CHRISTMAS IN JAPAN

decorations started simple enough,  but angry santa always kicks things up a notch.  he`s been showing up every year since i was a kid.  i finally tried to get rid of him last year but my husband brought him back to japan.

a rare find, i carried this bad boy back from the grocery store, it was so heavy i was convinced all the giblets were inside but alas when i got it home the cavity was empty.  having been the sole charge of three flocks of chickens on my farming apprenticeship a few years back i felt particularly weird rubbing salt on the insides of this lady, tugging on her little chopped-off neck and politely pulling a few feathers out of her butt, however  there is something satisfying about recognizing viscerally where your meat is coming from (if you eat meat) and not wasting a single bit.  (part of said apprenticeship involved learning `deboning a chicken` on one of hens that got plucked to death in a chicken gang-war, so i made a pro-soup).  yup, my oven is microwave sized.  if you live in japan, chances are yours is too.  i am always teetering on the edge of becoming a vegetarian (again) and seeing this little fellow doing `dogeza` in my oven tilts the scale even farther.  no mister chicken, it is i who is sorry.

i suckered myself with this one, i did the thing where you see a food item featured on japanese television and then you run out the next day and buy it.  silly me.  everyone saying on the program how sweet the dried persimmons from gojo city nara were got right into my head and i just had to try it for myself to see if it could possibly be that sweet.  this is why i am constantly yelling at my television,  you have to fight back or else it takes over your brain like a puppet master.  this practice drives my husband nuts because he himself was commandeered into docility at an early age by tv and he is it`s loyal sidekick and it his best friend.  he even has a special smile that he reserves for the tv, and the tv alone.  not me my friend, i won`t go down now, not without a struggle.  

a very merry christmas!!!!!