Happy Merry Christmas

If you lived in Japan you would have gotten to celebrate Christmas already. We were surprised to see so much Christmas cheer; the national religion being Shinto, but I guess being so close to the Navy base (or on it) it was inevitable. Daie, the Moomin themed mall down the street was bustling. We were able to see the local Japanese version of Girl Scouts perform O Tannenbaum in Japanese. It was adorable. We have come to realize, no matter what part of the world in which one is, children, and parents reactions to them, are the same. We found, and bought, the traditional Japanese Christmas Cake. A white cake with strawberries; lovely. It was from a bakery called Ducky Duck. We remembered it from an episode of Iron Chef Japan that we had seen back in the states. I think we were just so happy to finally have recognized some part of local culture.

Christmas spirit was all around, but we felt a certain sense of time travel when we dined at the Arliegh Burke Commissioned Officers' Club for Christmas Eve dinner. It was as if we had stepped back to 1943; I guess in reality this would have been impossible since in 1943 we were still at war with Japan, but you get the idea. In the dining room the faint sound of Christmas carols could be heard issuing from the piano over the tink-clinking of silverware on plates. A team of Japanese waitresses were on hand in the dining room as if every seat was filled when in reality it was us and the guy at the table next to us nursing a bottle of red wine, alone. There actually was one other family and they seemed very excited, but the atmosphere said old fashioned style dining. The menu's main attraction was lamb chops and roast of beef. Small crusty dinner rolls came just prior to the entree with a single butter pat. The waitress expected us to receive coffee immediately after the meal, and I half expected to have to retire to the drawing room with the other gentlemen. It was wonderful! Yes, we know we were born about four decades late. Christmas eve was wonderful!

Christmas morning, He came! Santa did not forge us in the Navy Lodge, Yokosuka. The picture posted shows out "tree", a small floral arrangement with a pine cone. Jennifer got a Casio keyboard, but all she wants to play is movie soundtrack-esque songs. They are all slow tempo-ed but she seems to have a scene in mind of a bad Lifetime movie where the husband is realizing the error of his ways and is walking alone down a dark city street trying to collect the shattered remains of his pathetic marriage. When I realize how long she has been striking the keyboard in these monotones she looks back at me an giggles. Some times Jennifer's sense of humor scares because I can't tell if she's joking or not.

Christmas in Japan was great, we had wonderful friends here from the USS Connecticut who had us over, it was wonderful.

Thanks for all of your comments and messages so far! We really love being able to keep up everyone this way. We hope every one else has a very Happy Christmas too!