Thanksgiving at Tokyo Lutheran.

I think this is the most I've ever celebrated a single Thanksgiving: on top of the taco lunch at Erik and Tauna's on Thursday, Tokyo Lutheran held a Thanksgiving potluck Saturday evening.

"Ou, zaa rou izu guudu tu mii!"

After Caroline and I deposited our meager contribution of chocolate candies to the wondrous spread of traditional and non-traditional Thanksgiving foods, we sat down, heard Psalm 100 in English and Japanese, and then all sang the "Apple Seed" prayer--which was copied down on a whiteboard along with Japanese phonetic transcription. Always a good time with that one, especially when the leaders draw out the "aaaa" in the last "amen." Which, of course, they did.

Carving the turkey.

It was two hours of delicious food and wonderful company with Japanese and non-Japanese churchgoers alike. Included on the menu were lefse (a Minnesotan Thanksgiving staple that I miss dearly), Kraft macaroni and cheese (naturally the Americans shoveled this onto their plates), some kind of Korean pizza with seafood and onions, varied sushi platters, a big ol' pile of inarizushi (fried tofu pockets of sushi rice), green bean casserole, an adorable turkey cake (baked by Tauna), persimmons, Milk Duds, Andes Mints, and, of course, mashed potatoes and turkey, the latter carved by Tokyo Lutheran's own Pastor Sekino. As Sekino-sensei had no prior experience carving turkey, Erik had to help him a little bit. Good-natured laughter and obligatory "How many Lutheran pastors does it take to carve a turkey?" jokes ensued. (No judgements here! I have no idea how to carve one myself.)

Thanksgiving dinner of champions.

So I can now say that I've eaten turkey, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese with chopsticks. It was actually more fun this way. My family can reasonably expect me to tote a pair of chopsticks to any future Thanksgiving dinners. And possibly some inarizushi. That stuff is straight-up delicious.

After washing dishes, cleaning up the table decorations, distributing leftover sweets (I dumped an entire platter of the chocolates into a purse) and finishing off the last of the wine, we grabbed our coats and said amiable goodbyes while making hasty plans to meet up again. There is indeed much to be thankful for this season in Japan.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100:4-5 (NIV)