Thanksgiving! Instructions: how to make Thanksgiving dinner in Japan

I'm all better now, finally! I made Thanksgiving dinner last Thursday, although it was a little modified since they didn't have any turkey or any kind of broth, so I winged it and was surprised at the results! I actually got Thanksgiving day off since I have off on Thursdays, and Friday was a holiday, their Labor Day, so I got 2 days off in a row! It was nice.

 

the buggest piece of celery I've ever seen, it was the size of my arm from shoulder to fingertip!

 

Mashed potatoes
Yeah, yeah, yeah...

 

You must have wine with steak!

 

My version of brothless, flourless gravy

 

My version of  brothless, butterless and mostly everything else-less stuffing. It didn't taste like American stuffing, but I thought it was good.

 

How you like cooka youa steak?! (Peelander-Z)

 

 

Mashed potatoes and gravy!

If anyone wants my recipes or is at least remotely curious how I made these in Japan, here it is :P

Mashed potatoes:

boiled potatoes (obviously), water, and grapeseed oil

Gravy:

chopped onions, garlic, onion consomme for the thickening effect, a little steak juice once it finished cooking, grapeseed oil, and some demi-glace (I thought it was strange they sold that and no broth or anything else!).

Stuffing:

three slices of bread toasted in my fish grill, then cut into cubes,  half of the giant celery, onion consomme, half a can of clam chowder, 2 eggs, chopped onions and garlic,  grapeseed oil, and random spices I had (oregano, basil, and some red spice mix I found).

Steak instead of turkey, that's American, right? ;)

I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed my instructions on how to make Thanksgiving dinner in Japan! Of course, if you have a car or a friend who is free, you could always take the long trip to Costco and have a real Thanksgiving dinner, but what's the fun in that!

I'm sick in Japan . . . my rendition of a Tom Waits song

I knew I would get sick here at some point and finally it happened. Right now (as of today), I'm at the sneezing phase, which is much better than the hoarse voice stage. Wednesday was terrible as I had a random coughing fit in the midst of teaching my lowest level student (aged around 70ish). Thankfully, my day off on Thursday helped me recover a little and I bought some throat medicine which worked instantly. It then moved to my nose and now the stuffy nose made it difficult for my students to understand me on Friday and Saturday  ..  . I pissed my boss off on Saturday because I had some extra overtime hours left so she let me come into work later on Saturday. Apparently, she had tried to call me so that the manager could take me to the doctor (for a cold? I thought that was a little ridiculous but apparently they go to the doctor for colds here), but I had my phone on silent (since I was going to work) and she was mad that she couldn't get a hold of me. She was even more mad when she found out I had thrown my house phone away because it didn't work even though I'd told her before that it didn't work. I was  really too sick to even care that she was upset with me. Now I have to buy a home phone though, which I haven't had since I lived in Memphis with my parents.
That's a gist of my week, besides hanging out with my friend, Maiko, Marc's girlfriend. We went to a Hawaiian restaurant on Sunday then looked around at some cool shops. We tried to go to Ohori Park but it was so windy and started to rain that we couldn't even walk straight without being slowed down by the wind. I was just beginning to get sick, too, so we decided that was enough and went home. It was fun though, and nice to hang out with her one-on-one since I think this might've been our first time. She was sad about leaving her sister whom she'd just visited the week before and I was sad about leaving my brother, so we decided to get together. It was really fun and nice, especially since I've been stuck inside ever since from being sick >.<  I have pictures on my cell phone that I will post once I figure out how to get them off my phone . . . As for now, here are some pictures from my mini video cam:

 

Saturday night I started feeling dizzy and the sore throat coming on. I wonder if this was why . . . :P

I only had a half hour lunch break that day 2 hours before I was going to get off work (at 5 and I got off at 7, so I was starving by this time). I found some event happening at the park down the street. This guy was funny, he was asking people to stop and taste these things, and of course everyone was squirming and laughing. One old guy started eating some of it . .. 

 

I had a more sane meal, although I kind of wonder if this was what made me sick. I thought it might taste like fried rice, but it was extremely sticky rice that didn't have much taste, unless that was because I was already starting to get sick and lost my sense of taste . . . either way I missed my mum's rice. I think I'll make it again this week since I hadn't made it in a while. Unfortunately, peas are hard to come by here and that's what makes the fried rice, but I'll just use carrots. 

