Thanksgiving in Japan....pumpkins anyone?

Preparation for Thanksgiving was a week-long effort. I slaved in the kitchen all week and it finally paid off! I think I made a total of 5 pumpkin pies (and I even did it without a can of Libby’s pumpkin stuff!!). I used Japanese pumpkins (which tastes the same) and then the basics for a homemade crust. I love finding new recipes to try-out on the internet, so that’s where I found out how to do it all. I made a pie for our adult English class that we teach on Wednesday nights and then I made one pie to take to my English Club girls (there are about 12 of them who meet me once every other week and we practice English!). I made it educational too…I taught them about the history and vocabulary surrounding Thanksgiving, since they don’t celebrate it over here.

Don’t worry, Brandon didn’t miss out on all the eating. We shared a pie on Thanksgiving Day. We had to work, like normal and we usually go swimming on Thursday’s, so we did that. However, afterward, we cooked up some fried rice and then had pie for dessert. We also waited up extra late to call our parents and after that, we both admitted we missed home a little bit (mostly for all the friends/family get togethers that we were missing out on and the food!).

Our real Thanksgiving celebration was a couple days after the actual holiday. Our friend, Amanda, was having a Thanksgiving feast at her house for about 20 people, so that’s where I took pumpkin pie #4. That meal was delicious, by the way and she even had the turkey (the only place to find a whole turkey is CostCo) , mashed potatoes and dressing.

Then, on Sunday, Brandon and I were invited to a church’s Thanksgiving feast. (In other words, we enjoyed TWO Thanksgiving dinners). It’s a Christian church and the pastor does her sermons in Japanese, but a lot of the people knew English. An American ex-military guy started the church with his Japanese wife and we got to meet them. They are the sweetest people. I raved about his wife’s sweet potatoes (Sweet potatoes that we’re used to are very rare and can only be found on a military base that’s a few hours away, so hardly anyone is able to get them. The sweet potatoes here are more dry and closer to the consistency of a baked potato), so she gave me leftovers of that and then some fruit salad. Absolutely Delicious! We have a lot to be thankful for and our Thanksgiving was definitely more than we could have asked for!

-Sarah