Christmas Day in Japan. If Christmas Eve had been a non-event, the day itself was almost as if all of Japan had made conscious effort to ignore the holiday. A business as usual day of cold weather and hanging around the house. The biggest difference was that the Internet had gone completely silent as the rest of the world spent time with their families.
No new emails, no one on chat, and no updates to facebook. I turned to sports, comic, and linking sites, finding them all on hold for Christmas. The Americans I knew in Japan were rapidly fleeing the country for friends and family while the Americans I talk to on the internet were simply disappearing.
Will and I did have a plan for Christmas day, though. A little more than a week prior, I’d been invited to a Christmas party at Hisa’s friend’s house. She gave English lessons and wanted to have us over as guests. In the early evening, Hisa drove us to the house, though it was only about 4 blocks away.
We were the first to arrive, but soon were joined by two of her students, aged 18 and 14. They were both far too shy to actually speak to us, despite prodding. Two more of her students showed up not too long after. One was a tall volleyball player and friend of the 18 year old girl. The other was an older student of hers who worked for Ricoh. English conversation started to pick up more during dinner. Afterwards we played a few party games, and memorized everyone’s names. The party wasn’t very much of a party, though. Instead I felt that Will and I were guest instructors in the English practice.
Everyone needed to get home at an early hour, for volleyball practice, to get a good night’s sleep, or for extra study. Will and I were given a ride back to Hisa’s and thanked for coming by. My Christmas highlight was getting to call my parents on what was now Christmas morning for them. I tried my best to keep the conversation short and the phone bill low, but it was nice to hear their voices for Christmas.
