Christmas in Japan and accidental compulsive lying

So, it's become the new year before I knew it! Christmas in Japan was an interesting spectacle - trying to fight off the urge to lay in bed for the entire day eating whilst convulsing with loathing for Santa and all things Christmassy, we instead decided to go out partying! Soo Omolola and I went out with our lovely friends from Gakushuin and basically, to sum it up, the night started off with champagne and strawberries and ended in limping home from Roppongi in a santa outfit at 6am. I had so much fun, and without meaning to sound soppy, it turned out to be a surprisingly really nice Christmas which I will definitely always remember in years to come!

Christmas, Tokyo style!

Fast forward a few weeks and today was 成人の日 (coming of age day), so since I turn 20 (the legal age in Japan) this year, I was invited to the ceremony at my local city hall. Basically, imagine gorgeous and colourful furisode kimonos as far as the eye can see and never-ending shouts of "OMEDETOU GOZAIMASU" and you've pretty much got the picture. The kimonos worn to these occasions are unbelievably elaborate and cost hundreds and hundreds of pounds to even just hire out for one day, so I went for the slightly less cultural option of wearing my normal clothes and instead saving my dollar for an iPhone...mmmm sorry Japan! The ceremony was very cute, including inspirational talks from a man in a robot outfit (?!) and a cheerleading show, plus we got free food and drinks, so from a student's point of view that obviously makes it a great day. It was definitely a real honour to experience traditional Japanese-style coming-of-age (makes a change from the disastrous lads-night-out 18th bashes in England!)

Girls in their furisode at the coming of age ceremony

In other news, final exams are coming up soon at Gakushuin so I've been busy procrastinating for those. My Japanese is (possibly) veeery slowly improving, but unfortunately the language barrier has lead to some annoying situations, the one I keep noticing that I mainly always fall into being: accidental compulsive lying. So picture this, you're talking to someone in Japanese, and you kiiiind of understand what they're saying but not 100%. You can't keep asking them to repeat stuff, because that makes you look like a huge tit. So instead, you nod along enthusiastically and just hope they don't add a "ka" on the end of any of their sentences, otherwise you know you're in the sh*t. Unfortunately I can't count how many times this has happened.

First, for example, quite a few times I have been asked whether I am a model (clearly out of politeness). Now, come on, do I look like a model? I may be Western but I'm afraid even the largest amount of flattery couldn't convince me that I am model material. However, the amount of times I have had no clue what someone's chatting and have vigorously nodded along to the questions, only to realise at a later time that they think I've said I'm a British supermodel who regularly appears in Vogue (or something to that end)...crap. Another one occurred when I was putting on my coat, only to be asked by a Japanese friend "is that real fur?". Now obviously, at the time I had absolutely no clue what they were asking me, so nodded along praying for the best. However, then I get asked "which animal?"...uh oh, suddenly it clicked. Seeing that my coat was 4000 yen from Forever 21 with pockets that are falling apart, this one is kind of a no-brainer. I had no choice but to awkwardly be like "ermmm I'm not sure, hahahh anyway BYE"
...FML.

Anyway, language woes aside, after exams the next few weeks should hopefully be filled with lots of fun stuff and making the most of easy student life, so I'm looking forward to it! Until then... 頑張るぞ！Laterss xxx

* ka = a Japanese question marker