Merry Christmas

Dear friends,

a very Merry Christmas to you all. I hope it has been a fantastic holiday and that you all got some lovely presents and are now filled with delicious food!

So my Christmas was very different from what I usually get in Australia. Although people in Japan do think about Christmas and buy presents, its more commercial and it is also more of a children/couples holiday whereas in Australia its for friends, family etc. Christmas day isn't a public holiday here either, so we pretty much just go about our usual business. I almost forgot it was Christmas today. Today I've felt slightly sad as my it's my first Christmas without my immediate family. It's still absolutely lovely to be having Christmas with my aunt, uncle, cousins and grandma, but I still miss home and family and also my dog. I didn't get any presents today, which isn't exactly important but it just makes it feel even less like Christmas. Today I woke up, went to the movies with my cousin, which was nice, came home and ate a snack, watched tv, had a sleep and then had dinner. Pretty usual day.

Our Japanese-ish Christmas dinner was very nice though. When we have Christmas in Japan we usually have an epic sushi dinner. There was salad and sushi and some chicken which was nice and dessert was cider fruit salad, which i basically fruit salad soaked in cider

Sushi

 I also bought a nice bottle of Moet & Chandon, as alcohol is insanely cheap here. Delicious!

Delicious Moet & Chandon

A little Christmas tradition in Japan is the Japanese Christmas cake. It's pretty much just a sponge cake with heaps of cream and strawberries, but its so delicious! My mum and aunty's school friend makes a massive batch of them every year at Christmas, which means one of them goes to our place here. She puts so much effort into it, and it looks like it could be sold in shops!

Home-made Christmas cake

 Anyway, that's just a small rant. I'm feeling slightly better now.

Much love to you all,

x