Today after work, I made the most beautiful Christmas chocolates! I'm really proud of them, so here are some pictures. They are black and white layered chocolates with halved, toasted almonds in the middle and different toppings. Some of them are topped with crushed macadamia nuts and others are topped with chocolate candies.
My sister is the one who is best at baking in my family. I like cooking (lately Indian food, but also Japanese breakfasts, gyoza, stews, soups and J-curries) but I can count on one hand the number of times I have ever made sweets. I'm not usually inspired to cook things I won't eat, so I need an occasion like Christmas or Valentine's Day or someone's birthday. I'm happy these turned out nicely. 
I was going to top the white chocolate ones with crushed candy cane because that seemed more Christmas, but I went around looking for candy canes at 6 different places in town and they didn't have them anywhere. That made me start thinking about how hard it must be for foreign people who are into foreign festive times but living in Japan.
I wanted to teach a special, Christmas-themed lesson for the first time ever and I thought of a bunch of great ideas that I found out won't work in Japan. I couldn't find any egg nog or candy canes. I couldn't find the movie, "A Christmas Story" to show clips from in class. Japan does Christmas in a Japanese way: Christmas cake, KFC, love hotels and Mariah Carey. That's fine. I'm not a very festive person and I don't need to get nostalgic about Christmas, but I feel for all the people who are wishing for egg nog and candy canes and snow in Japan. It must be difficult.I found Anna's brand ginger snaps at IKEA and one overpriced chocolate advent calendar, so I'll give that to my class. I made a "Home Alone" themed lesson about gerunds. But the best thing is that I'm finally going to meet my family for Christmas this year! (well, 6/8+) We're meeting in Hawaii. I was in Okinawa last year and Shanghai the year before, so I'm really looking forward to Christmas with people I have known my whole life.
8 comments:
they look so cute!
i am super into winter holidays and this post makes me feel better. thank you for acknowledging my angst. all month so far i've just wanted to drink cocoa and listen to nat king cole and look at lights and do christmas baking and crafts, but no one caaaaares...
in america my best holiday seasons = rat pack records, white russians, baking cinnamon rolls, and falling asleep watching movies. WOE IS ME
Wow the chocolate looks amazing!! Suprisingly I'm attempting to make macarons, for the very first time today cant wait.
Have a Happy Xmas!!!
x
I found more Christmas treats at Kaldi Coffee - a bit expensive though. And what is with Mariah Carey? I went to karaoke with some friends and suddenly, these usually normal people were insisting I sing the Mariah Christmas song - and I have no idea how it goes, but it was pretty awful
"Japan does Christmas in a Japanese way: Christmas cake, KFC, love hotels and Mariah Carey." Haha. That is fantastic. As an American who does not celebrate Christmas, I love how Japanese have incorporated love hotels into their holiday!
do they know what the true meaning of christmas is?!
Those look delicious! Sad to hear about the lack of candy canes as I was going to go look for some in Tokyo myself... Anyway, Merry Christmas from a fellow Canadian living in Japan!
-Reed
hi, i really like reading your blog cos you post lots of interesting stuff. i'm surprised though that you couldnt find candy canes in japan. i live in osaka and the shop Plaza (which is everywhere) is full of them.
i believe you're living in kansai - perhaps there's a shop near you: http://www.plazastyle.com/plaza/shop/btqmt30000000ayu.html
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