Happy Thanksgiving From Japan

Okay, I know that everyone's favorite American holiday was yesterday. I hope everyone was able to partake in delicious food and wonderful family time. For me, it was a day of homesickness. The Americans here seemed to fall into two categories; the ones that were missing Thanksgiving back home, and the ones who didn't realize it was Thanksgiving. It was a regular school day for us, which made it a little easier to pretend it was just a normal day. I think maybe Christmas will be tougher because its recognized as a holiday in Japan, it just has different traditions.

So, in order to make the most of our Thanksgiving, the girls and I decided to go out to kaiten sushi. Or, as my father calls it the 'sushi-go-round'. And I suppose that' that's literally what it is. A rotating conveyor belt of sushi! You just pick the plates you want and then you are charged at the end of the meal!  Not traditional Thanksgiving food, but still yummy. And, the kaiten sushi place by our apartment complex is pretty inexpensive; 105 yen per plate!

Afterwards, we stopped into the giant electronic store located next to the restaurant. Now, this may not seem like a bad thing but it's actually very dangerous for the three of us. Somehow, we spend hours in this store. Last time we went, I gave an in depth tour of the refrigerator section. The girls didn't believe me when I said I loved refrigerators and I had to prove it to them. Now they are aware of the differences between a side-by-side and a french door fridge unit. This time, we spent an inordinate amount of time in the Apple section of the store. Can I just say that I am seriously eyeing the new iPod touch? It comes in such pretty colors!

But, of course, the fun didn't stop there! Oh know, then we headed over to Life and spent another good hour there searching through the clothes racks and playing with the make-up. It's a good thing they had tissues in the make-up section or else my hand would have been covered in lip gloss samples. The reason for going to Life? To get mouth wash. But I'm telling you, department stores are dangerous places for a girl to be! Lastly, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some apple pie parfaits. They tasted exactly like an apple pie, so it brought on the nostalgia of a traditional Thanksgiving.

Next weekend we will be doing our real Thanksgiving dinner. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that or not. But, on December 2nd (I know, a little late for Thanksgiving- but we've got school schedules to work around!) about eight or so of us Americans are going to congregate and put together a "real" Thanksgiving feast! Except, we're substituting Turkey for Cornish game hens. and I volunteered to cook them. I've cooked Cornish game hen before, so I know I can do it. I've just never cooked five. That's a lot of bird.

Has anyone else ever had a non-traditional Thanksgiving?