It`s only nine days until Christmas! I`m counting down the days until Santa comes with our gifts. Next week I will be spending Christmas in Tokyo. This will be our first family trip with our daughter. We are going to visit the An Pan Man Museum. It`s amazing how so many young kids go crazy for An Pan Man. Any time we are out shopping my daughter wants to buy his merchandise. I`m sure she will be blown away to see him in person. We are also going to visit Ueno zoo. It`s Japan`s oldest zoo and I`ve never been there before so I`m looking forward to it. There is an illumination event nearby that we will visit later that evening. I was at an illumination last year in Gotemba and I was amazed by the size of it. They don`t have them on that sort of scale in Ireland. I`ll be back in Fuji to celebrate the New Year. I noticed that many families follow a tradition of watching a TV show with many singers playing songs from the year past. My family here watches that show, and we have relatives come and visit us for a dinner of sushi, soba and mochi. We usually visit sengen shrine in Fujinomiya the next day to wish for luck. I enjoy taking part and learning more about Japanese customs. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Alan