Christmassy Things

Merry Christmas! How was yours?

メリークリスマス！あなたも楽しかったですか。

International Carol Singing outside Kyoto City Hall on Christmas Eve, Friday 24th, went well with about 30 people including children. We were especially pleased with the turnout as we only made the plan on Tuesday, and the booklet on Friday! It was really cold so after that some of us went to Gnome to eat Yorkshire pudding - their new Christmas menu. I don't usually eat Yorkshire pudding on Christmas Eve but, as it's a favorite food of mine, it seemed like a kind of Christmas present.

On Christmas Day itself (25th) I just had a really good rest. I spoke to friends and family on the phone, and uploaded some photos from 2010 to my Facebook, which I had been meaning to do for ages. It was nice to review the year while I did it. Then I watched an old black & white DVD called "That Hamilton Woman" which I have seen before but I really like.

The Christmas "Singing Around the Table" on 26th (Boxing Day) was small and lovely. My friend Jay Gregg stood in for Tomoko on fiddle, as usual Tatsuya Shirasaka played wood-bass, and Yuko-san grabbed a few tunes on her accordion when she wasn't busy with the bar. Peter Damashek played fiddle for a couple of songs and sang most heartily. We used the same new bi-lingual wordsheets for both events: David and Yukie (who run Kyoto Contra Dance) and my friend Hiroko provided the Japanese words to some carols and New Year songs, so we were able to sing in both Japanese & English (the Japanese was in hiragana and romaji too so we had three or four versions of some songs).

Today, 27th, I went to the Shimizus' for a warming winter nabe (table stew) and he told me about some videos now on Youtube of our gig at Pick up on Dec 4th: Little Drummer Boy, with the audience and the final medley.

I'll post a few more pix of Carol Singing soon.

Happy remainder of the holidays!