We were not expecting this to be a very festive Christmas season because Christmas Day is a working day in Japan! And, due to the Euro conversion, Tara was scheduled to work every day for long hours on December 28, 29, 30, 31, January 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Even with these unusually large work commitments, we managed to have a nice holiday holiday season.
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| Thursday, December 24th - Back to work. But, before work, there was a marathon photo session out on our balcony since the sunrise was so beautiful and the view of Fuji san (Mount Fuji) was so clear today. | |
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Tokyo Disneyland - Here were come! Fuji was still visible as we walked
on the ramp from the Maihama station to the park entrance. Very nice! Seth
had heard that Disneyland was a very special date place on Christmas Eve.
It sure looked like it since most people were there were couples. It was
crowded too and 99.999999% of the people there Christmas Eve were also
Japanese. This is compared with the usual 99% Japanese crowd. Not a popular
date place for foreigners I guess. Tara was disappointed that she'd forgotten
her ears at home, but many people were wearing cute Disney winter hats,
so maybe we'd buy one of those.
Shopping was mobbed on Main Street and it was a cold night for Tokyo, so we decided to find some dinner inside. The one Western-style meat & gravy restaurant was totally booked for the night and most other restaurants had queues of at least 50 people, so we kept looking. We happened to be in front of the castle when a show started, so we stood and watched. We were a bit cold, so we wondered how the dancers were feeling. Thankfully for them, it was shortened due to bad weather. Finally, we ate at the Galaxy Cafe - a cheeseburger and beef sandwich! Thus breaking our habit of a holiday-style Christmas Eve dinner together at home. We nearly ate sitting on the floor. Many Japanese couples were resorting to sitting on the floor since all the seats were busy. But, Tara's eagle-eyes spotted a table in the end. |
| After dinner, we were off to Tune Town. We bought a fun pair of Mickey
Mouse gloves for Seth, some Christmas decorations and a 1999 calendar.
But, we couldn't find Tara the Mickey hat that she'd seen other people
wearing and liked. No matter, shopping at Disney is *fun*. We decided to
pass up the parade since we'd seen it before and instead went to It's a
Small World. ohhhh, it was nice and warm inside! Of all the rides in the
park, we always seem to make it to It's a Small World every time we come.
We didn't spend long outside in the cold since the new Queen of Hearts
restaurant had opened. We stood in a short line outside, but didn't realize
what a long line inside awaited us. No matter, we stuck it out and had
an enjoyable desert. Too bad we couldn't have just slept there.
But, we had to get moving. Tara still had Christmas & New Year's cards to send. If you were one of the lucky ones, you got a card this year, if you were one of the very lucky ones - it was mailed from Tokyo Disneyland on Christmas Eve!! |
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Christmas Day and off to work we went. It was just like commuting to
work on any other day. Except that Seth did pick me an orange from the
tree in the vacant lot next to our apartment. The office itself was a bit
empty since we work with many foreigners and some had chosen to take the
day off.
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Memories from between Christmas and New Years:
- walking through the Ginza, finding the Doraemon picture machine. Since we got off at the Ebisu JR station, we were forced to walk by the Toy shop that sells lots of Doraemon things. Hence, we were forced to go in and buy something. It was a very special night in the Doraemon shop since the couple who run the shop was working with their daughter. And, the daughter speaks English! We talked about how much I love Doreamon, showed our Doraemon photos from earlier in the evening & how the shop had been there in the family for 80 years. We also stopped by the florist & bought the decoration we'd been seeing everywhere. Tara is holing the decoration we bought. |
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New Year's Eve is a national holiday in Japan & the streets and
subway was empty. We took advantage of the emptiness & brought out
the camera and took many photos of the New Year's decorations.
Tokyo is really decorated for New Year's. We first noticed this when walking home from Ebisu station one night. Tara noticed leafy bamboo boughs and pieces of pine tied to either side of the shop doorways all the way along the shopping street by the station. We didn't understand what this for for until Kondo san at work explained to Tara that plum flowers are good, pine is extra good and bamboo is the best. One very noticeable decoration is a fancy collection of pine, bamboo and plum flowers on either side of a doorway. These decorations are outside the OFS building we work in. |
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January 2, 1999 - Tara had to work - The Emperor was coming out today to greet the crowds who are allowed inside the palace only two times a year. One day is December 23rd on the Emperor's Birthday. The other day is during the New Year's holiday. We learned from Tara's colleague, Kondo san, that the Emperor would be out to greet the crowds seven times between 10am & 3:20pm. Tara felt that we had to visit the palace since it's such a close walk to work. And since she had to work, but nothing was happening, why not take advantage of the nearby tourist event. So, Seth met Tara at work and they walked over to the palace. The event was very organized with many ropes guiding the hordes in the right direction. It was really special to be allowed inside the gates that are normally closed. Tara took at least 40 photos within 2 hours and by the end, Seth wouldn't pose anymore. Seth played more video games with his friends at work after we returned from seeing the Emperor. |  |
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