As part of Osaka’s International Exchange program, we were invited to a
Thanksgiving Feast, hosted by the Osaka Mayor. It was all great fun!
A few weeks
ago, Nicky and I were invited to attend a Thanksgiving Party at the
Osaka Mayor’s mansion by Wada-san. We accepted happily, and tonight we
took the train down to meet him for the dinner. The flyer had promised
turkey and gravy and pumpkin pie, so I was looking forward to not having
to miss out on those American delicacies this year.
The party was relatively formal, so
Nicky and I wore some of our better dresses, and, as I predicted, the
only truly young people at the party were the foreigners. Nearly all of
the Japanese people at the party were in their 50s and above. We even
met one man who was 97 and had traveled to 100 different countries in
his lifetime (I can only hope to be so awesome by the time I’m 97).
We also met a woman from the
Osaka-America Association that had received San Francisco’s Key to the
City a couple of decades ago. It is her most prized possession. There
were some cool foreigners there too; a lot of American women who told us
about hiking opportunities in the mountains of Kansai and this other
woman who had managed to secure permanent work as a business coach in
Japan for nearly 15 years. It made me excited to think that if I want to
live here in the future, it’s completely possible.
The food
was also pretty good. They had turkey and gravy and some sort of berry
sauce, but the “pumpkin pie” was pretty disappointing. It was just
Japanese squash on a tart pastry. But, there was cake and ice cream too,
and at the end of the night, every guest received a bag of omiyage.
Omiyage is a Japanese custom that involves buying small or large gifts
for the sake of another person. They are often given as gifts from
places a person visits, or as thank-you gifts. These omiyage bags were
huge though! Every bag contained about $20 worth of Glico food and
candy. It was pretty awesome. I had a lot of fun.