November 23rd 2012 - Day 78

I can't begin to describe how much I love Japanese bank holidays. Especially when they're on a friday. I can't tell you what the reason is for today (I've lost track of all the reasons for bank holidays here) but it meant that I got to relax and take it easy this morning instead of rushing off to work. Which was all well and good if I hadn't woken up at 3 a.m. for, well, no reason at all actually. I hate when that happens.

The weather would have suggested that it was a day for staying inside and watching films - it has been heaving rain since I woke up this morning. But sadly I had a lot of things to get done today. I decided to hold off on laundry due to the weather, and went to go and do the usual food shop. For the first time since I've been going there, the whole supermarket was practically empty when I arrived. Which meant I could get first pick at the tasty in-date foods, score.

After dumping the food back at the apartment, I headed out to do my christmas shopping. Some of you may think it is a bit early to do this, but I like being ahead of the curve on these things. Plus this year I have to make sure I have enough time to get them wrapped and ready before my mother visits in december. The other reason I did christmas shopping today is because I have a tradition - the last weekend in November, I go on a last shopping binge before avoiding all shops entirely until January 1st (except for necessities of course). Of course today this plan backfired slightly because I have never been able to go for this shopping binge in Akihabara before, and the result was having to carry a rather large amount of heavy bags everywhere I went.

I started by heading to the nearby local temple for, well actually I just wanted to visit and pay respects. Saw a wedding going on too, that was cool, though bad luck they had crappy weather today. Anyway, back to Akihabara and zigzagging around all my favourite stores, and finding a couple of new ones along the way that will be marked for the future. After spending the whole morning on the hunt for random anime merchandise and family presents (shout out!), I headed back to the apartment for a spot of late lunch, before turning around and heading to the Nitori furniture store I go to normally to by my christmas tree (to be clear, it is one of those plastic jigsaw trees, but I couldn't bare the thought of trying to find a garden centre in Tokyo through google again).

Now most of you may definitely be thinking it is too early for a tree, but I would like to defend my actions using this bulleted list - 

1) A bit of green in the apartment looks nice, even if it is plastic

2) Christmas is the best time of year, and the longer it lasts, the better

3) This will be my first christmas (and birthday soon) away from home, and that thought has been making me feel a bit home sick, so a bit of christmas cheer helps to perk me up.

4) The big one - I will have to work on Christmas day. Thats right, I will have to get out of bed, put on a suit, go to the office and work for the whole day ON CHRISTMAS!!!! This is some form of cruel irony that I have to face, and I will need to build up a lot of christmas spirit to soften the pain.