Thanks For Giving.

(From 23rd November).

I had never experienced a Thanksgiving in my life before this year, something that the Americans of the area found hard of believe. One of the Yosano JETs, Alex Zindel organised a Thanksgiving for all of us at her small place. The others had prepared stews, chicken, turkey, salads, cakes and biscuits, but the best Maggie and I could come up with was fruit salad. But it was an epic fruit salad so it was up with the best of the dessert foods. Maggie, Rob and I took the train to Iwataki and with the premise that we were going to be picked up. Yeah, when told you're going to be picked up by friends your age who are foreigners, it's likely you're not going to be high on the list of their priorities, especially when hair is involved, so we waited for about an hour in the warm station before being picked up by our friend Simon (with impeccable hair, mind you). We were some of the first to arrived so Maggie and I got started on turning all the fruit we had bought into an epic fruit salad, which actually took a lot of time. Others who had arrived were working on preparing their meals and in the portable oven we borrowed from Yukari was a big turkey that I believe had to have been bought online.

The bird is the word.

By this stage people were wandering in through the door, which was starting to set of Alex. In the facebook invite she sent out to us it specifically stated we were to be there by 1pm and seated ready for dinner at 1.30pm. This is the kind of person Alex and if she organises it, that's the way it must go. We were an hour late and after working in the kitchen it was heading towards 1.30pm. Alex wasn't happy at the many latecomers. Just to elaborate on her analness, the day after the lunch she sent out an email to everyone asking if anyone had left implements and crockery behind. Attached was a photo of all the left over dishes and cutlery, lined up straight in order of height with a corresponding number on every piece. 

All the forks are all lined up. I give you all that you own.
Take the cloth and peel it back. Now, doesn't it make it look better?

So people wandering in at 1.20pm naturally set her off a bit. We were all seated by about 2pm, and so began our feast. First we had to go around the circle saying something we were thankful for, with the most popular being friends (ghey) and we even had thankfulness to the world with tears. Me, I said what I was genuinely thankful for which brought everyone to a stunned silence. I said I was thankful for the tsunami and ensuing nuclear catastrophe because in a way it guaranteed my being in Japan at that moment as so many people who were accepted in the JET programme in NZ pulled out letting those like me on the reserve list get in. Yeah, saying you're thankful for horrendous calamities is not what any normal person wants to hear, I found out.

Om nom rawrrr!

For the entire day we ate. Some then went out for a walk, then returned to eat more. One of the Omiya JETs, Jay, brought his girlfriend who owns a bakery and baked us tons cakes, biscuits and slices. 'S gooood. We ate into the night and the huge quantity of food miraculously didn't seem like it was depleting in any way, and after missing the last train back to Miyazu, Maggie, Rob and I were forced to stay longer as our ride wanted to stay on. It wasn't a day of much happenings, but it was nice to experience something we don't have in NZ even if it was an American thing made with limited Japanese resources. 

Charming, guys.