Xmas in Japan

A very tortured Christmas tree!

        Well, the prospect of spending Christmas Eve & Day alone here in Penang looked pretty bad, so I hustled off to Japan to spend it with Hubby in the little country town where he's now working as a "business bachelor."  The Xmas season is always tough for me because of all the tortured Christmas trees.  Take this one, which had a lot of potential and could have been "saved."  In fact, I made a secret attempt to fluff it up and make it actually look like a tree, but I couldn't.   Someone had tied up its little branches with white string so the branches couldn't drop down even an inch.  Now why did they do that? Was it to streamline the tree to make it take up less space? Had they tied it up to store it away and forgotten to cut away the strings when it was time to set it up? I'll never know, but if I'm living in Ogawa-machi next year at Xmastime (and I might well be), I'm going to beg them to let me help them with their tree.

Cabbages that look like bouquets of roses

       On the other hand, the Japanese do wondrous things with cabbages.  Not the edible kind, but the decorative ones that are used in outside planters because they can withstand the cold.  I've never seen ones as good as those I saw on this trip!  In fact, I loved them so much, I'm going to put two pictures of them here.  And let me remind you loyal readers that these are ALL ornamental cabbages, no matter what other flowers they might look like.  There are ones that look like roses, others like begonias, and some . . .  well, they look like living lace.  I love those things!
                  

And more ornamental cabbages for winter planting

          No matter what the season, you can count on the Japanese to have some seriously confusing English on their garments.  This jacket had a whole story going on, complete with a little word play.  For those who can't read the jacket in the picture, I'll try to reproduce its whimsical message here:  "Hurray ("Hooray") for 40th Anniversary!!!   We continue running from 1968 & we pedal a bisycle now.  We gathered in Ogawamachi to get into the boat of the name to call the. . . .  'FRIENDSHIP'  ha-ha-ha!!!" 

Put your personal history on your back

          You can almost understand it, but not quite. I think the idea is that these fellows have all been running together since 1968, although, with aging, painful knees, they've switched to cycling nowadays.  And they've gathered in Ogawa Town for a reunion, though I can't imagine why they chose that place.  I hope they had a nice ride in the boat called 'Friendship" and enjoyed some "nomunication," which is a combination of the Japanese word for "drink" and the English word "communication."

       Sadly, I had to leave Japan on Christmas morning mainly because Hubby had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  So, he trudged off to work and I headed for the airport for a long, long trip back to Penang.  The flight itself isn't so bad, but getting to the airport by bus and train and then sitting around the airport takes forever.  Getting back home even after landing in KL took hours and hours, too.  (I had to stop off in KL to pick up my new passport, adding extra hassle to the mix.)

Haneda Airport in Japan at Christmas time    

         I flew in and out of Haneda Airport this time, rather than Narita, and it was such a pretty sight at night! They'd taken masses of very tall bamboo, wrapped them with white lights and erected them in "groves" that you could walk under.  So beautiful!

     

Luggage "parked" outside a shop in Japan

      Going back to Malaysia after Japan always requires a mental adjustment for me about security of personal items.  In Japan people don't steal your stuff because they have their own and it's probably better than what you've got anyway.  (And honesty is inculcated in kids from a very early age and throughout their educational years.)  So you're sort of expected to leave your luggage outside the crowded little airport shops while you're inside buying your souvenirs.  (Mine is the black one in front here.)  And when you come out, it's still going to be there.  That wouldn't happen in most countries you might visit, that's for sure!   So, when I leave Japan, I always have to remember to be more careful about my stuff wherever I'm going.  

          That would be a good New Year's resolution in fact: "Be careful with personal possessions always."