In order to celebrate Christmas, I was invited over to the Iwasa's house to eat dinner with their family on December 23rd. I left the dorm at around 3:30pm and arrived at the closest station near their house at around 5:07. So if you ride the fast train, it takes around 1 hour and a half. A few minutes later, Shigenori arrived smiling. It had been a while and it felt amazing to see him again! 

He walked me through the illuminations near the station and Shigenori insisted on taking one thousand pictures of me with the hello kitty illumination. Then we rode the bus that leads to his house as he explained to me so I would know the next time I came.

We arrived, and after shouting out "tadaima!", Reiko came to great us! Reiko is one of the sweetest persons I've met in my life and since my stay at their house when I first came to Japan, I have really become accustomed to their house. Thus it felt like home. And maybe that's why I didn't really feel like I missed Christmas this year.

I met with Daisuke's wife for the first time, and I also got to see their three month old child, Merei! Daisuke is Iwasa's oldest son, and I had met him three years ago when first coming to Japan. He arrived a few moments later and he recognized me right away! This time though, we spoke only in Japanese, while previously we had only communicated in English. Daisuke is an English teacher and therefore his English is really good.

Reiko then begged us to sit as she was starting to serve the dishes. And as usual her dishes were as plenty as they were delicious. It really felt strange though, since everything was in Japanese. Although I didn't understand everything, I now understood the majority of the conversation and even catching on to some of the jokes. I was also given a few gifts from Reiko and Shigenori.

After the dinner, Reiko and Daisuke's wife started to sign Christmas songs and Daisuke's wife even played piano! It was funny to hear Christmas carols in Japanese but I liked it and it made me realize that these crazy holidays can affect people, the world, and life.

After that, Reiko insisted I played some songs on the guitar. It had been a while since I had played, but I managed to pull off a few songs. The baby was sleeping therefore I tried to keep down and if anyone knows how I play the guitar, it's rarely at a low volume. But anyways, it felt great to play and I think they enjoyed it.

Yoshiki, their youngest son, then arrived home as I was getting ready to leave. Like his brother Kenzo, he has to prepare for the upcoming university entrance exams. To do so, many Japanese high school students opt to go to preparatory private evening schools specializing for that kind of studies after regular school hours. So we knew that both of them would come home late. Soon Daisuke and I were out the door since he had kindly accepted to drive me back to the station. But as we were getting to the car, Kengo popped up on his bicycle! So I got to see everyone that day!

After saying our farewells, we left for the station. Moments later, I was riding the train back to home.