Sigsy in Tokyo: December 2007

How Good was Christmas in Tokyo this year?

Well, what wonderful week I've had. It really has been a super Christmas season. In the absence of family, the not family pull out all the stops and get together for fun and merry making.

Thanks Ash and T for the great luncheon party. The food was fab, the company superb and the wine a flowing.

Then straight from Tracy's to Tom's where we had a fabulous evening watching Kylie, eating

cake, secret santa-ing, giant Jenga-ing then as if that wasn't good enough someone mentioned

the 'K' word and before I could say 'All I want for Christmas is you..." I was in a karaoke box with Jason and Tom singing "All I want for Christmas you..." Karaoke for three - tremendous.

karaoke for 3 until 3. I promised my boy I wouldn't drink any more, so a couple of oolong chas later and an ukon no chikara on the way home and I was chipper, well kind of chipper, the next day. That really does go down as one the best days I can remember. I had such a good day. A really good day! Thanks to all the people who shared it with us.

Christmas Eve, Chill out with my honey then hit the Meguro Tavern for a very special evening with the first people I met in Japan. It was a little reunion.

Some of these folks I haven't seen since my wedding. Between us we now have 5 kids and we all bought pressies for them and it was magic.

Sasuke with his Ultraman gear and Jolie-Pitty cool hair.

The roast dinner was good, the company was great and afterward, we went to April's and played WII, drank more and ate mince pies and cream.

Rob rocking the WII

Aila with her presents.

Then Christmas Day - a nice long lie in followed by dinner with the Sugimotos. Kei joined us later and we had a jolly good day.

Top it all off with a phone call to the parents and family in the UK and I flopped into bed tired after such a festival of food and drink and socialising.

Boxing day - an honorable mention has to go out to my Finnish friend, the exchange student from school! We met for lunch and whiled the afternoon away and I got the cutest little pair of Finnish cozy socks and a book of Finnish mythology. If you are reading this 'Good Luck' in your future. Be nice and polite!

Many thanks to everybody. We are truly blessed. I am so grateful and so happy to have such great friends and family and my lovely husband. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. Unless my family had made it over!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Hollywood extravaganza!

Friday night we had our first Oscar night at our company, and boy did we put on a show! It was down to my department to organise and create an awards ceremony to remember for the end of a year that was full of change, excitement and success.

With the theme being Hollywood Glamour, people had the option of going glam or being their fave characters from the movies. We had a red carpet, decorations everywhere, prizes for the best costume, Missions Impossible, a secret santa dancing gift swap and a Christmas singing medley!

We had a Jude Law-a-like, Blues Brothers, Blade, a couple of Audrey Hepburns, Mr and Mrs Smith, a fresh take on Bruce Lee, tinman, a Princess Leia, a Hermione and whole lotta glamour.

But the incredible prize has to go our very own David, who dressed as an Oscar - whatta man whatta man whatta man whatta mighty good man.

And if that wasn't super-camp enough the venue is in the heart of nichome - Hijouguchi. I cannot recommend this place enough. It has a stage, a great space for dining, dancing and socialising, the buffet was very generous and the drinks kept a flowing. the price was super reasonable at 4000 perhead and we were not disappointed. So if you are planning a party for 30 plus people - go for it.

After our 2 hours of fun, food and fine company we headed over to Araku - my fave bar. Thsi was where we held our 2nd party and nearly everyone piled in to the tiny space in Shinjuku's Golden Gai district for a truly cozy and fabulously messy. Well, I was messy and not so fabulous, but I guess that's what happens when you have 2 sushi rolls all day, then gulp down white wine between compering!

Our host - the Ashman

Eat more food before you go on a bender - trashy mare

get in!

Last night I had my first ever shabu shabu experience and that was yummy too. That was Kei's futsal team's end of year night out. Shabu shabu rocks. I have always avoided it because of the meat element, but infact you can get loads of tasty veg and seafood and not only that, you can choose which stock you want out of an excellent selection. The more you dip and cook, the tasty the stock becomes. Sadly I had to leave early as with all the MCing, and a bit of a cold coming on, I have totally lost my voice. Ass that to a rip roaring hangover and I decided to bow out and come home to snuggle up in bed watching Dharma and Greg, surf my fave blogs and sites.

Today I am catching up with last night's events on the X Factor - one of my secret indulgences. I love it and as I am getting less cynical and more warm hearted in my older years I have become a sucker for this kind of wholesome family entertainment. Anyway, I know who won, but cannot reveal it here as my buddy Jo is waiting until tomorrow to find out and we have a wager riding on it. Whoever wins, gets treated to dinner at Veggie Paradise by the other one, so everyone's a winner.

Yellow, Raw Food and Red and Green...

This is whatI chose to go to the Veggie Paradise Raw Food and Living Food Christmas party tonight. Jo invited a group of us along and we went with Jen and Jan. It was great to spend the evening with them as well as meeting a whole new group of people, all with a keen interest in food and in particular raw food and veganism. I have not eaten meat for 18 years and was vegetarian for maybe 6 or so of those. Now I eat fish and I love it. I have no plans to start eating meat. I ate my first fish after my stint as a veggie in the Prado museum in madrid. I had a crab and mayonnaise sandwich and then went mad for fish!

So tonight I indulged in a feast of raw and vegan food and I feel very good for it. I drank only water and tea, a winning combination as last night was a rare night out with April. Starting with a sayonara for one of April's Mum mates at Esperia Italian restaurant. That was great - an Italian set menu and the service was excellent. Then we went to 'Muse' the place where the expat men folk go to hang out. We had a bit of a dance there, but it wasn't enough. So we hot the wonderful 'Yellow', loads of fun and mostly Japanese. They played great music and there were some lovely people there. I danced with a new friend's Italian beau, shook my booty with April, who looked stunning with her new haircut and turned heads! I finally rolled home at about 5, it was a great night and we danced our little hineys off. Haven't been out dancing for so long.

I get messages from the Universe and today's message was 'do something new, do something new new, do something new Sarah'. And I have managed to go to 2 new places and the weekend is not even over! Thank you Universe!

Funny!

There is a series of these sketches. They are hilarous. I love this one - LOL. Anyone getting or got married. You can probably relate to this.

What would you do?

This morning I was at Seibu Shinjuku Station on my way to work. It was about 7.30.

Next to me was a blind lady getting her ticket. After she had walked away from the ticket machine I noticed she had dropped about 2000 yen.

Just as I was leaning down to pick it up and run after her, a homeless guy swooped in faster than the speed of light and picked up the money and pocketed it, then went along the machines checking for change people had left behind.

I was just stood there thinking 'What should I do?' I considered just giving her money out of my purse, asking the man to give her the money (my negotiation skill in Japanese is not great) or just leaving it.

What would you do?