While I didnt get to Uncle Jim's Christmas show, I did not miss out on christmas songs altogether. As I wrote about earlier I attempted Rudolph with many of my students. My favorite reaction of course, was the one I described with the kids singing absolute jibberish and doing the "demo sonna no kankei ne" dance, but hearing my middle school students attempt it was also pretty funny. When the middle school students yelled "Muri!" (Impossible), I lied a bit and told them my elementary school students sang it just fine. Not altogether true, but also not a total lie. Anyway, in the best of classes one or two of the class clowns sang along rather queitly with me as I tried to sing Rudolph loudly and clearly so the others could follow.
Better still was Akizugawa Junior High. Their culture day, which consists of student presentations (Plays, song, academic presentations, etc) happened to fall near christmas and they decided to incorporate a little Christmas spirit. It this case that meant making many of the students, and of course me, the english teacher, dress up like Santa Claus and sing "Happy Christmas" (John Lennon) and Jingle Bells for the middle and elementary schoolers. Thankfully I wasn't alone up there because before I got up on stage I failed to realize that Jingle Bells was in Japanese not English. I did my best to sing along, but I guess it was only fair given that I had made so many of them sing Rudolph. The whole thing finished of course with me giving comments on the performances although maybe one person in the room could understand my english, and that is a generous estimate. Therefore I'm sure you will all be happy to know that I was not spared the embarrasment of singing christmas carrols in front of large groups of people.
I also mannaged to uphold the Christmas cookie tradition. I did not think it possible that christmas cookie baking could take longer than it does at 109 pinecrest rd., but believe me with only one small microwave/oven it can.
Mariel, Corrine, and I had to make them on my kotatsu (a type of table that heats up and sits low to the ground) and we made a pretty big mess but we had a lot of fun.
In Japan they dont really have Christmas cookies, they have fluffy cream or ice cream cakes they call Christmas cakes. You can hardly go a day around the Christmas season without hearing the word Christmas cake. Well I'm about synical about Christmas in Japan, it's a whole lot a commercialism with no real sentiment. There is no doubt that Christmas is the US is also a commercial holiday, but at the very least Christmas often has real value for families. At my height of synicism in mid November about the Japanese version of Christmas I began referring to the Japanese as the Grinch who stole Christmas and got it entirley wrong. Clearly the thought process of someone with serious culture shock, but I would say my digust with the materialistic corruption of Christmas was valid. For this reason, I delighted in explaining to my students that in the US there was actually no Christmas cake (save fruit cake- which in mind can not even be counted as real cake). My students responded with universal "EHHHHHHHHHH?!?!" and I explained to them we had Christmas cookies in the US and that my family made hundereds of them. The sheer number of cookies was equally shocking to them, and I'm pretty sure they walked away thinking Americans were every bit as crazy as I think Japanese are for having Christmas cake.
Mariel and I left Japan for Vietnam on the 21st of December, and was suprised to find tons of Christmas decorations. I was prepared for a few, after all almost 10 percent of the population is catholic, but the Christmas mania blew me away. One department store in particular had totally out done itself with snowmen, christmas trees, and even fake falling snow. It was MASS HYSTERIA any time you passed it. Parents were snapping photos of their kids in front of the decorations while guards tried to get the parents to atlest put the children in front of the scene, rather than smack in the middle of all the decorations. Mean while terrible versions of Christmas songs were blaring from the speakers, and vendors tried to sell popcorn, balloons, and an assortment of childrens toys on the street corner. In truth, this Christmas was equally commerical, but the differnce was that people weren't actually buying things. On Christmas eve, after Mariel and I returned stuffed from our Vietnamese Christmas dinner, we ran smack into the middle of a giant Christmas parade. There wern't any floats or anything just people, music, and popcorn (oddly enough). As far as we could tell the parade started at the department store, and continued by the lake. Parents and couples were snapping their last shots before the decorations would be taken down in the morning, while happily munching on their pop corn. It was unlike any Christmas I have ever seen, but somehow it felt appropriate enough.
Mariel and I after Christmas Dinner.
View of Hoàn Kiếm Lake in the center of Hanoi's Old Quarter.
Street vendors selling veggies. I love food markets, the smells, the colors, the tastes; Vietnam did not dissapoint.
Burning incense at the Temple of Literature. I was hoping for luck on the GRE.
Boats waiting for cutomers in Tam Coc.
Ha Long Bay, well worth all the hype.
This picture is actually my favorite from the trip. I think it captures so many of the wonderful aspects of Hanoi. The city is dirty, but in some cases the dirt gives the city more character, an older, more antique feel. People really do walk around with the conical hats on, selling fruits, or flowers out of their bikes or over their shoulders in baskets attached to a bamboo rod.
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