Dec 25, 2012

Incoming letters/届いたお手紙

Are you enjoying Christmas weekend?  Christmas isn't a holiday in Japan, so today Dec. 25th is just an ordinary working day for me...By the way, did you know that KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is one of the most popular places to buy Christmas chickens in Japan?  When I was little, KFC was a big treat because we can have a large box with full of chickens! :)  When I was living in Canada, I was surprised that on Christmas Eve, I found almost no one at KFC.  I was worried that chickens were all sold out and that's why it was so empty! lol  In Canada where I lived, people ate turkey or ham for Christmas.  How about in your culture?  Do you eat anything special for Christmas?
 
I have lots of mails to share with you.  This is from my dear penpal in The Netherlands.  She sent me so many tea bags and all the other lovely stationery for my birthday!  I can't wait to try all the different tea flavors!
These are from UK, USA and Indonesia.  I love all the beautiful stamps!
Lovely Chrismas card from Finland.  I wonder what's written on the card.  Anyone can help me?
Lovely stamp!!
Lovely Christmas card from UK.  I love the classic Santa!
And I love the stamps!!  I love this Santa. :)
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  To those who don't celebrate Christmas, I wish you a happy day! :D
 
クリスマスイブはいかがでしたか?私は23日に前倒ししてクリスマスをお祝いしました。ところで、カナダに住んでいるとき、『クリスマスにケンタッキーでチキンを買うのが定番』と言ったら、びっくりされました。今もこれって定番ですよね?私が子供の頃は、クリスマスと言えばケンタッキーのファミリーパックのバケツサイズを買ってもらうのが本当に楽しみで、わくわくしたものです。でも、このわくわくはカナダ人には通じませんでした。カナダのクリスマスのケンタッキーはそれはもう閑散としていました。あちらでは、自宅で七面鳥やハム(超でかい)を食べるのが定番のようです。他の国のペンパル達も不思議がるので、これは日本だけなんでしょうかね。
 
では、届いたお手紙紹介の続きを。オランダのペンパルから誕生日プレゼントと手紙が届きました。沢山の紅茶、楽しみです!他には、イギリス、アメリカ、インドネシアからお手紙。フィンランドとイギリスからクリスマスカードが届いていました。まだまだたくさんお手紙が届いているので、今週はお返事書きに力を入れたいと思います!(^^)
 
みなさま良い一週間を!
 
↓いつもありがとうございます。押していただけると励みになります☆

13 comments:

  1. I'm always wondering if sending tea to Japan isn't a bit weird. Are there many differences in flavours?

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    1. I think our tea often have less flavor compared to ones from other countries. And green tea here are often very different from those from other countries. Once I had LIPTON green tea when I was traveling Germany, and I was so surprised that it was very sweet!!! Our green tea is more like bitter taste, so it was a big shock!!! Is your green tea sweet as well?

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    2. I'm not such a big tea drinker, that's my mom's "specialty". But as Belgium and Germany are neighbours, I guess our green tea is sweet too. My mom said that when you buy it without bags (so just the leaves), the tea has a more bitter taste than the one in the bags though.

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  2. I read once about Christmas in KFC in Japan. It was weird to me:P
    In Poland on 24th we don't eat meat on Christmas, but lots of diffrerently prepared fish (yes, I know fish is a meat too:P), pierogi(dumplings) with cabbage and mushrooms, beetroot soup with little dumplings... there must be 12 dishes. It's our biggest holiday. Now I have 2 free days:D
    KFC or any other restaurants are closed then, everyone eats at home with families, homemade traditional food^^ Yummy.
    Merry Christmas (you don't celebrate but still I hope you have some happy time;))

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    1. Having 12 different dishes sound very interesting. Can it be any kind of 12 dishes or do you have any specific dishes that you are supposed to prepar?

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    2. Some are must-be traditional dishes (which I mentioned) and some are just what you want to serve:) Just no meat allowed that day.

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  3. Wish you a Merry Christmas!!! I tasted the tea you sentme and I loved it. Thank you! Well, Christmas here is a holiday but different people celebrate in various ways. A few have lunch with their family in home and have dinner outside in a restaurant.It all depends on the way people like. There is no particular tradition here as far as I'm aware of.

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    1. Glad you liked the tea I sent you! :) Same here in Japan. Most people have meals with family or friends at home or restaurants. During Christmas time, it's hard to make booking at nice restaurants.

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  4. I'm pretty sure that what's written on the Finnish card means "Merry Christmas". I used to know how to say Merry Christmas in Finnish and it looked like that :)

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    1. Cool that you can read Finnish! I used to be able to could 1 to 10 in Finnish, but not anymore. I took one year of French at college, but all I can say in French now is Salut and Au revoir. lol Something is wrong with my memory!

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  5. Love all of your incoming mail! Just wanted to let you know that I received your package and I wanted to thank you so much. It really made my day, I loved everything. Thanks for being so generous! I hope you don't mind that I want to send you a bit of mail in return. Please let me know if this is ok!

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    1. Glad you got your package safely and that you liked what I sent. :) Of course! It's so exciting to see your handwriting. Oh, but you don't have to feel that you have to send me anything in return though. :)

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    2. Ok! I will get something to you soon!

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