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| - ALL DATES ARE FOR DECEMBER 2005 Assuming you're one of the many foreigners who will be spending Christmas at your home away from home during the holidays, please read on. If you are one of the "lucky" ones to have your pricey reservations for a trip home, then Bon Voyage! Imagine that you're pushing your shopping cart down the aisle at Seibu, humming along with the "Muzak-to-shop-by" wafting down at you from the PA system: "I'll be home for Christmas," when the depressing thought hits you that this year, you won't be home!!! Before you slide over the edge into a "Blue Christmas", consider some opportunities which may help to make the season bright. In addition to various public concerts and exhibits, churches in Tsukuba are hosting special celebrations. The International (English) Christmas Worship Service at Tsukuba Gakuen Church (near Dayz Town, behind the gas station a half block up from the Epochal Convention Center) will be held on Sunday afternoon, December 18 at 2:00 pm., followed by refreshments in the Tsukuba Christian Center next door. On Christmas Sunday, the 25th, the 10:30 am Japanese service (which is translated into English over earphones every Sunday) will be followed by a Christmas luncheon with lots of good food. Visitors are welcome. Also, there will be a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service December 24 at 7:00 p.m. featuring a well-trained choir. It will be followed by Christmas caroling at several locations. Another event of interest to parents of younger children will be a church school Christmas party with Santa on December 10 at 2 pm. Tsukuba Gakuen Church has one of the finest pipe organs around, and regularly hosts top organists for concerts. The Christmas Concert is on December 11 at 4 pm with Yasuko Hirai playing. Admission is free. For more information, call 029-855-1907. If you are a bit homesick for Christmas lights (or if you come from a country where that isn't such a tradition, and just want to see them), the Tsukuba Christian Center (YMCA) and Tsukuba Gakuen Church are decorated with thousands of colored bulbs. The annual Christmas dinner for the international community will be on December 10 at 6 pm. Turkey is provided, but you are asked to bring a dish or drink to share. There will also be an "open house" every evening from December 21 through 24 from 6 to 9 pm with various goodies and drinks prepared for those who would like to come and experience a little of the Christmas spirit. On Christmas Eve, the open house will begin immediately following the candlelight service at Tsukuba Gakuen Church. The Tsukuba Catholic Church in Matsushiro has the following Christmas/New Year's season schedule for the international community: Sunday, Dec. 18, a Spanish language Christmas mass at 3 pm. Friday, Dec. 23rd at 10 am Children's International Christmas Mass and party. Christmas Eve, Dec. 24th at 6 pm in Japanese and 10 pm in English. Christmas Day, Dec. 25th, 8 am English mass (same as every Sunday) with Japanese at 10 am. A New Year's Eve International Mass begins at 10 pm, and a New Year's Day Mass in English at 8 am and Japanese at 10 am. For information, call Father Michael Coleman at 029-836-1723. The Nozomi Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tsuchiura (Komatsu 3-23-27) also has special holiday programs, including the following: Christmas Sunday will be held December 25 at 10:30, with a children's Christmas program on the 23rd at 5 pm. There will be a Christmas Eve service at 5pm followed by a potluck. The New Year's Day service is at 2:00 pm. All activities are bilingual, English and Japanese. The church is also beautifully decorated with lights and a nativity scene that is well worth seeing. It is located a little over 1 km south of Tsuchiura Station on the edge of a steep hill overlooking the city. For further information, call Glenn Hieb at 029-821-3578. Tsuchiura Megumi Church, located near the junction of Tsuchiura Gakuen Sen and the Route 6 Bypass will have Christmas services on December 25 at 8:30am, 10:00am, and 11:30am with the last two having simultaneous English translation. The Christmas Eve candlelight service on the 24th begins at 6pm and also has English translation. There is also a Christmas Dance Festival on the 25th at 6 pm. For further information, call 029-822-2244. T Tsukuba International Christian Assembly will be having their International Christmas Service on Sunday December 18th at 2 pm. TICA wishes to invite anyone who would like to come, to please join us on this special day. There is also a Christmas Eve service on Dec. 24th from 9:00 pm to 12:00 midnight. If it's the secular shopping hoopla that you miss, you'll love getting yourself trampled while checking out the seasonal offerings at the department stores. The real stampede, however, is in Tokyo, and for merry masochistic madness, a day at Akihabara or Harajuku is unsurpassed as pure holiday in"SANTA"ty! Christmas cakes have become a Japanese tradition as well established as New Year's mochi. Our advice, however, is to go easy on these white, strawberry-topped concoctions, sweet enough to give Santa diabetes. You may well be invited to one or more Bonenkai (forget-the-year parties), where you will be enticed to down enough beer and "sake" to make you forget not only the year but your name and how to get home. While we naively hope for sobriety in this season, we realize that there will be some plastered gaijin here and there. If you end up being one, don't drive! The police are lurking in wait to lift your driver's license. TSUKUBA WIKI PROJECT ( pages) home || empty pages || short pages || contact us
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