I spent Christmas Eve with my boyfriend. He's always late whenever we have plans, so I bugged him for days and days not to be late for Christmas Eve. Ten minutes after he was supposed to leave to come to my apartment, he sent me the usual text message saying, "I'm leaving now!" Then a few seconds later, he knocked on my door. He came early! It was one of the best surprises he's done for me.
We made hotel reservations for a trip to Gifu next week, then we picked up our friend chicken and Christmas cake and ate them while we watched Elf. All in all, it was a really great night.
However, even though I'm here with my boyfriend for the holidays, and even though I hate my family most of the time, I think I would have preferred being at home for Christmas this year. This is because Japan doesn't really care about Christmas, at least not in the same way that the US does, and because spending Christmas with my boyfriend actually meant I spent Christmas Day alone. The boss in his laboratory scheduled cleaning on Christmas.... I did nothing all day, except for a short trip out of the apartment when I mailed a 年賀状 (New Year's card) and bought a few groceries.
I normally ride my bicycle whenever I want to go somewhere, but today I decided to walk to the post office because I didn't think the short trip was worth the effort of untangling my bicycle from the others in the parking area. After walking a block, I was reminded of why I ride my bike everywhere. Same reason I don't like riding the subway: getting stared at. Japanese people don't usually stare at me when I ride my bike, and even if they do, they only have a few seconds to look at me before I'm already gone. Aside from the stares, I really enjoyed the walk because I noticed so many new things about everything around, even though I take the same street to and from school every day. It made me wish I walked more places, but I'm already a self-conscious person without being stared as much as I am.
There are a lot of girls in my classes who have boyfriends that they're separated from while they're studying in Japan. When they hear that I have a boyfriend here, they tell me how lucky I am. I think they sometimes say it out of spite and jealousy, and it makes me mad because they shouldn't make me feel guilty. I deserve to have this time with my boyfriend. Out of the two years he and I have been dating, we've only been together for nine months. I'm sorry other girls have to go through similar separation, but this is my and my boyfriend's time to enjoy.
Like I mentioned above, we have plans to go to Gifu in a couple of days. We'll just be there two days, but I'm still really excited. I need to buy some warmer clothes before we go, though.
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