Boxing Day

Hello all. I trust you all had a Merry Christmas in whatever part of the world you are in. Christmas in Japan is always a bit of a non-event to be honest. Schools remain open and everyone goes to work as normal - even myself! However, all is not lost. I am now on a 9 day holiday and we will travel up to Shimogo tomorrow for the night. I will fill you in on the details in a couple of days time.

The sunset was lovely this evening and this is the view I have from my desk. The mountain in the background is Mount Fuji. The photo was taken using my mobile phone but I think it is good enough. That's it for now.

Wedding - Megu and Kazu

We all had a great time at the wedding of Kazu and Megumi yesterday (Saturday the 13th December). Megumi has been a close friend of Yuki for many years and I met her for the first time about 11 years ago. Every time I go to a wedding in Japan, I seem to enjoy them more and more.

This wedding like others before them, was organised to perfection. We were all impressed with how professionally things were done and the final result was very classy. It must have cost a small fortune. It was held at a building called Celes which specialises in staging both the wedding ceremony and the post wedding party. Celes specialises in European style weddings and the facade of the building is supposedly modeled on a famous church in Rome.

We were all looking forward to the wedding and it was nice to have an excuse to dust down the kilt and head out to a special occasion.

After waiting for a short time in the foyer of the building, we were all ushered into the lifts and up to the 7th floor where the chapel is located. The chapel is very tastefully done and could easily have passed for a quaint village church in Scotland. The groom walked down the aisle in a white suit looking very serious and Megumi soon followed on the arm of her father to the tune of Here Comes the Bride. She also looked very businesslike and serious - every time I have seen her in the past, she was always laughing and joking but I guess she was making a special effort to remain composed on her big day.




UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Sorry, but it is Sunday night and I have to wake up at 5.30am tomorrow so I can't complete the blog tonight. Here are a few more pictures - I'll try and finish this update sometime during the week.

Thanks
Kane

Holiday Plans

A Japanese style Christmas card. Looks like someone has got their wires crossed somewhere...

I actually heard from a German expatriate that 20 years ago, one of the largest department stores in Japan had a large Christmas display with a similar Santa crucifixion. I wish I had been around to see that.

Anyway, the purpose of this posting is to fill you all in on my plans over Christmas and the New Year. I was expecting to only get a couple of days off work, so to receive considerably more time off is a very welcome bonus. As you will see, I am working on Christmas Day but that does not bother me too much. In Japan, Christmas is more of a passing interest rather than a real cause for celebration. The details are;

20th December (Sat) - Weekend.
21st December (Sun) - Weekend.
22nd December (Mon) - National holiday and Clara's 8th birthday.
23rd December (Tues) - Work
24th December (Wed) - Work and Yuki's birthday.
25th December (Thurs) - Work and Christmas Day.
26th December (Fri) - Work.
27th December (Sat) - Weekend and trip to Shimogo.
28th December (Sun) - Weekend and return from Shimogo.
29th December (Mon) - Holiday.
30th December (Tues) - Holiday.
31st December (Wed) - Holiday and Hogmanay.
1st January (Thurs) - Holiday and New Years Day.
2nd January (Fri) - Holiday.
3rd January (Sat) - Weekend.
4th January (Sun) - Weekend.

I really cannot wait to get some decent time off work. I have been working pretty hard over the last 6 months and feel it is about time to enjoy myself. The visit to Shimogo particularly excites me as I know I will be in a good mood at the start of my holiday period.

I will undoubtedly make several postings during the Festive Season, so if you have a couple of minutes to kill, you can return and see what I have been up to.

We are all going to a wedding on Saturday the 13th of December, so a blog on that will appear soon.