December Japan Blog Matsuri!

It's December, and this month the pleasure of hosting our Japan Blog Matsuri falls to yours truly. First off, a special thanks to Ashley of Surviving in Japan, the gracious host of November's Matsuri. If you haven't checked that out yet, please feel free - many mouth-watering entries to behold.

So I just got back to Japan last night, as of this posting. I spent two weeks in America with my girlfriend, hanging out at home in Maryland, visiting the alma mater in Pennsylvania, and checking out my old backyard, the center of the universe, New York City. You know, I kind of didn't want to come back this time. It got me thinking about a lot of things, like how I felt the first time I came to Japan, and about that fact that this will be my first Christmas spent abroad without my family (they visited the previous two). A lot of stories came to mind. And that's the inspiration for this month's Matsuri Theme: Japan Firsts. The rules and guidelines for this month are the same as always, but let me break it down for any newcomers who may be interested, or those of you who just forgot (you gotta work on that memory!):

The Theme


Once again, this month's theme is Japan Firsts.
So for December, please share your memories and experiences about Japan-related first times. For example, your first time eating mochi, your first time visiting Japan, or maybe something a little more exciting, like your first time being arrested for international espionage (in or working for Japan, of course). I think this is a fairly broad topic, and I encourage anyone who's interested to make a submission. You don't even have to have ever been to Japan! You can write about the first time you met that creepy Japanese guy who lives across the hall from you. Damn you and your stinky natto, 1B!

No links back to your first J-blog post, please. That's really lame and I can't believe you even considered it. Shame on you!

The Rules


The official guidelines for the Japan Blog Matusri can be found here. In addition, please include at least one picture in your entry. The deadline for submission for this month is December 28th, so mark your calendars!

Submission

Anyone can submit an entry! All you need is a blog of some sort. There are three ways to submit your entry:

1) Post a link in the comments section of this post.
2) The handy Blog Carnival Submission widget.
3) Email me here.

At the end of the month, all the entries will be aggregated and showcased right here! Well, not right here, but on this blog. Anyhow, that's all there is to it! I'm looking forward to reading your submissions. Get to it, and have fun!