Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For us in Japan, it is a normal Thursday. Nothing planned in the way of a feast and no turkeys in sight. A couple of days ago Japan celebrated Labor Thanksgiving Day which has different connotations but schools and businesses did get to take the day off. It is no where near the family, feasting day that Thanksgiving is in America.

For many years our family was invited to Marlene's house for Thanksgiving and she always had a turkey ordered from Tokyo. Marlene's family, our family and another family with American connections would gather on the Sunday closest to Thanksgiving Day and have a traditional Thanksgiving feast. I'd bring green beans and a salad and maybe an apple pie, the other family would bring condiments like cranberry sauce, black olives and pickles (the husband always had a business trip to the States around this time of year) and Marlene would roast a turkey, make mashed potatoes and bake a pumpkin pie. We all spoke a combination of Japanese and English and had a big "family" day. Poor Marlene! She has always been stuck with the big job of roasting the turkey because she is the only one of us that has an American sized oven that the turkey can fit into! The rest of us bake in ovens that hold 9 cookies at a time.

Another Thanksgiving I remember before I ever met Marlene, was when a couple foreign families decided to celebrate together and one lady, Helen, ordered a turkey. I think what happened was when she went to roast it she found it wouldn't fit in her oven. Disaster approaching! We called Mrs. Furui because I knew she had an large German oven from her days of living in Germany.

"Mrs. Furui! We are trying to roast a turkey but it won't fit in the oven. Could we use your oven today? Of course please join our Thanksgiving party!"

Mrs. Furui was happy to help us but she had plans for part of the day. She suggested that whoever was roasting the turkey could come over and camp out at her house even if she, herself, wouldn't be home.

Blond Helen went over to Mrs. Furui's and spent the day alone roasting the turkey. No problems until MR. Furui suddenly came home in the middle of the day and found this blond stranger standing in his kitchen! He backed out of there very quickly and pondered whether he'd stumbled into the wrong house! As I recall, thanks to the Furui's, it was a lovely Thanksgiving day with lots of laughter.

As I said, this year Tetsu and I are having a quiet weekend. Marlene of course invited us again, but she has a lot of company this year and Thanksgiving doesn't mean a whole lot to Tetsu anyway. Should I figure out how to bake a pumpkin pie? I think my oven can handle that...

13 comments:

Laura said...

Oh that is so funny about Mr. Furui thinking he was in the wrong house!

artfilstitch said...

Mr. Furui must have been a fright!!What a life of a party that must have been. Thanksgiving is a very good time to turn our thoughts toward others and Give as we are being Truly Thankful. Aren't we blessed people?
Enjoyed your post today as always.
Liz

Lazy Gal Tonya said...

Happy Thanksgiving!

teodo said...

Happy Thanksgiving everywhere your hearth is.
ciao ciao

Diane said...

Happy Thanksgiving! We are having a very quiet day also, no turkey, no dressing, but I may make a pecan pie or pumpkin bread.

Mary said...

I used to have big Thanksgiving dinners. Sometimes it was just the 4 of us but many times we had family visiting. For the last two years since the move, I haven't cooked since it's just Keith and I. Tonight, I am cooking but not a traditional meal.

I hope you enjoy a quiet day.

chi-mi san said...

I miss the turkey, pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving Holidays in U.S..
Tanya, you are lucky because you can have turkey in Japan and get your frends together.

Chocolate Cat said...

What lovely memories. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Tetsu. Did you attempt the pumpkin pie??

Marisa said...

Glad that you have found an oven to use. I was worried that it would be hard to get baked turkey in Japan! Happy Thanksgiving.

Pennie and David said...

Wonderful memories Tanya...
We don't have Thanksgiving here in Australia, I think it's a great celebration which seems to have a lot of lovely sentiment.
Christmas is the time we have Turkey and would you believe it... we BBQ our Turkey and our Ham in a Japanese made BBQ called a Kamado! They are very heavy pottery made Dome shaped ovens similar to the Webber and we have two of them and use them for all large roasts of meat and it does sausages beautifully but turns a salted leg of pork into the best ham ever. I'm so looking forward to them again this year.
I just did a Google and the Kamado's seem to be made of metal now days?? I much prefer our heavy clay ones.

Connie W said...

I'm a little late but here's a happy Thanksgiving wish for you anyway. Hope yours was happy :)

meggie said...

The image of Mr Furui meeting some stranger in his kitchen made me laugh!

Marilyn R said...

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Your story of Mr. Furui made me smile!