The Big Day

Rachel and I spent a pious day contemplating our religious roots. We got up and opened our presents and had a glass of sparkling Andre to toast the birth of Jesus Christ Our Saviour. We washed and dressed and headed into town for the earliest church service we could find...

OK, the bit about opening presents and drinking cheap sparkling wine is true, we spent a minimal amount of time discussing theology - and this was only prompted by the Born-Agains Rachel spent breakfast with, while I slept off my coach trip. We got up and dressed and headed off to Nick's to fulfil Rachel's cat-sitting duties. I played the role of Cat Whisperer again and coaxed Shinai out and into a Christmas hat. I may have been pushing my position as his new best friend, but he still spent most of the day headbutting my knees in approval.

We acted like shit girls trying to wire up the Playstation to Nick's massive TV, but eventually managed it and watched Jack Black's School of Rock, a pleasantly predictable piece of American cinema, while syphoning off small amounts of Nick's highly prized Goldschlager - a hugely guilty pleasure we restrained ourselves from over-indulging as it is not available in Japan. Once we got a taste for the booze, we said goodbye to Shinai and headed to the local izakaya for Christmas dinner. This year there was no turkey, but the yakatori included some chicken skin kebabs and we had chips, which are fairly close to roasts. In the midst of the meal I had a brief call from Bek, which was lovely and bizarre. Rachel and I were drunk and Bek was sitting down to an 8.30 breakfast!

Our fellow customers were very excited to see some female gaijin and as the Sapporo kicked in they tried to converse with us. The 'young' one (easily in his late 50s), was spokesperson and his elders deferred to his better English, until Rachel revealed her mastery of Japanese (I was ashamed at the comparision - I could barely understand a word). It was fortunate she has grasped so much, his English stretched to 'I love you' and went no further, although on his way outside to the public toilet (often, when dining out, you have to take yourself to the local facilities as not everywhere has their own) he stopped to shake my hand and express his love yet again.

By the evening, we were very bored of the time difference and even more drunk. I milled around in my new and extravagant purchase (red slippers, see below) and modelled my Christmas presents (the fetching pulley is fom Mum, the relaxing slacks are from Tammi and bangles are from Claire - thank you!), while Rachel set up her laptop so we could watch her new Wife Swap DVD. We spoke to our families, then lamented the lack of turkey and celebrated the absence of stress before giving in to tiredness and drink and heading off to bed.

Today we're going into Osaka for a look around (once I get off this bloody computer - poor Rachel has been ready to go for ages, but I still need to do my hair and face. Osaka might get to see the worst of me today as I need to hurry up and get out!) and then back to Nick's to give Shinai some treats and watch Kiki's Delivery Service - a cartoon about a black, Stussy-eqsue cat I have insisted we watch. Tomorrow we go to Kyoto and stay in an extravagantly priced hotel - it was that or stay in a hostel and share our bathroom with some randoms, most probably Australian randoms at that. It looks amazing. I think I am far more excited at the thought of the hotel than the temples and Kyoto itself. I am a Philistine. Right, now off to Mass....