My husband thinks I’m nuts.

Perhaps the good news in this is that he’s known this for quite some time now and married me knowing this.

The bad news for him is that he’s forced to act upon some of my best ideas.

Most recently, I’ve wished to bring some holiday cheer into our rather sterile feeling Japanese apartment. That’s not to say there’s no holiday spirit in Japan but, well, it’s just not the same.  You see, Christmas in Japan is perhaps one of the most romantic days of the year.   As the Christmas Trees and Lights were rolled out on November 1st to replace the Halloween decor, it’s not difficult to grasp the overall concept of the holiday here but it still left me longing for my own little piece of Christmas.

Thus, this past weekend I sent my husband out in search of the perfect Christmas tree.  I sent him to search far and wide.

Actually, I just sent him to Ikea.

As my disdain for the screeching chaos which can only be one of Dante’s levels of hell and is perhaps best known as Ikea is well documented, we’ll skip the “why didn’t you go with him?” part. Instead we’ll go straight to the good stuff.

My little tree.  I mean our tree.

It seems that this year (and perhaps each year) hell Ikea sells Christmas trees and offers you a $20  incentive to return the tree after christmas.  While the tree itself is only $20, the ability to return the tree just adds to the overall package as a special garbage pick up service is required in Tokyo for anything larger then a kitchen sized garbage bag.

Thus, this past Saturday I bundled my husband up, gave him a kiss and sent him to hell Ikea for the best darn christmas tree ever.  I even lent him my Ipod for the journey and didn’t even take my nap until AFTER he left.

Aren’t I a prize?

Three hours later, he returned with the tree, stand and ice cream cone crumbs on his jacket.   Evidently, on his way out of Ikea he stopped into the little restaurant stand and was able to pass up the frozen sardines for two ice cream cones.  As if a bald white guy with a tree wasn’t enough of a spectacle for the Tokyo trains, he opted to carry the tree under his arm with the stand while clasping TWO ice cream cones in his free hand (handsome and talented?).

Regardless, we now have the best darn Christmas tree ever.  Decorated with ornaments from Japan, Hong Kong and Germany our little tree began to thrive once we found a small machete – yes, we bought a machete – to cut enough of the trunk off for it to get enough water.

Pics. of the tree to come once I return home from Yoga this evening.

A note to my mother: The rule of the white lights remains in place. My only concession is that the white lights…blink.