Christmas

This was my first Christmas ever where I had to work. Definitely not my favourite. Didn't even feel like Christmas. There's been no Chrismas songs or decorations. This is kind of nice though, back home you have to listen to so many Christmas songs for so long that by the time Christmas comes, you're over it.

Matt and I had Lawsons chicken for Christmas lunch downstairs at work. Usually I'm all about hanging with fam and eating awesome food, wasn't really a possibility though.

After work, got to skype the fam which was awesome. Opened a few gifts from Matt and Dad.

Cat and elephant from Matt:

Earings and necklace from Dad:

Hung out, had some beers, then headed to Jo Jo's, a restaurant in town for a set menu Christmas dinner. None of us really knew what to expect, I thought it was awesome though.

Started with sparkling peach sake and Salmon sashimi:

Not everyone was a fan, so I got to eat heaps.

Then there was a potato soup (I think). Maiyo, from work had a bottle of champagne sent to our table! So nice!

Then the main was roast chicken, with lotus bulb chips, tomato, some sort of root vegetable I wasn't familiar with, and some chargrilled eggplant:

Ended up at the fridge door bar for drinks afterwards. Good way to end the day :-)

My House

Here's a video that Matt and I made. Enjoy!



Or click here to open video.

Onsen

Had my first onsen experience today. An onsen is a public hot spring. Sometimes people don't have showers or baths in their houses, so they have to go to the onsen to get clean. I went with a friend from work this afternoon. We got there and had to buy a ticket at this vending machine. Then we had to hand our ticket over to this guy at a counter not doing anything. Seemed pretty weird.

We then walked into this changing room, where there's heaps of shelves with a basket in each one. You get your naked on, leave your clothes behind and head down these stairs into this super steamy room. On the walls there are these showers with seats. You have to sit on the seat and wash your self really well. My friend Aiko said she spends maybe 10 mins thoroughly cleaning herself before getting into the onsen. The one we went to had an indoor and an outdoor onsen. We started with the inside, and made our way to the outside one. The outside once was better, the air didn't feel too cold at all, it was just nice and fresh after the farty sulphur smell of the indoor one. It was pretty awesome though. The outside one was a circular shape surounded by rocks. The water was probably about 70cm deep. Deep enough to sit and have my shoulders covered. It was a little bit weird having your nudie on with other chicks, would be more weird in a mixed one though. Apparently chicks can wear a towel in the mixed ones. Anyway, I feel super relaxed now. Hoorah!

I didn't take this picture, but it looked pretty much like this:

Japan

Things have been mega busy/crazy. Spent about a week and a half in Tokyo. Saw some really awesome shit, got lost, got frustrated at not being able to figure out where we needed to go.
Went to Disneyland:

Saw some awesome bonsai gardens

Saw some weird shit

Went to the Studio Ghibli Museum. So awesome. Felt like being in some crazy fantasy land for kids.

Bought this drink called "Hoppy" from this restaurant where you order your food on a touch screen at your table. Hoppy ended up being this weird drink that you mix with a shot of some kind of hard liquour on ice. It tasted okay, wasn't what I had in mind though.....

We made it to Niseko okay. Have been working since 28th of November. Company we work for is really shitty, poory run. I've been given hardly any instruction on what I have to do for my job. It's a real shit show. The house we live in is a mouldy shit hole with too many people being crammed in. The people we work with are awesome though, and the snow is great, so it should be an okay season I hope. Matt's banged his head on low doorways about 50 million times since moving in.

The view from the mounain is pretty awesome. Here I am with Mt Yotei, a volcano in the background. Lets hope there's plenty of good snowboarding to come.