About a week ago, I was sitting in my room, doing homework. I hadn’t eaten yet; it was quite late though, about 10:00, and I was about to consider getting myself something when my host mother calls. I don’t completely understand what she quickly rattles off to me; something about ikebana and dinner, but regardless, I have yet to turn down anything she invited me to, so I went along.

Turns out, I was invited to dinner to okaasan’s ikebana’s sensei’s house, which is only about a block away from us. He actually lives in a shop with his mother. It’s a little small and cramped, but that’s how many shops here are. There’s wood carvings everywhere, wood masks, a kimono decorated with turtles, and it’s just … oddly cluttered, yet cluttered with a purpose. I actually met him before at the ikebana/kimono event that okaasan invited me to (where we wore the kimonos) but I didn’t recognize him! He was all fashionable and easy-going, it was hard to mistake. Turns out, he is Sankaku Ogawa, and he’s kind of a big deal. Here is his profile page (in Japanese) and some various examples of his art.

We had a nice, simple dinner and then, to my surprise, we had some ikebana in store for us. Christmas style. We were making wreaths. So there I was, getting a one-to-one ikebana lesson from a professional as he helped me make it and we talked about me, he gossiped with okaasan, and about an hour ticked by. Afterwards, he treated us to absolutely delicious mint chocolate and his mother made some of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. It was definitely one of those surreal Japan moments.

The rest of the week, my room smelled like a Christmas tree and it just left me generally cheery.  Christmas in Japan… is unsurprisingly similar to Halloween in Japan. Everything is decked out, Christmas music is played everywhere, all drinks and food items have now been changed into a Christmas theme, and Japan, of course, goes all out. I recently went to Nagoya Eki and a small part of it was decorated with an animatronic section based off of a German Christmas fairytale, I think. It was adorable and quite beautiful. A bit early, in my opinion, but Japan seems to have gotten a head start on things ever since Halloween ended.

Location: Nagoya Eki, Nagoya, Japan