Christmas in Japan!

My first Christmas in Japan was fabulous! Work ended on December 21st, and left with me three weeks of freedom. Then, on December 22nd, Bryon arrived from Oregon! The next nine days flew by....We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with my church family. Then, on Christmas day we had dinner with my pastor's family. The following days were spent skiing, exploring, relaxing, introducing Bryon to some interesting Japanese cuisine and some of my friends, and enjoying funny moments such as....me attempting to ask for the bill at a restaurant (in Japanese), and receiving a big mug of beer instead! Or, a Japanese friend of mine coming up to Bryon and starting to bow, and Bryon misreading the cue, hugging her instead! Then of course, all of the ladies in the room had to give him a hug too. They thought it was hilarious!
Anyways, here are a few pictures to share some of the memories with you.


At our Christmas Eve Service...in the middle is my friend Ayumi who I met at Kaiwa Cafe, a weekly English conversation cafe that we have at our church. On the right is a friend of Ayumi's.
















The Ishikari beach at Christmas
















Bryon enjoying some "kaiten" sushi (sushi off of a conveyor belt!)





















Bryon blowing up a big snow tube, before we attempt this hill at Moreanuma Park that you can see in the background! We had a few trial runs in which we attempted to go down only half the hill. Then we did the "big one"...a ride down the whole hill. It was honestly the craziest tube ride I have ever had. We went so fast, and hit two big jumps (we both flew off the tube on the second one)...I screamed the whole way down! It was very worth the long time it took to blow up the tube, and hike up the hill.





















Meeting one of my Japanese teachers, Arata-sensei...She calls herself "strict", but really, she's an excellent teacher with a very soft heart. I love my lessons with her every week.

















Opening presents! Thanks everyone!
















After a day of skiing at Niseko we headed out for dinner at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. But wait...it's only all-you-can-eat for one hour!! And you have to cook your own food on the grill at your table! Needless to say, it wasn't the most relaxing dinner. Basically, we gorged ourselves on steak, chicken, prawns, salmon, vegetables, rice etc. for one hour, burned half our food because we were too busy eating, and left feeling extremely full! But, it was really fun.






















Bryon with my friend Akemi's granddaughter...He was known as "papa Bryon" all night long! It was shortly after this that he ended up hugging everyone!





















New Year's dinner...