I'm a socialite!

Well I suppose that declaration is slightly premature-especially when you consider that I've spent the entire day surfing the net, playing videogames and watching Battlestar Galactica. Still I've made a start. On Christmas Eve Eve, Jared and his friend Ikue and Fumiko and myself all went to Shibuya to a restaurant called Outback. Some of you may know it-sort of an Australian themed restaurant. It was pretty good-I had a big steak for the first time in about two years! Fumiko was feeling a little bit sick unfortunately-we're not sure why. She had been out to an office party the night before and had drunk approximately a glass and a half of wine. She has absolutely no tolerance for alcohol! That makes us compatible since I usually have no taste for it. Unless of course it's a White Russian

Christmas Eve was spent with Fumiko again. I went to her place after work and we had a little Christmas dinner, opened presents and watched A Muppets Christmas Carol. She had actually managed to find it somewhere and bought it for me for Christmas. Here's a pic of our Christmas tree-a lot different from back home that's for sure.

Oops wait, that one's of my friend Pete. Looking very teacher-like in front of a NOVA arcade game we found at one of the huge arcades in Ikebukuro. Yes that's how we look in all our classes- "Mamiko, you said 'Yesterday I went to shopping.' Went to shopping??"

Lets see if I can get the right pic this time...
Yep there it is! Sort of cute and pathetic at the same time! Still there's an impressive number of presents under that tree! Here's a rundown of the Christmas l00t that we scored this year:

For me:

1. A sweater from Seibu.
2. A pair of pants from Seibu.
3. A Muppets Christmas Carol DVD.
4. WWII t-shirt from back home (and some cash that I haven't spent yet!)
5. A book from Emily. Hitching Rids With Buddha by Will Ferguson. I'm seven chapters in and so far it's a darn good read! Check it out if you can-his writing about Japan is much more interesting and funny than I can possibly produce.
   

From me:

1. A ring from Seibu. (pics to come).
2. A framed photo of us in Kyoto.
3. Some english books starting with some Peanuts for beginning readers, then a slightly harder Beauty and the Beast and then finally the Charlotte's Web novel.

Oh I got off on a bit of a tangent there. I was talking about my emergence as a socialite. Anyways, for the third night in a row (Christmas) I went out after work with Pete and his roomie Ross to an tabehodae (all you can eat) nomihodae (all you can drink) yakiniku restaurant. So we stuffed ourselves on meat that we cooked ourselves for two hours, and then after that we dropped into the arcade (see above) and then finally met up with a few of the school staff ladies who had just finished their own Christmas dinner and went out to The King George pub.

Stay tuned for more info regarding my upcoming travel horrors.