A Thanksgiving dinner in Tokyo

Here are a few pics of last week's festivities:
































Photos:

• Top left: the dinner table. Actually this was the first formal sit-down dinner to take place in our apartment since I moved in. My family very thoughtfully sent some Thanksgiving food to me by mail, so I was able to serve some of the more traditional foods.
  
• Top right: the dinner guests. No Thanksgiving dinner in Japan would be complete without people from at least four different countries. L-R: Kiara from NM, Brendan from NY, Kim (the loveliest Canadian flatmate in the world), Mac (Japanese, to be sure), and Ash from London (one of my coworkers).
• Middle left: this is Laura, another one of my coworkers. She's from Scotland. And she's also fantastic.
  
• Middle right: Pumpkin Pie!!!!! I am honestly so glad that Costco exists here in Tokyo. Earlier that day I had gone there to pick up a few things for dinner. I was able to get an entire rotisserie chicken for 990 yen (about $8.50 USD) as well as the pumpkin pie. For Mac and Laura, it was their first pumkin pie-eating experience ever. Needless to say, it was highly successful.
• Bottom: Kim and I doing the dishes after a wonderful dinner.

So to sum it up, it was nothing like the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at home. But that's not necessarily a bad thing afterall. I for one had many things to be thankful for this year, including all of the wonderful people who were willing to come celebrate a holiday that they don't even have in their home countries. It also didn't hurt to have some other Americans around who could help me explain it all to the others. :) I don't think I could have asked for a better way to spend a holiday so far away from home.