Season`s Greetings from the Land of the Rising Sun!

Merry Christmas everyone. Thank you to those of you who have sent me presents, it`s finally making me feel festive, having a little display of cards around my TV.

Otherwise, Japan, in spite of all the sparkle and lights, doesn`t feel at all festive. The country has embraced the gaudiness of the festival in all its glory, but without the promise of a decent gravy dinner and cheese board, it all seems quite alien. And where, may I ask, are the Quality Street?!

All week I have been `giving` Christmas lessons - handing out coloured card and seasonal pictures and making the kids draw - but even with Jingle Bells as incidental music, it is not properly sinking in. It is quite endearing when the children try to join in - up to a certain level, they chime in with the Japanese lyrics, so I have been attempting to teach the older children the `real` words. I stumbled upon a Christmas quiz too, so the adults have been having their own fun. It`s given me something of a break, as well as giving the kids one. One of my teenage students, whenever I ask what she has been doing or if she has any plans, only answers `studying` and this is not because of a limited vocabulary. Poor, poor girl. How she loved that wordsearch...

In the midst of my festive slacking, I have also been teaching prepositions (in, on, under, by) and made children draw monkeys in trees - it made me think of Eddie Izzard`s French lessons. Before, it had seemed such a random sentence, but I see so clearly now how useful it is. That said, monkeys are far more common in Japan than France and the children generally had more of a problem with the word `tree` than anything else.

Having picked up my coach ticket on Friday night, I am now destined for a nine hour over-night trip which is bound to bring out my seasonal hum-buggery. It is a small, but significant saving and should buy my way into a few more Kyoto temples next week, or perhaps just a UniQlo fleece - something I am fighting to resist, but seems eminently more sensible with every drop in temperature. In keeping with other traditions, I have already started to feel ill. I think it is winding down for the end of the year, not that you can really wind down a great deal as a teacher.

Sunday was a strange one. I met Aki in the afternoon, just to break up a day of laundering, and we were strolling around looking for a place to get a coffee and bumped into her mum`s friend (the one who had treated us at the izakaya) so asked him to join us. I eventually tuned into a persistant Japanese announcement and wondered if it was about earthquakes or such, so asked our new friend (whose name I still don`t know!), as Aki was on the phone. It was actually a car topped with a loudhailer and a mentalist in the front seat denouncing prostitution for its illegality and immorality. No one but me found this odd or amusing.

On Monday night, the illness reached its peak. I had a date with Ryu-san, but a growing sense of queasiness and swelling glands meant I was not on top form. His absurd schedule made me feel it was more hassle to cancel than just sit it out - we were only meeting for his one hour lunch-break anyway (21.30-22.30 - after I had finished work). Rather sweetly, he had remembered my hints about wanting steak and took me to a plush Happy Eater. The menu looked fantastic, with enormous hunks of meat served with a couple of roast potatoes, carrots, broccoli, rice and miso soup (you can`t get away from that stuff). I ordered the smallest thing I could, not having the energy to explain I was ill, then had one taste and had to sprint to the bathroom to throw up. What a slick date! I think he spotted something was wrong as he was waiting for the waitress to tell me where the toilets were, then I felt panicked, and he just pointed. I felt much better afterwards and managed to almost enjoy the rest of my meal (save the fried onions, which I wouldn`t enjoy on a good day) and struggle through our English lesson. I was also taught how to place my chopsticks once I had finished my meal, quite a handy lesson for impressing any other Japanese who happen to dine with me. However, I am not sure if I`m going off Ryu-san. Maybe it was my bad mood and illness, but he didn`t seem so handsome on Monday and when your common language can be written on a crisp packet, this matters more than ever. He`s nice enough and does make an effort to do things he thinks I`ll like - he also is incredibly keen on me learning all about Japanese (I have picked up a very pretentious pronunciation of sumo from him: `smo` - that`s how the Japanese say it), but with the language barrier and all his talk of a perm, I`m not sure there`s much of a future.