Out with the old in with the new - 2010 here we go
Christmas was a fairly low key affair this year with Tuyet and I on our own here in Japan. We missed all our festive stuff like the tree and the decorations. In fact our only contribution to decorating the apartment here in Yokohama was a smattering of christmas cards and a toy Santa that Susy bought us in November when she came across for a tour.
The two shopping malls in Queens and Landmark each had a massive tree. I liked the one in Quuens East as it had a brilliant light show accompanied by a large organ sound. At certain times of the evening after 5.30pm the tree came to life for about 10 minutes of show. The Japanese thronged to the trees with their cameras and ketai (mobile phones).
For the fist time in my 30 years of working life I was made to work on Christmas day although we did get the 23rd off as a public holiday to celebrate the Emperor's birthday. My colleague Shah and his lovely wife Jean invited us over to their apartment for the traditional Christmas dinner. Jean did remarkably well and put on the full works including a turkey cooked to perfection. We had a very pleasant evening and christmas turned out really well in the end.
In typical industrious fashion the Japanese the christmas decorations in the shops and streets all promptly disappeared on the 27th. In came the new years's boquets comprising of some cut bamboo posts, some branch cuttings and the odd satsuma. These were placed at the entrance to various buildings. We celebrated ringing in the new year in a fairly quiet manner and did see some fireworks albeit smallish at the large ferris wheel in Cosmo world.
Tuyet took the flight back to London on new years day morning so after dropping her off at YCAT at 7.45am it's been very quiet for the past two days with me taking a very relaxed attitude towards the few days off before returning back to work on the 5th January.
I've been catching up with a couple of university colleagues that I've not been in contact with for 30 years. Gamini and I had a chat on Skype and Marcus emailed me with a short history of how he has faired with his life. It's nice to be back in contact after so many years and happy to hear of their successful careers. I'm hopeful that I will finally track down some others from our Hatfield alumni, 1979 seems all too distant in the past but some memories I treasure as if they happened only yesterday.
The two shopping malls in Queens and Landmark each had a massive tree. I liked the one in Quuens East as it had a brilliant light show accompanied by a large organ sound. At certain times of the evening after 5.30pm the tree came to life for about 10 minutes of show. The Japanese thronged to the trees with their cameras and ketai (mobile phones).
For the fist time in my 30 years of working life I was made to work on Christmas day although we did get the 23rd off as a public holiday to celebrate the Emperor's birthday. My colleague Shah and his lovely wife Jean invited us over to their apartment for the traditional Christmas dinner. Jean did remarkably well and put on the full works including a turkey cooked to perfection. We had a very pleasant evening and christmas turned out really well in the end.
In typical industrious fashion the Japanese the christmas decorations in the shops and streets all promptly disappeared on the 27th. In came the new years's boquets comprising of some cut bamboo posts, some branch cuttings and the odd satsuma. These were placed at the entrance to various buildings. We celebrated ringing in the new year in a fairly quiet manner and did see some fireworks albeit smallish at the large ferris wheel in Cosmo world.
Tuyet took the flight back to London on new years day morning so after dropping her off at YCAT at 7.45am it's been very quiet for the past two days with me taking a very relaxed attitude towards the few days off before returning back to work on the 5th January.
I've been catching up with a couple of university colleagues that I've not been in contact with for 30 years. Gamini and I had a chat on Skype and Marcus emailed me with a short history of how he has faired with his life. It's nice to be back in contact after so many years and happy to hear of their successful careers. I'm hopeful that I will finally track down some others from our Hatfield alumni, 1979 seems all too distant in the past but some memories I treasure as if they happened only yesterday.
Comments
Post a Comment