Friday November 24, 1989
JQS helps chop up dried fruit for the fruitcake. Yes. I'm using the rice cooler to mix up the dry ingredients in. It's the only "bowl" I have that is large enough.
I'm writing this at the kitchen table; the kitchen is the only warm room in the house right now. That's because there is a fruitcake in the oven. It was difficult to find the ingredients (a bottle of cloves was $10 at Tokiwa and I couldn't find any maraschino cherries). I did find some Australian raisins (300 yen a bag) in the "American Store" department. I supplemented with plenty of dried and candied local fruits.
The greatest difficulty has been remembering the recipe out of my head, cutting it in half (it makes ten pounds of fruitcake and I don't have any bowls large enough to hold that much batter), and then trying to convert the proportions to grams, cubic centimeters, and centrigrade. Murakami-sensei lent me her oven (which is about the size of a small microwave and thus twice as big as my toaster oven). The major advantage is that it has a temperature control. JQS and I worked together on the cakes while we listened to our tape of traditional carols played on recorder and dulcimer. As soon as we smelled the cloves, we knew the holidays were here.
November 29, 1989
I feel like an early American settler trying to preserve the traditions of the old country and adapt them to the flora and fauna of the new country. I decided this morning, that I will have an Epiphany Party here, although rather than the usual Christmas season fare, I will serve only sweets and eggnog. I am going to buy a little evergreen and decorate with red and white origami cranes. There are pinecones here, and pyracantha to provide the red berries.
The Japanese always seem to avoid the danger of assimilating ideas from other cultures; I don't think that they ever lose what is uniquely Japanese, even if it sometimes takes strange shape. They have imported Christmas--but it is mimicry without meaning. I don't think you could ever confuse Japanese Christmas decorations with American ones. For example, morphing Christmas and Halloween, the Sanrio shop in Oita-shi displayed black Christmas trees with little pumpkin ornaments.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
November 24, 2003
Comments
Yep. We simply enjoy Christmas because it's Kurisumasu. ;) Christmas always comes with good memories to me, a non-religious guy. Too funny you used "o-hitsu" as a "bowl"! It was a good idea, though. :)
Comment by: Kiyo. Posted November 25, 2003 09:46 PM.
I spent 2000-2001 in Toda-shi in Saitama, the prefecture just northwest of Tokyo on a program similar to JET teaching English in junior high schools. Naturally, the experience completely changed me. I came across your site yesterday while looking for any websites about living in Japan because I am so homesick for it. After reading your experiences in Japan 15 years ago, it is clear to me that this homesick feeling I have is not likely to go away anytime soon and I may have to live with it forever. Japan is certainly peculiar in that way...
Comment by: Dawn. Posted September 14, 2005 11:53 AM.
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The Japanese always seem to avoid the danger of assimilating ideas from other cultures; I don't think that they ever lose what is uniquely Japanese, even if it sometimes takes strange shape.