Christmas Shopping

Posted on 2005/12/25 02:05:09 (December 2005).

[Saturday 24th December]
Unlike back in the UK, there seemed to be no great problem with leaving one's Christmas shopping until Christmas eve - the shops were just as crowded as any other day. So I headed out by myself about 11:30 and spent a few hours wandering around the shopping streets of Shinjuku trying to find presents for Chie. It is quite difficult for me to do this kind of shopping in Japan - I'm not familiar with what kinds of shops sell what kinds of things, and signs are obviously hard work, not to mention having to ask staff for assistance with anything. Anyway, more or less I managed, and returned home by about 4 with what I considered to be a respectable bundle of gifts.

Spent the rest of the day back at the flat, except for a couple of forays out to nearby shops to buy odds and ends. Made a rather satisfying dinner - gnocchi with broccoli in a cheese sauce, which came out pretty well given all the usual difficulties of not being able to get quite the right ingredients. Wrapping presents was a slightly difficult exercise, as our flat only really has two fully separate rooms (well four if you include the little kitchen and the bathroom) and we can't use one of them in the evening at the moment as it has no light yet! So Chie wrapped presents while I was cooking, and I wrapped presents while Chie was taking a bath.

I fell asleep to the sounds of "Christmas with Frank and Bing", which I'd recently bought for something like the equivalent of two pounds. Marvellous.

Post a comment