All things considered, I was surprisingly calm, even as I was kicking foreign tourists out of our seats.

Along the way I ate hot dogs (carbs) and saw a character who has to appear in a novel some day.

Today our oldest and I traveled to my in-laws. The prep for that involved denial, folding, washing, waiting, and several “where are you?” texts.

Our oldest had a “school related event” that didn’t involve her school uniform and She Who Must Be Obeyed didn’t know about it so that leaves me going “Hmmmm”. However, she did make it back in time for her to pack and for us to catch our train. (We even took a selfie, of sorts, modified with Prisma.)

S and I on the bullet train to Itoigawa. #fakeart #playswithcamera

A photo posted by DL (@d.e.lively) on Dec 30, 2016 at 2:31am PST

She Who Must Be Obeyed, for her part, made several calls confirming that we were packed and ready to travel and aware that today was the day we were supposed to travel. I, being in an oddly relaxed mood (more on that in a future post) resisted torturing her by saying things such as “I thought we were traveling tomorrow” and “what daughter?” and by not pretending I’m worried that I didn’t turn off the kerosene stove. Oh, and I paid that homeless guy and his friends a bunch of cheap booze to house sit.

Our trip was on the new Hokuriku Shinkansen which runs from Tokyo to Kanazawa with a stop at Itoigawa, which is now the township where I used to live (a long story involving government and mergers).

Because it was late in the New Year’s season, we ended up with an oddly complicated trip. Our train stopped at Nagano, but not at Itoigawa. This meant we had to change trains, which, luckily, merely meant a walk across the platform.

However, when we boarded our first bullet train, there were people in our seats. I politely pointed this out, and the people, who were Asian but spoke neither Japanese nor English gave us the seats, but seamed annoyed. (Note: the train was a very rare reserved seats only train.)

(Note the Second: By colossal coincidence, SWMBO and our youngest had people in their seats when they traveled, too.)

Luckily, one us remained awake so that we could change trains at Nagano. Then, at the end of our ticket, there was a mad rush through the suddenly large and confusing Itoigawa Station, but we managed to get tickets for the local train to Nou Machi (which, oddly, we had already passed in the bullet train) but we got tickets and got on the train.

On the train, a single car with only a driver, was man with gold hair. He was wearing a white suit, a white mask and blue Oakley sunglasses. If he’s mafia or a host, he’s very low class because he’s forced to take the train. Either way, he occupied four seats and seemed to be struggling to stay awake.

Now I’m at the in-laws sipping Japanese whisky and wondering how I remained calm through all this. I’m also wondering how to work the man in white into a story.

I didn’t go out yesterday, which meant that it was raining today.

Luckily, around lunchtime the rain stopped and my youngest and I were able to escape.

My first mission involved 1) go to atm and get money; 2) cross street to different atm and deposit money: 3) find a place to eat lunch.

Step one went badly as the atm I was using wouldn’t let me withdraw money. Instead I had to get back in line and get a different atm. Once the money was secured, I headed over to a different bank and deposited the money. Once the money was deposited our youngest and I went to a fast food place for lunch.

After that my job was to stay out of the way of last minute packing. I also had to refrain from comments and suggestions.

Eventually, She Who Must Be Obeyed and our youngest made their way to the other side of the island. Now it’s my job to think about packing. Eventually.

Our Christmas dinner morphs a bit from year to year, but this year established the basics: Chicken, potato salad, bread, cheese, wine.

Because turkey is both difficult (and expensive) to acquire and nearly impossible to cook (unless the bird is the size of a pigeon) we end up with whole chicken leg (defined as “roast” chicken, but it usually ends up as teriyaki chicken.) This is easier to cook but lacks what I consider a vital element: the ability to use leftovers for sandwiches. There’s also no stuffing and very little pie.

Because everyone was busy, more or less, an odd side effect was that the sweets remain unfinished. This means dessert will be tomorrow.

Knowing the way we do things, that might end up being supper.

Over the years I’ve come to accept that Christmas is just another random festival here in Japan. As such, especially as the girls have gotten older, our actual Christmas is fairly modest.

This year our oldest has plans that will keep her busy most of the day and our youngest has plans that involves cupcakes and will keep her away part of the afternoon. I have work to do but I’ll be able to do it at home and She Who Must Be Obeyed and I might sneak out for cheap sushi.

The advantage of Christmas being just another random festival is that restaurants don’t fill up. It’s just an ordinary day.

We usually make the New Year’s holiday our big celebration. This year even that will be slightly complicated, but more on that in a future post.

Until then, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to everyone!