STARBUCKS CHRISTMAS IN JAPAN

I arrived in Japan at the end of November 2003 and began working at an English conversation school called Nova. My workplace was right over a Starbucks cafe, which was a much nicer place to relax than the teacher's room.

Christmas decorations and fairy lights appear all over the place at Christmas, especially in shopping areas. And strangely, it's considered on a par with Valentine's Day as a romantic occasion for young couples. Some families give their kids presents, and people eat Kentucky Fried Chicken and Japanese Christmas cake. But for the majority of Japanese people it's just another day. So on my first Christmas day in Japan it was off to work as usual.

Except that...

It was my first winter Christmas (December is mid-summer in New Zealand.) And when I woke up and looked out the window, it had snowed lightly. So it was my first white Christmas too! I walked to work with snowflakes drifting down and catching on my eyelashes. I went early because I decided to treat myself to a Starbucks coffee before work. At that hour of the morning there weren't many people about, and I got an armchair by the window. They were playing my favorite Christmas album - Bing Crosby - and the coffee was good. I sat watching the snow and enjoying the ambience. It was a perfect moment.

It's a really precious memory!

Related articles

• Christmas came early to Starbucks this year (seattlepi.com)
• Bing Crosby - "White Christmas" (joetroiano.wordpress.com)

MY CHRISTMAS TREE

In New Zealand we always had a real Christmas tree. In fact the smell I associate with Christmas is a mixture of pine and Christmas lilies (Christmas comes in the middle of Summer in New Zealand.) But in Japan I have a 2 meter high fake tree. A couple of days ago, with some help of my neighbor, I took it out of the box and hung the decorations on it . After all, it's nearly December!


Some tree ornaments get passed down through families. They can develop histories and nostalgic associations. Like, "this one is cracked because Uncle George stood on it when he was a little boy, but Grandpa glued it together again," and "Auntie Mary made this angel at school when she was only seven years old."

I don't have those kind of tree ornaments... but in my third Christmas in Japan I had a tree decorating origami party with some Japanese friends. We made lots of origami ornaments out of pretty paper and I've used them every year since then. There is an origami Santa Claus, and a candle, and several cranes and balls, but my absolute favorite is the origami reindeer one friend made using a book she borrowed from the library.

Now whenever I see my origami ornaments I remember that party, and think of the friends who helped make my Japanese Christmas tree special.