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Partly sunny, 5C (4C)
One week before moving I'm going traveling... This happened last time as well...
So I'm about to set off to Kobe overnight. I'm a littleanxiousexcited. But I'm not really sure why! I'll have to stop in Kyoto on the way to try to get some kind of gift... God, gifts are so difficult. I usually like shopping for gifts for ppl--esp when I'm traveling, it's a good excuse to buy a lot of cute/pretty things that I wouldn't necessarily want to have myself but that I want to share.
But gifts for Japanese ppl in Japan are difficult. Just about anything they get me is cool because I'm a foreigner, but a native can get whatever they want and there's a lot more subtext for them which I'm only barely conscious of, etc. Requesting and shipping gifts from America is so impracticably difficult, and in the end it's not me chosing the gift, it's my mother.
At any rate, I won't be able to get the Shikoku customary box of mikan at the train station--which I think is the custom in Shikoku because it's easy, cheap, and widely recognized as part of the oshogatsu paraphernalia... I can't go empty-handed, either, though...
I'm also bad at giving gifts at the customary moments. I give other presents all throughout the year but if I am tasked, say, with getting ochuugen or getting a mother's day present, it's like my mind freezes up and I have no good ideas at all. Sometiems I can muster something passable for birthdays--but usually not until the last minute. My gifts wind up being lame. Last year, I gave stick-on calendars to ppl here. =_= Lame. It's also lame if I come from Shiga with a gift from Kobe--so shopping for it there is a no-go. Since I am coming from far away, the gift must, also.
Anyway, it's about time for me to be heading out--I'm sure I'll write about this when I get back tomorrow.
To those for whom this is a new year : may it be happy and rich, with everything that you need, in it's time and measure. May you be grateful. Even moreso, I hope you live it 'till it's all gone, savor everything you can, and suck every last morsel of marrow from that bone we call Life--just one small part of a dead something-or-other. The same goes to those of you for whom this is not a new year.
One week before moving I'm going traveling... This happened last time as well...
So I'm about to set off to Kobe overnight. I'm a little
But gifts for Japanese ppl in Japan are difficult. Just about anything they get me is cool because I'm a foreigner, but a native can get whatever they want and there's a lot more subtext for them which I'm only barely conscious of, etc. Requesting and shipping gifts from America is so impracticably difficult, and in the end it's not me chosing the gift, it's my mother.
At any rate, I won't be able to get the Shikoku customary box of mikan at the train station--which I think is the custom in Shikoku because it's easy, cheap, and widely recognized as part of the oshogatsu paraphernalia... I can't go empty-handed, either, though...
I'm also bad at giving gifts at the customary moments. I give other presents all throughout the year but if I am tasked, say, with getting ochuugen or getting a mother's day present, it's like my mind freezes up and I have no good ideas at all. Sometiems I can muster something passable for birthdays--but usually not until the last minute. My gifts wind up being lame. Last year, I gave stick-on calendars to ppl here. =_= Lame. It's also lame if I come from Shiga with a gift from Kobe--so shopping for it there is a no-go. Since I am coming from far away, the gift must, also.
Anyway, it's about time for me to be heading out--I'm sure I'll write about this when I get back tomorrow.
To those for whom this is a new year : may it be happy and rich, with everything that you need, in it's time and measure. May you be grateful. Even moreso, I hope you live it 'till it's all gone, savor everything you can, and suck every last morsel of marrow from that bone we call Life--just one small part of a dead something-or-other. The same goes to those of you for whom this is not a new year.
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Oh and about your gifts, how about buying food like specialities of the destinations that you're visiting? It'd always be a neat gift to give. And don't worry about whether your gift is lame or what, it's not about that you must give practical gifts; it's more like a polite gesture that you wanna build a good relationship there. :)
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It's alright, though, I was able to get some good omiyage from Kyoto...
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But the senbei place I wanted to get new-company omiyage from in Kobe was closed! Now I'll have to give new-company omiyage from Moriyama and they'll probably suck compared to the Kobe senbei I had planned... :-/