Merry Christmas Mr. Fuji

Christmas day began with pancakes eaten in the traditional manner (with chopsticks of course, we don't have enough knives and forks for the people in the flat let alone our visitors.)

Actually I got up 2 hours before this to revise and so I ate my special breakfast of honey nut cornflakes. Thank you all for my Christmas gifts and cards and thoughts, everything is very much appreciated, especially being so far away the little things really do help.
After that we went to do Karaoke for 3 hours so we could sing Christmas songs to our hearts content. I did take some videos but I don't think people would be happy if they found their way onto the world wide web via my blog so I will just upload a photo instead.

That was really fun and the we all ate together - we made Nabe (Nah-beh) which is like a big pot which you put loads of stuff in together and it's sociable food. This procedeed a party where I met the following character who described himself as "The Christmas king" although his nickname was "Haemoglobin" apparently.Last night some of my friends came round for a food party which involved everyone bringing some different food. I made two dishes from my new Japanese Veggie Cookbook (courtesy of Father Christmas) and We had many other delights. I forgot to photograph my own but here is Okonomiyaki (like a cabbage pancake with brown sauce and mayonaise on top) and Chijimin which is Korean Okonomiyaki. Actually you can see the remains of mine on the right of the photo- it was seared Japanese pumpkin in a sweet and salty sauce, although it looks rather bad.I fell out of love with Japan really quickly the other day which has probably taught me a few things- a. that I take things in Europe for granted (i.e. individuality) and b. I need to start thinking what I can do after my degree. Also that I am at least gaining experience being in Japan.

Having said all that, this is one of the prettiest sunsets I have seen for a long time with Fuji-san in the distance. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.