Hi there! It is time for Christmas again and here in Japan I've been spending the 24th celebrating with friends and sleeping in a capsule hotel after renting out my home on AirBnb (I guess that's a story for another time). In Norway we celebrate Christmas mainly on the 24th so it's already a bit overdue, but here's a video I've been working on with Norwegianclass101.com where we give a brief introduction to how Norwegians celebrate Christmas. Hope you like the video! God Jul!


Thanks for watching! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

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Prince Hotel and Grand Prince Hotel in Shinagawa are hosting an annual Nordic Festival which gives you the opportunity to experience a Nordic Christmas in the heart of Tokyo. From the end of November until the 25. December you can visit their Nordic Christmas Market, and they also arrange various event such as a St. Lucia day and visits from Santa himself invited all the way from Norway.
I've added som photos of a recent visit to the Nordic Christmas Festival below, and there is more information about the festival here (Japanese only).

Merry Christmas to all of my dear readers, friends and family^^
I've been spending a nice Christmas here in the Philippines, and now I'm prepared for a couple of days of studying before my travels in the Philippines begins. I'm planning to visit my friend Ace in Iloilo this weekend, and on Sunday my bf is coming to Cebu to enjoy one week of vacation with me here. After celebrating the new year in Mactan we are going to Oslob to swim with the whale sharks, and we are also planning to spend a couple of days in the island paradise Bohol! I'm sure we'll have a great week here.
How have your Christmas been? I hope you've had a wonderful time＼(^o^)／
Lastly, here comes my favorite Christmas shot for 2012^^

It is only a couple of days left till Christmas, and here in the Philippines everyone is getting ready for the big celebration. In addition to our trip to the poor areas of Cebu to deliver Christmas presents from the Rise Above Foundation's sponsors I have also had the chance to come along to one of the local shopping centers where Elisabet and Flemming dressed up as mr and mrs Santa and entertained the kids with stories and christmas gifts. Here is a picture from the event, which I made by using the application Instaframe:

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Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

Christmas is drawing near, and as a result the streets in Cebu are filled with christmas lights and christmas songs can be heard all over town. The christmas spirit is here to brighten up the days for the people of Cebu too.
But unfortunately the difference between people is very big, and a lot of the citizens here do not have the chance to enjoy a nice christmas dinner or give and receive presents because of their lack of income.

Visiting the poorer areas of Cebu

A typical home where the whole family share one room and one bed.

Entrance gate to one of the homes

The NGO that I work for here in Cebu (the Rise Above Foundation) has with the help from sponsors from all over the world gathed christmas gifts for families from the poorest areas of Cebu. I had the chance to come along on a trip around the city on Sunday to deliver christmas gifts to some of the many poor families that live here. We talked with many of the local people here, and they told us their stories. One lady was the mother of ten kids, and she told us that last year there had been a fire burning down her house. She had managed to save nine of the kids, but forgot about one of her daughters as she was trying to bring the others to safety..
One thing that seems to be the standard among the poor families we visited, is that they all have large families with many kids but with only one (or none) working parents. One of the girls we met was only nineteen, but she already had a two-year old daughter.



Marie has just given out gifts to one of the families.

We saw a lot of poverty during our trip around Cebu's slum areas. The families living close to the river were especially unfortunate, because everytime the river overflows the water would flood their houses.


There are so many cute kids living in the slums of Cebu.. I believe that helping them all to a better life will be hard, and it will definately be impossile without the help of people from outside. Rise Above does a really valueable work in the community here, because they give children the chance to get an education and improve their health through the NGO's many programs in the community. The Family Care Center where I'm working as a volunteer give the children the opportunity to get out of poverty through their educational programs, at the same time as it gives their parents the chance to work. All this is possible because of all the hard-working people within the Rise Above Foundation, and because of sponsors contributing from all over the world. By supporting this organization you can be a part of empowering local women, and you can ensure that the kids in the slums of Cebu gets an education.

The holiday so far has been really nice; on Christmas Eve our friend and buddy Shimpei had arranged a Christmas party at his place, so in the end we had Japanese hot-pot (nabe) for our Christmas dinner of 2011. Besides Christmas and a couple of days at the school library I spent most of the last week of 2011 in Kobe with Yuma and his family.

Christmas party @ Shimpei's place

 On the 29th it was time for my 23rd birthday. It was quite a birthday out of the ordinary, because I spent the morning hours watching a show featuring myself on TV Osaka..! For those of you who have read my blog you might also have seen that I was one of the lucky girls elected to work as a shrine maiden in the Toka Ebisu-festival i Osaka 9-11th of January, and so the 29th was the day they had decided to air the TV-part of the election process. Hahaha, it was kind of embarrassing to watch it. I was so nervous I messed up parts of my self-appeal, and one could almost see me shaking. Anyway, I might post the video here on my blog if it ends up on youtube in the future.
Besides the whole TV-thing I had a pretty relaxed birthday, all in good company!

