Thanksgiving in Japan

Thanksgiving was much better that I was anticipating. I thought it might be one of my more somber weeks here, but it actually turned out to be one of the better ones.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love fall all together, and Thanksgiving is always the perfect ending to the season. As you probably already know, food is one of my favorite things in  life, and every American knows that Thanksgiving is all about food.

I don’t remember when, but some time ago I got into a discussion with Claudia and some other friends about our favorite holidays, and I began to rave about Thanksgiving and all the delicious food that I would miss this year. No one knew anything about Thanksgiving, but most people were curious about the food so I was challenged to make a Thanksgiving feast for everyone. Since Thanksgiving was on a workday we had to postpone the feast until the following Sunday when I had off work.

We went to Costco the weekend before. We got the turkey, a bunch of potatoes, and some ingredients for making stuffing and other things. During the week, we had to pick up a few other things which were not available at Costco, or things which we did not need to buy in baulk. As the weekend got closer I started to get kind of nervous. Everyone was hyping up the meal, there was even a group chat made for the event, so everyday I was reminded that my judgment day was approaching. Greg was in on the festivities as well, but for the most part, I was the one who had volunteered to take on most of the cooking duties.

This meal was on my mind for most of the week. I wanted to make it perfect. I did get sometime to enjoy Thanksgiving Japanese/Korean style too though. On Thanksgiving day, after work, my American coworker and I had made plans to go and gorge ourselves at the Yakinikku (Grill your own meat) restaurant by our apartments. The place has an all you can eat option for a fairly reasonable price, so of course we went with that. We invited other coworkers to come with us, but everyone else had to go home or do something else, except for Ai. Ai is our new head teacher, who used to live kind of far away and commute, but recently she signed a lease for an apartment, not too far from ours, to live in during the week so she can avoid the long commute. She was happy to join us and celebrate a new holiday. We all got the all you can drink option as well as all you can eat, in order to ensure we got the most genuine experience of Thanksgiving gluttony.

The all you can eat/drink lasted for an hour and a half so we ate our fill and then made our way home. The entire walk home we wee all complaining about how full we were and how it was so hard to walk. Despite our bulging discomfort we all had a good time eating and sharing stories about all kind of things.  We all made it to work the next morning and were laughing because none of us ate any breakfast since we were still full from dinner. We had the rest of the office laughing as we talked about how much we ate and how we still felt full. But that is what Thanksgiving is all about right?!

The next days went pretty well. I got dinner with a friend on Friday night and then forgot to set my alarm for Saturday morning. I had to sprint to work and was barely on time for my first class. My manager called me asking where I was as I was still getting dressed. It was a stressful morning, but eventually everything smoothed out and the day turned out to be alright. Saturday night I just went out for some sushi and then came home to get some sleep. I had to wake up kind of early the next morning to get to Claudia’s place and start the turkey.

I woke up around 8am, which was the earliest I had woken up in months. It was a bit difficult to get out of bed but the thoughts of turkey and stuffing were persuasive enough. I grabbed some coffee and a bite to eat and by the time I made it to Claudia’s I was beginning to feel like a normal person again. I think I woke Claudia up a little earlier than she is used to waking up on a Sunday morning, but we had to go to her house, because she had the only oven amongst us (ovens are somewhat rare in Japan). She was a good sport about it though, and joined me in toasting with some bloody marys. I made the stuffing and put the bird in the oven around noon, then sat down to relax and watch the last bit of Saturday night’s college football games.

Greg was the next to show up around 2. He had been out partying on the other side of Osaka the night before, and decided to walk all the way to Claudia’s. It took him about 2 hours but he made it. He joined right in the Thanksgiving spirit and sat down to watch football with me. Sunday was a gorgeous day though, so in between prepping dome of the food and watching football, we went up to the rooftop to chill out for a while. It was in the upper 60s (Fahrenheit) and clear skies for most of the day.

Everyone finally showed up around 6 and we began eating some time before 7. Other than Greg and I, it was everyone’s first Thanksgiving. Everyone had questions and comments about the foods and the origins of the holiday. Greg decided that the best way to explain the true meaning of the holiday was by showing everyone the School House Rock educational video on Thanksgiving. Some of my American readers probably remember the School House Rock musical cartoons from Elementary school. Greg and I were laughing as we showed them some other School House Rock clips, but one or two others felt that the short musical cartoon clips for Elementary school students were lacking in-depth historical incite. So we changed to what was considered to be much more informative programming… The Magic School Bus, and then Crocodile Hunter with Steve Irwin.

After expanding our stomachs AS WELL AS our minds, we had to tidy up a bit and divide up the leftovers. I think everyone was bursting at the seams with turkey and stuffing, but still, is normal for Thanksgiving at many American households, there were loads of leftovers. I took enough home for 2 more meals.

On Monday, it was pouring down rain in the morning. I had made plans to walk around and check out a shrine and waterfall which was famous for maple trees. We met around 130 and then headed to Minou. I had been to this place in the summer, and there were maple trees everywhere. I figured it would be a nice spot to visit in the fall if I had a free day to check out some autumn leaves. On our way to Minou the rain stopped, and the sun actually came out. It was great weather the whole time we were walking about. A little cold, but not so bad. We made it to the waterfall and ate a famous Japanese fall snack, maple leaf tempura. They were maple leaves friend in tempura batter. Basically, they tasted like crunchy pancakes. Not the most amazing thing I have ever tasted, but much better than I was expecting a fried maple leaf to taste.

After our little hike, we were hungry so we went for some sushi. I enlisted google to help point us in the direction of the best sushi spot in the area. The place we chose was pretty highly rated so I was excited to check it out. I usually just go for cheap sushi where I can stuff myself full for less than $20, I rarely ever go for “quality sushi” since even the cheap stuff is 100 times better than any sushi I have had in America. This sushi was really tasty, but it was extremely hard to eat. The rice underneath was completely covered up with a massive piece of fish, which resembled a fillet, far bigger than a bite sized piece of sushi. I had to cut it into pieces in order to fit it in my mouth. It was basically sashimi, I don’t think there was enough rice for it to be considered sushi. I did enjoy it though, but I think next time I want to find a place that has more appropriately sized slices of fish. Maybe I will just stick to my favorite 100 yen sushi shop around the corner from my apartment.

After sushi we wondered around a bit then headed home. I watched a movie and then went to sleep. Yesterday I made sure to be early for work to make up for my lateness on Saturday, everyone took note that I was earlier than normal, and joked with me more about being late the other day. Saturday was my first day being late, I got a quick scolding from my manager right as I walked in but, I was glad no one was really upset with me. After work yesterday, Koichi came over and I gave him some leftovers from the Thanksgiving feast. He had made plans far in advance, so he was unable to make it to the original event, but Claudia made a plate of leftovers for me to give to him so he could enjoy the best holiday ever.

Today was pretty normal. My schedule is all the way full now. In the past 2 months I have had 6 classes added to my weekly schedule, so I don’t have any time to really relax while I am at work. My lunch breaks have begun to be “voluntarily” cut short to make sure I can get everything ready before classes. If I get another class added I will be eligible for overtime though, which I would definitely welcome. I am really trying to save up for my trips, but it is difficult to do with all the fun that is still to be had here in Japan. Oh well, I am sure it will work out, or else I will just be poor for a while as I travel home on a few pennies.

This weekend should be fun. Saturday night is a party with all of the coworkers after work. Sunday I am thinking about going to Kobe if the weather is nice, but we will see what happens. As usual, thanks for reading. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Stay warm. It is getting cold here in Japan I turned my heater on for the first time yesterday, it was in the 30s last night!