Priests and Postmen

Christmas in these parts was a somewhat eclectic affair, bereft as it was of the usual presents under the Christmas tree and oven-roasted fowl. Admittedly Christmas in Japan (thankfully) isn't as hysteria inducing as the shopping frenzy back home, but even by our local low key standards, it was rather underwhelming.

We began the day by going to 10.00 o'clock mass at the local Catholic church (of which, rather surprisingly, Muroran has two). It was plenty long - over the hour mark - in a very cold Church, with a lot of old people, who, I feared, might start succumbing to hypothermia if the priest didn't start hustling through his homily. After the mass, we were gently but firmly entreated to join the Christmas party. Sanae was bemused by it all, especially the fact that all the women present had white shawls covering their heads during the mass. She asked me why, so I explained how the Pope had just recently issued an edict about banning female dandruff from the Church. Cian, I think, is quite taken with Catholicism: as far as he is concerned, if you manage to endure the hour long bizarre babble, then you are rewarded with chocolate sponge cake, apples, and orange juice.

After mass we went for a walk on Itanki beach; a short cold walk, as despite the sunshine and blue skies, it was bitterly cold. So back to the house for a cup of tea and a quick bite to eat, and then off again to the post office. Yes, the post office. As traditional as turkey. We went there to open a special education savings - insurance account for Cian (or "he who must always be obeyed"), and the bloody process, in typical Japanese bureaucratic style, took close on an hour and a half. And apparently, because of the intransigent idiocy of having to write my name in two different writing systems (a topic for a future post), it appears I will have to redo the application again this coming Monday.

So, by now completely emptied of the Xmas spirit, we took ourselves off to the restaurant up the road from our house for dinner. And had pork curry and rice. And it was delicious. And I don't care if there was no roast lamb, roast potatoes, gravy, turnips, ham, more gravy, stuffing, bacon, the rest of the gravy, pudding, cake, Irish coffees, baileys, bushmills, whatever your having yourself...