The Hendersons in Himeji: The Holiday Season

Well, the Christmas season is definitely upon us here in Japan. Our first party was on the 10th of December. My Shogai students talked me into letting them out of class a little early on a Wednesday afternoon so that we could celebrate Christmas together. We went to a cute little restaurant around the corner from the school where we enjoyed coffee, cake and a gift exchange. There gift exchange system was pretty great. We all sat in a circle and started singing a song... in this case we sang the classic "one little two little three little Indians." As we sang we passed the presents to the right and when the song stopped we were supposed open the present that was in our hands. I have to admit I hadn't sung that song since the early 90's but it came back to me real fast. My class also presented me with a special gift. It was a huge box full of little heat packs. When you crush the chemicals inside of the little packs it causes a reaction... that reaction makes these little packs warm for hours. It was a very thoughtful gift as Audrey and I have been experiencing cold weather unlike any we have had in Az. The next weekend was our GLORY Christmas party. Glory is a wonderful company here in Japan that offers low cost English lessons to Japanese elementary school students. Audrey and I have really missed working with elementary age students since have been in Japan so we talked to our boss over here and he found a program for us to work with some kiddos a couple Saturdays a month. We started our new job at the right time as we were able to take part in their GLORious Christmas party. We played games, sang songs, had a snow ball fight (with white paper), read "The Night Before Christmas" and passed out tons of presents. It was so wonderful. The kids were so cute and we all had so much fun! A few days later one of Audrey's co-workers asked her if she thought I would be willing to dress up like Santa Claus, or as they call him here in Japan "Santa-san", and visit an elementary school in a neighboring city. How could I refuse such an offer. Unfortunately, the job went from visiting the school to singing a song, teaching them a song, answering some of the letters they had written to Santa and passing out presents. Now I was feeling the pressure! So on Saturday morning they picked us up around 9:00 and we headed to the school. There they had Santa costumes, not only for me, but for Audrey also. Everything seemed to be going as planned until we realized that my pants were about 20 sizes to big. Even after stuffing them with towels and such to help me "look the part", there was still no way those things were staying up! So being the resourceful people they are they quickly jumped into action and started wrapping me in plastic wrap and when that didn't seem to help they pulled out some tape to try to tape my pants up. It was a pretty surreal moment as I stood there in this tiny room in Japan, in a Santa suit, with three little Japanese girls swarming around me trying to wrap/tape my pants up. I'm just so thankful I had left my pants on under the suit or they may have gotten more than they bargained for! Once they were pleased with their handy work it was just about show time. And when I say show time I mean show time... I had a microphone and I was about to walk out into a court yard to serenade hundreds of 3-6 year olds with a classic rendition of "Jingle Bells." It was go time... out the door I went with a rousing "dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh..." Within 30 seconds these little ones started pouring out of their classrooms by the hundreds, screaming "Santa-san" "Santa-san" and I just kept on singing "...over the hills we go laughing all the way" I must have sung that song 5 times before the kids finally calmed down. So then I asked them to sing it with me... so they sang in Japanese as I continued in English... it was so cute! After we finished it was time to sing "head and shoulders, knees and toes" Now this was the song of choice because we wanted to do the motions with them as we sang... both educational and physical. So Audrey and I teach them the song and they follow along as we touch our head and our shoulders and our knees and then... we'll stop right there... remember how I said my pants were plastic wrapped and taped up... well its safe to say that the knees and toes part pretty much undid whatever had been done. The next thing I know my pants are falling down. Now mind you I had other pants on underneath, but that was kind of a blessing and a curse because while it was great that the kids didn't have to see Santa's undies, it was bad because I couldn't feel my pants falling down. Thank goodness I had Mrs. Claus out there with me to let me know that I was losing a layer of clothing. You should have seen the look on the other Japanese teachers faces... you know.... the ones that had tried to plastic wrap and tape me together. We will just say that facial expressions are transcendent of language. I may not know exactly what words they were thinking, but in English it probably sounded something like "WELL CRAP"! So we finished the song with Santa holding onto his pants for dear life and not touching his knees or toes for some strange reason. After the song they read some of the questions that the students had written to Santa and I answered them and they translated them back to the children. After that I passed out some presents and said Sayonara. What a crazy day!