There are so many exciting things happening that I can't keep my blog up-to-date! Hooray for happy business. ;) But, I want to share some of these joyous occasions with you, my dear friends and family, so I will do my best.
First, I must tell you all about my Christmas party! Back in November, a few of us JETs were talking about Christmas and who would be left behind and we decided to pull together a little shindig. Well, this little shindig evolved into quite the extravaganza so I have to tell you about it in parts. So, here is Part 1: Decorations.
One of my favorite things about Japan is the hiyakuen (100 yen) stores. They are roughly equivalent to dollar stores in the states. This is where I bought the vast majority of my Christmas decorations. Such as this little reindeer stocking.
I also like this photo because it nicely displays the awesomeness of my new camera lens. See how the reindeer is (mostly) in focus but the tree and background and lovely and fuzzy? That is thanks to my shiny new 5omm lens. It makes my heart happy.
I bought this Merry Xmas thingy at the 100 yen store, too. It is actually a large gift bag, but I thought the Santa Clauses were too adorable so I used it as wall decor. This greatly confused one of my Japanese guests, but it's how I roll.
This is my kitchen tree. It is decorated according to the red and green color scheme. :) Yes, I color-coordinated my rooms. ;)
Here are more decorations from my red and green room: 3D snowflakes and paper chains. Both were made with help from my students. :) A very fun class.
We used them to decorate the classroom and then I brought what was left over to use for the party. Convenient recycling. :)
This is the tree for my blue and silver room (living room). You can also see my cozy fireplace. It crackled and everything! It only emitted the tiniest bit of heat though. ;P
Here's a tiny snowflake from the blue and silver room. I hung it on the light switch and people thought it was so clever. =P
Sorry for the blur.
In this picture you see the centerpieces for one of the tables. You may be confused because it is a mixture of blue & silver and green & red.
That is because these tables were in my bedroom, which was a fusion of the other two rooms' color schemes. :) Ridiculous, huh?
These tables are really low to the ground (about coffee table height) because that is the preferred dining style here in Japan. Everyone sits on the floor! More about that later. :)
My family sent me a wonderful care package which also contained some decorations: 
beautiful silver stars (including the tiny ones you can see in the centerpiece photo)
and a nativity. Apparently the globe part is supposed to hang over the Jerusalem part, but I didn't find the wire for it. Oops. ;P
As I mentioned before, I decided to use candles instead of Christmas lights, and I think they worked really well. They made the apartment so cozy on such a blustery, rainy day, and I think they were kinda classy. :)
Finally, I found some fresh holly at the Max Value grocery store here, and picked it up at the last minute for about 300 yen ($3). It made a gorgeous centerpiece for the food table in the red & green room. :D
Decorating my apartment was a long, drawn-out process, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I am glad I didn't wait until the last minute to decorate, but took my time and did everything gradually. It would have been much more stressful to try and decorate while getting everything else ready!
Well, I hope this blog didn't bore you, but I wanted to share the details because that is where I poured a lot of my energy. Keep your eyes open for Part 2 when I find the time to post again!
