Item: 2009 Christmas/New Year's card ("k")
Description: Christmas isn't such a big deal here in Japan. You'll notice all the imagery and yuletide atmosphere, but the shell of the holiday and what it stands for is hollow and meaningless. Instead, Christmas is a holiday for couples to exchange cute gifts, and toys are given to children to appease them for their year's turmoil, or lack thereof. My school hosted a fairly welcoming and quite contradictory-to-the-norm-found-in-Japan style of a "bonenkai" or year-end party a few days before Christmas. Students, teachers, and staff were in attendance and the turn out nice (a student even provided the hors d'oeuvres which included raw sushi, delicate cheeses and Foie Gras). A few hours before the party started, a former student of mine gave this card to me and wished me a Merry Christmas. Not much was left of that interaction; I thanked her, took the card, she bowed, welcomed me, and left. Upon my arrival back home, I casually opened the card and read it, and for a moment it was the most warming, loving, caring feeling I've felt in a while. Here was a student, in her 30's, married, who I barely saw for an hour each week, thinking of me for approx 10-30 minutes (depending how long it took her to write the card due to her challenges in the English language) while expecting nothing in return.Not even a platter of $75/kilo imported goose liver from France stood a chance. Merry Christmas "k."