 

What do you do when you're sick? Where cute, thick penguin socks that your mum gave you ^_^

 

One of my students is a flower arrangement teacher and she gave us this for our Christmas flowers!

 

I'm sure my mum will know what all of these are. Some are olives, obviously roses, and I forget the others.

More pictures from the wedding!

 

I love Tim's clueless face :P 

 

The knowing smiles. . .  I wonder what they're thinking

 

next time I'll remember not to put my arm up when wearing a sleeveless dress . . .

 

Tim was really good at keeping himself together, I thought he was going to cry but he didn't

 

I've definitely never seen him happier!

 

finally, the kiss!

 

The two Mrs. Beedes hugging. It's strange that Blake is not Mrs. Beede, too!

 

My dad was taking pictures at the same time as the photographer, so that's why we were looking a different direction!

 

The wedding party

 

Waiting for the reception to start

 

2 more Mrs. Beedes! :P

 

The walk-in. My dad almost missed it so I had to yell at him to take the picture! He did a really good job, of course!

 

Annalise playing with her dad's phone.

 

I love this picture: father and daughter bonding time

 

Shelley, one of the maids of honor

 

They decided to take this picture right after I was crying from toasting to Blake and Tim . .  so that's why I was hiding. Not sure why they decided to take it then, how embarrassing . . .

 

Brothers together again

 

Flower girl and bride, I think this should be a classic photo!

 

Maybe the last time for a long time with the Musarras. It was great seeing them again!

 

Not sure what I was doing here . . . my dad likes to take pictures without telling people!

 

Our final good-bye!

 

I think they were deciding how to get to the hotel since Blake's feet hurt from her shoes

 

One last picture moment. They ended up walking to the hotel so no romantic shot of them after this.

I'm so glad I could make it to the wedding, that's all I can say! On Friday, I hung out with my friend, Madoka, so I will post pictures of that soon, but right now my computer's overloaded with wedding footage so that'll have to wait :P  It was the first time I've ever had a Japanese friend hang-out at my house! We didn't do much since I don't get off work until 9pm, but it was still fun!

Part of the wedding pictures + Halloween Party!

It uploaded the pictures backwards, so I'll start with the Halloween Party . . .  

This is my manager, Ms. Maeda! She's a lot of fun :P

 

From left to right: Mari (student and co-worker), Ms. Maeda, Naoko-sensei (don't know her last name), Richard, and my boss Mrs. Tsurukawa

 

The new additions are the new teacher, Shaun, and me :P

 

Mari! She's a good drinker, meaning she can drink a lot ;)

 

My costume. I'm proud of it more now that i have the hair!

 

My mom made this outfit for me so I thought she'd like to see it with my new hairstyle!

 

Tea that a student gave me from Beijing!

 

I don't have the appropriate things to make loose-leaf tea but that's the next thing on my list when I get my next paycheck! Right now it's more like potpourri since it smells so good! 

 

One of my students teaches flower arranging and she made this beautiful bouquet and brought stickers and the pumpkins to make mini jack-o-lanterns!

 

Since I'm working backwards . . . this was my last, real American pizza, Chicago-style from the Unos Express in the Chicago airport! It reminded me of the trip my dad and I took to Chicago when we ate at Duos . . .

 

Wedding cake! Sorry Annalise, you can't eat the top tier! :P

 

Before the guests came, I thought I would take a few shots since it was so beautifully decorated.

 

 

Nothing cheers better than beers!

 

My boss was very amused to see this picture since I guess she couldn't imagine them cheering out of beer cans when they had beautiful glasses in front of them ;P

 

Wedding Party Pyramid! Who's idea was this again? Oh right, Shelley's :P

More pictures to come! Today I literally met with Masayo, then cleaned ALL DAY! I cleaned up my room, unpacked my luggage, scrubbed my bathtub/shower, my toilet, floors, did 2 loads of wash . . . . literally everything. Now I won't be embarrassed to have friends over!

Thanks again to all of you for reading, I'm still under jetlag so I am going to bed shortly. I've been going to bed around 11pm which is almost unheard of for me . . .