Fukutsu City Christmas Concert

The Fukutsu City youth choir's annual Christmas concert. Not exactly what we American folks would exactly call a traditional Christmas concert, but it hit the high points. And a buncha my students are in the group, so it's cool to see them.




C'mon, how cute are they?



...and then Santa, a reindeer and a walking Christmas tree show up!




Okay... where Japan diverges... is their interest in odd animal featured morality tales that approach tragedy of nigh-Greek proportions. So, let me weave the tale, as I interpreted it.

A Japanese village...



A fox who steals the food...



...of a fisherman, who was gathering food for his mother before she dies. She dies anyways. Tragedy!



Despite the fox trying to atone, through a TRAGIC misunderstanding, the fisherman kills the fox out of revenge! Tragedy #2.



The the fox fairy godmother reveals the truth to everybody, they all learn a valuable moral lesson, and [possibly] the dead fox is returned to life.

And this is Christmas in Japan.



Sandy posing with the spiffy Xmas tree in the lobby.