rotated. when one batch was ready some of it would be prepared and eaten immediately or else stored in plastic containers. the kiln was constantly fed with water, rice and firewood.

we ate and made mochi until the sunset, until the last grain was pounded. everyone spoke to me in broken english or fast japanese and constantly made sure that my glass and plate were never empty. soon the red glow turned to white ash and it was over.

we got home at 7pm and i fell asleep again and woke at 9. i talked to the family with the aid of my japanese dictionary. i hope they understood what i wanted to say.

the next morning, on the 31st dec, i wished them all a happy new year as they drove me to the train station.