Last Friday night, we had a Secret Santa gift exchange at Devin’s apartment. It was a TON of fun. Ian and I had planned to make okonomiyaki for everyone, and we went to the grocery store after I got off of work to get everything. We were prepared and were on the way when I realized that I didn’t get one of the crucial ingredients for okonomiyaki….okonomiyaki sauce! Therefore, we had to stop by the grocery store again. Ian and I both had our Santa hats on, (since we were going to the party) and Ian pulled off his hat before getting out of the car. I told him to put it back on. It would be cute to go in the grocery store with it, and people would probably chuckle at us. It’s not like it’s that big of a deal to wear a Santa hat….and it would bring Christmas cheer! I had FINALLY convinced him to wear the hat, and we were getting ready to walk into the store when I saw one of my JHS students through the glass. I immediately yanked the hat off of my head, wadded it up, and put it in my pocket. Had it been and ES kid, I would have worn it, but you have to play it cool with JHS kids! 
Ian made fun of me for being so excited about the idea and backing out at the last second. Oops!
I’m pretty sure that everyone had a good time at the Secret Santa party. We actually had a quick debate about how Secret Santa works. Some people were saying to open up gifts and then guess who was the Secret Santa, others were saying that you should never get to know who your Secret Santa was, and others were wanting to do more of a Dirty Santa game in which you can steal gifts. We looked to Sara, who organized the event, for advice. She suggested that one person opens a gift at a time and then gets three guesses as to who their Secret Santa was. We asked her what happens if the Secret Santa isn’t guessed after three tries. She said: “Nothing. We just make fun of you.” Ian and I brought our tiny little Christmas tree, and we put all of our gifts under (but really it was more like BESIDE) the Christmas tree (pictured below). When it came time to play, one by one we unwrapped our gifts. I think that everyone put a lot of thought into their gifts. It seemed like each of us got something that we wanted or enjoyed. Ian got clam chowder from Devin—something that is not only difficult to find in Japan, but he never gets to eat it. Since I have my shellfish allergy, clam chowder isn’t exactly a norm on the Reeds’ dinner menu, but Ian LOVES clam chowder. I got a scarf, two pairs of earrings, a bow, and a picture collage of Ian and I. Melissa was my Secret Santa. It was just like her to give something so appreciated and thoughtful!!
Saturday was filled with Skype dates, and we spent the night at Melissa’s house so that we could get up early and go to church in Hitoyoshi. Since she lives right outside of Hitoyoshi, it’s much more convenient to have the short ten minute commute from her house as opposed to the fifty minute commute from ours. After Mass, we did our traditional after-church-breakfast at McDonald’s. There’s nothing more traditional than McDonald’s pancakes after Sunday morning Mass. Melissa met us there, and after a bit of shopping, we went back to her house for the rest of the day. Melissa’s yard is absolutely scary. She’s afraid to cut it because there are grasshoppers in it, and she has an irrational fear of grasshoppers. Therefore, her grass is about waist high. As we pulled into her driveway, I told Ian to pull around and flatten out some of that grass. We made a couple of passes around her yard, but due to the wet ground, we were afraid of getting stuck. You should have seen the underside of our car once we finished! Loooooong pieces of dead brown weeds and grass clung to the underside. Even today, four days later, (Ian even drove it to Kagoshima and back!) we STILL have grass clinging to the underside. 
For the rest of the day at Melissa’s, we did absolutely nothing, and it was great! We laid the futons out, left the heater on, and watched Walking Dead episodes until we were all caught up with this season.
On Monday during my break time after lunch I had to go to the bank to sort out my ATM card. Ugh! I never really explained what happened with it, so please allow me to now…. Ian does most of the withdraws. He’s the one who is out and about more often, so he gets the money. Japan is a cash based society, so we HAVE to get money from the ATM. My supervisor emailed me last week saying that I needed to bring her 19,000 yen for car insurance. I asked Ian for the ATM card and planned to go to the ATM after work on the next day. I’ve gotten out money before, but I couldn’t quite remember which button to push, so I played the let’s-keep-pushing-buttons-until-something-looks-familiar game. I finally found the withdraw button, put in my card, and then typed in my PIN. The machine sounded like it was processing my order, but then it spit my card back out. I tried two more times. I KNEW that there was enough money in the account, so I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t letting me do that. I switched machines and went to the other ATM. Same thing. I knew that I needed to pay my supervisor, so I decided that I would just go to the post office ATM (which accepts international cards) and withdraw the money from my American account. Everything was going fine and well until it asked for my PIN. It didn’t dawn on me until that moment, but I had forgotten my American PIN. 
I haven’t used that PIN in a year and a half, and I’m not one to easily remember PINs anyway. By that time, Ian was finished with class, so I called him to tell him about the situation. I bounced back to the bank, and he walked me through EXACTLY how to withdraw money. I was doing everything right……except for the darn PIN. The four digits that I was using was CLOSE to the actual PIN but NOT the right PIN. UUUGGGHHHH!! Since I had tried so many times with the wrong PIN, it fraud alerted our account…..meaning that we couldn’t get out money. 
Ian asked me why I kept trying. I should have known that after the 3rd try, it would shut my card down. However, I honestly didn’t think anything about it. I thought that I was just pushing the wrong button or something. Also, Japan is such a safe country that tagging my card for fraud honestly didn’t even occur to me!
We tried again on Friday. Ian and I went back to the bank, but the ATM wouldn’t let us withdraw. I sent an e-mail to my supervisor who told me that I’d have to take care of it on Monday. Fast forward over the weekend. Since the banks close at 2PM here, I had to go during my break at 1PM. Ian went with me. Two brains trying to figure out complicated Japanese bank procedures are better than one! After filling out several forms, I found out that I had to get a new card, which would take 7-10 days to get. 
Ian and I were already scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash, so I emailed my supervisor to tell her about the current situation. She told me that I could withdraw money with my pass book (It’s kind of like a check ledger. You stick them into the ATM for an update, and every time a transaction is completed, it prints on the pages of the book.) and took me to the bank on Tuesday morning. Thanks to her I now have cash in hand! I’m not going to lie, though. Throughout this whole process, I felt like an idiot! WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER PINS?????
Annnnnnnnnnddd….just for fun I give you the picture below. I’m not even joking when I say that this is a poster about identity theft hanging on the wall at the bank…….not that identity theft is something that one must worry about in Japan! Let’s play a game called “Who’s the identity thief?” In case you couldn’t tell, it’s the guy with the jacket that says “bad guy” on it. ………you know….because ALL thieves wear jackets that identify them as “bad guys.” I love the Japanese innocence!
That’s all for now, but here’s a preview of what I’ll write about in my upcoming blogs:
1) our plans for Australia
2) a fluent English speaking kid in my nursery school class
3) the Reeds figure out how to make gingerbread in Japan (BEST. DAY. EVER.)
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