1985/7 Japan

27 December 1986
Posted 03.01.87; received 09.01.87

Gleetings!

It was nice to talk to you on Christmas Day. I trust you enjoyed your lunch with Liz and Hennie. The 25th was much like any other Thursday to me. I went out for breakfast, shopped for French wine and bread, Japanese butter, Danish cheese and Swiss chocolates. Then returned to the office to avail myself of the video machine and the telephone. I have decided that this is the last Christmas on which I am going to send cards, etc. Having watched with scorn as the Japanese celebrated Christmas I began to question my own response to the commercial machine set in motion at this time of year. Sometime in late November the decorations go up in the streets and the stores. Early in December giant Santas with mechanised babies crawling all over them make an appearance. All shops stay open seven days a week. Christmas cards fill the shelves. Imported, pre-cooked, pre-packaged, pre-everything gift sets sell at outrageous prices. Lists of suitable gifts are printed in newspapers and magazines. In every store the same inane carols are repeated over and over and over. In every office there is a Christmas tress and plastic reindeer prancing all over the walls. Coloured lights festoon countless trees. The Japanese Christmas is bigger, better, brighter than any Christmas in any Christian country. And none of it has any meaning – except in terms of finance and profit. And the Japanese do love to shop and shop and shop. The whole farce was made abundantly clear to me yesterday when I saw a woman purchasing a Christmas tree – on Boxing Day? Perhaps it was on sale for next year?!?

I received your parcels. Thank you. I am looking forward to starting on the Taj when I return from Shikoku. I leave early Monday morning and shall return to Okayama the following Sunday. Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands and is not as well travelled as the others. Except by Buddhist pilgrims who visit on foot 88 special temples scattered about the island.

I went to my fourth Ikebana lesson this morning. I am studying at the local community centre where I am treated very nicely – being the only ‘gaijin’ in their midst. Today everyone had to pay extra money for special new year flowers. Except me. I was made a gift of the orchids, etc, by my teacher?!! I have also found myself a woodcut teacher. The Japanese bath scenes I gave you are woodcuts. The man who will be teaching me is a retired principal who has entered some of his prints in exhibitions. He doesn’t normally teach woodcuts, but is prepared to teach me – for only ¥3000 per month. He will be making me a gift of all the wood needed, tools, etc. People in Okayama are much more excited by contact with foreigners than those in Kyoto. And so are VERY good to me.

I am enjoying my teaching much more this time round. Perhaps because I feel far more involved in the school itself. I am up to 17 hours per week. And every Sunday I teach free demonstration lessons to anyone who so desires for three hours. Now that my visa has been extended I should be able to save between $2000 and $3000 by the end of March.

Dad, please send me your bank account number and branch name. I want to see if I can deposit what I owe you directly. Otherwise I shall have to figure out another way of getting it to you. Mom, the money I get back from the Receiver should go into your account. That should cover some of what you lent/gave etc to me while I was home. TAH.

That’s it for now. I will not phone at New Year, OK. Enjoy your holiday. I’ll write again from Shikoku.

Lotsaluv
Gail

PS Happy New Year. Sorry I’ve been so slack about writing.