Birthday present and cake!

Pinkish chocolate cake

 On the 31st of December Yuma and me went back to Kyoto to celebrate the New Years Eve with some of our friends there. We met up at Kamogawa, and went to one of our favorite bars in town: the British Pub called the Hub. What can I say.. it was pretty crowded, especially when the countdown started!

The Hub - Kyoto's British pub

A lot of people spent their last hours of 2011 in this pub..

Kampai!

A rather blurry picture showing all the people joining in the New Year countdown..

After having spent some hours here we decided it was time to move on to a new location. The only problem was that recently a lot of the clubs in town has been shut down, so there is not really a lot of places to go. Therefore we were quite happy when we discovered that the Zaza Pub actually has quite a big dance floor on the second floor! And it does not even cost anything to enter, as it would had at the clubs. Party, party all night:).

And so another year has gone by... Let's hope that the new year will be even better than the last one! So far I have to say that the new year has been pretty good, I better keep it up! From tomorrow I will however be spending most of my days in the library again, I've got a lot of assignments that needs to be done before I can have my spring holiday in February.

今年も宜しくね☆！

Christmas is not really celebrated in the same way as we do in Western countries, which actually isn't that strange considering most Japanese either consider themselves Buddhist, Shintoists or both. However, a lot of Japanese people has adopted Christmas as a non-religious event, and made it into their own. For instance, a lot of Japanese think that Kentucky Fried Chicken is a typical Christmas dinner, and recent years it has become so popular that you might have to reserve in advance if you want to secure some KFC for Christmas.. Further, a lot of families also celebrate with a spongecake with whipped cream and decorated with strawberries. I really had a hard time understanding how a cake could be the main dish on a Japanese Christmas menu, but apparently the white cream and the red strawberries make the cake look christmassy to Japanese people..(?)

Another thing that is totally different, is that Christmas is regarded as a day to be spent with your boyfriend/girlfriend. Actually, I find the Japanese New Year to be a lot more similar to Western Christmas, since this day is more of a family day.
For instance, for Christmas last year me and my boyfriend went to a restaurant and had omurice (in simple terms an omelette with rice in it) before we went to see the film Norwegian Wood based on the book with the same name by Haruki Murakami. In other words, totally different from any of my previous Christmases I've ever had!

Purikura from my Christmas celebration 2010.

After the movie we also took purikura, which is Japanese photo stickers you can decorate after the pictures have been shot. The funny thing is that the photo booths also gives the pictures some extra effects, such as making your hair look lighter and your eyes look bigger. Even though it makes us look a bit strange I have to say that I really love this picture, it is just so funny..

And now it is time for my second Christmas in Japan. This time Christmas is on a Saturday, which means that unlike last year I don't have to go to school!! Lucky.. Normally you can't expect to get the day off when it's Christmas if you are a student (and especially not at Ritsumeikan!)

Also, it seems that I'll be having a Christmas date this year too:). And the best way to spend Christmas, is to spend it with somebody you care about. I'm sure this Christmas will be great too!
Of course I miss my family though. I hope all of you are having a delightful holiday!

Merry Christmas everybody!

"Welcome to the Christmas market"!

The German Christmas market has among other attractions a big merry-go-round.

Kids riding the merry-go-round

A huge Christmas tree underneath the Umeda Sky Building

You can get your hands on German Glühwein at the Christmas market. It is however not particularly cheap..

In one of the small houses you can see the staff making gingerbread cookies!

A cute Christmas house

The cookies are adorable, but their prices are not.. One cookie costs 600 yen..

One of the Christmas cookie shops

Many of the people selling candies and other Christmas items are Westerners. However, even though it is supposed to be a German Christmas market that does not mean that the vendors are German. My friends Stephan, who is German, said to one of the staff selling German food that they had a really nice shop in German, but he was totally ignored my the vendor. Oh well, I guess it might be hard to come by enough authentic Germans who wants to work at the Christmas market in Japan..?

A guy selling German beer

Kids ready for a trip with the Spanish train "El paso" in the German Christmas market..

The Christmas tree is situated directly under the Umeda Sky Building

Baby Jesus in his crib

In Japan it is usual to leave money at the shrines; it is supposed to bring luck. I suppose that is why they have thrown money at baby Jesus?! Haha..

Neon-light Christmas

Small houses being sold at the Christmas market

Some more Christmas souvenirs that probably will make great gifts

Group picture time!

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