Hi, everyone! It's December and it's time for end of the term finals at my schools. I'm nearly done with grading my students' tests and the remaining couple weeks of this school term should (hopefully) be fairly easy. I'm glad to almost be done grading the tests because it's boring and a bit tiring! I'd rather be teaching my students.

It was lonely not having any family around during Thanksgiving last week, but I was able to have a little bit of (a very different) Thanksgiving celebration last weekend. I met up with a couple of my American friends to have a small, belated Thanksgiving. Here's the pictures! I started the day by meeting with my friend Leslie. A shrine near her in Taito-ku (part of Tokyo) was having a matsuri that we wanted to check out. The matsuri was called Tori no Ichi. Tori no Ichi is a festival held every November on the day of the rooster, according to the Chinese zodiac. A big attraction of Tori no Ichi is the numerous booths that sell kumade rakes. Kumade rakes are a kind of good luck charm. They're bamboo rakes decorated with various Japanese good luck symbols. The rakes are supposed to bring wealth and good fortune to those who buy them. When a person purchases a rake at the festival, the seller will lead the buyer in clapping a good luck chant. Leslie had a nice time looking at everything and eating festival food, even though we didn't buy any rakes.

After looking all around the festival, Leslie and I wondered around the city for a while. We unintentionally ended up walking to Asakusa and decided to pay a brief visit to Sensoji, the temple that I mentioned in one of my previous entries. We had no idea that we were within walking distance of the temple at the time, so it was a nice little trip.

Then, it was time for Leslie and I to meet Anna in Ikebukuro. We waited for her to get off of work before we had our little Thanksgiving celebration. Two years ago, when we were both studying together in Chiba, Leslie and I celebrated our Thanksgiving by getting KFC. We decided to continue the tradition this year. Turkey is not a common food in Japan, and while it is possible to get it if you know where to go, it seems to be a bit expensive. So Thanksgiving KFC was our attempt at an approximation of turkey. Not quite as delicious as a homemade Thanksgiving meal, but you do what you can. We also picked up a couple small slices of apple pie from a bakery on our way back to the train station. When we were done eating, Anna and I spent the night over at Leslie's place so we could have a nice time just relaxing and hanging out, which is exactly what we did all day on Sunday. And that was how I belatedly spent my Thanksgiving in Japan. Next is getting to celebrate my birthday in Japan!