Tis the Season.....to do nothing.

So I'm in the middle of my Christmas break and I haven't really been doing anything.  Seriously, I haven't really left my apartment for three days straight.  I had some plans to go to Kyoto, but in the end decided that the cost was too much.  It's hard for me to justify such costs when student loans and the prospect of no job next year loom.

Anyway, since I haven't been doing anything I thought I'd update some pictures that I've always meant to post, but haven't yet. So here we go:

First up Christmas dinners.  I ended up going to three Christmas dinners this year (one on Christmas eve and two on Christmas) and had a pretty intense food hangover on Monday morning.  All the meals were American style meals since Christmas is more of a season than an actual holiday in Japan.

Meal #1

 No photos from meal #2 because I forgot, but this is meal #3

 This meal had EVERYTHING, even the Alaskan King Crab legs you see below.  Simply put, it was the best holiday meal I've ever had.  Sorry if this should offend anyone, it's just a matter of fact

Since we're on the subject of food, here are some pictures of the food that I've had since I've been here:

These photos have appeared here before, a couple of items from my evening with Yasuo.

Below on the right is a みかん (mikan), otherwise known as a Japanese orange, they aren't all green on the outside, but this one was. 

Here you have a somewhat traditional ramen noodle set.  As you can see it's a little more involved than the cup-of-noodles people get in America.  

Next are photos from a local 焼肉(yakiniku) restaraunt.  Yakiniku literally means grilled meat. What made this interesting was that the grill is in the table and you can cook all the meat yourself.

 These next two photos are from my favorite kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi restaraunt, ととやみち(totoyamichi).  

This dish is by far my favorite.  It's some kind of spicy tuna, I don't recall the name.

Lastly are a couple photos of some other food that I enjoy here.  The hamburger is from the place I frequent, Reno's Bistro. and the pizza is one that I made myself.  It was an "enchilada" pizza with chicken and guacamole (instead of a tomato sauce). It actually turned out decently.

These next group of photos are from signs and shops that just seem funny to me for one reason or another.  This first photo is just one that I never expected to see in Japan.  The second is great because I have a good friend who's nickname is Shazbot, if he only had the copyright privileges on it in Japan...

 A sign I saw while walking on the street in Yamakura.

Some more store names at an outlet mall.

 I especially appreciate the next one.  No one here (in Tokyo) found it that amusing, so maybe it's an American thing.  I'm just imagining Matthew Grice reading the sign with a Sean Connery accent.

The last couple of random photos.  My roommate and myself doing what we do so often, eating ice cream and watching a show (probably Arrested Development this evening, but lately we've been working through House).

 The twenty somethings from my church went bowling, the bowling shoes were actually not awful.

 This photo is from a Costco and if you're looking carefully you'll notice that she's giving out samples of alcohol.

 This is my boss.  Simply put this is a man picture.

 These last two photos are from a まつり(matsuri), a local city festival in which they carry the mini-shrines throughout the city and wear.....interesting clothing.  Keep in mind it's Mid-November and around 55 degrees outside.