Japanese Louis Armstrong and Memories of New Year's Past

This is what you used to see on New Year's TV programs in Japan in the 1980's: Japanese impersonators with black faces singing soul music.... They wouldn't even be any good at imitations, but if they had black faces and kind of sounded like the originals, then it was close enough...

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Oh, how much this country has changed.... You don't see stuff like this anymore.

From today, December 29, 2010, most of Japan will be on holiday. I will be heading off to the in-laws home to learn patience.

They don't drink, gamble or smoke cigarettes.

One time, several years ago, I woke up on New Year's morning and started drinking beer. I had finished two tall cans of Asahi beer when my mother-in-law said to me, "Are you alright?" I brightly answered, "Sure!"

Like I said, these are people who do not drink at all, so they thought that drinking from the morning was extraordinary and that two tall cans of beer was a ton of booze. And here I had always thought the Japanese were heavy drinkers!

That night my wife (who doesn't drink either) complained to me about my drinking and told me not to drink so much in front of her parents.

OK. No problem. Whistling the entire way, I put on my shoes and walked about 1 kilometer down the hill to the 7-11. There, I felt like a university student again, as I bought cigarettes and beer and stood there smoking and drinking in the parking lot.

It was wonderful! What a lovely day!

I sat for a while and had a few more beers. I was feeling good! I stood up, with beer in hand, to walk over to the other side of the parking lot to look around. As I did, I took a huge swig of beer.... Just then, as I lowered the beer, dripping off my chin and wiping it with my sleeve, a car drove by, right in front of me, and the two people in the car were staring at me with mouths gaping wide open.

It was my parents in law. They looked like they had seen a ghost.

I lowered the beer immediately and tried to act nonchalant, but I was caught red-handed!

Oh, how embarrassing that was! I couldn't believe it!

My mother in law asked me not to drink in public and asked me if I wanted a ride home. What could I say? I got in the car, tail between my legs like a dog who pissed on the rug, and rode home, not saying a word.

The next morning when I woke up my wife told me that her parents told her last night that they were very concerned about my drinking problem. And wondered if I should go see a doctor about my problem...

I laughed... "Ridiculous!" I thought. I don't have a drinking problem! My in laws have a drinking problem...... And that drinking problem is me!!!!

Happy New Year!