Hello All. Just an update on how our first Christmas dinner went here in Japan. Let me start out by saying that Kana says it was the “Best Christmas Ever!” as her family never gets together on Christmas let alone exchanging gifts. So there ya go.

We had a little 10cm tall Christmas tree which we stacked all the gifts around. We also rented “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Japanese subtitles of course.

Now to what this article is all about…the dinner. I guess I should have tested the chili powder out ’cause it is a bit hotter (the variety we got anyways) over here than at home. I put in about half as much as I usually do and man if that chili wasn’t the hottest chili I ever made. YIKES!

Kana’s Sister Chie, has a boyfriend named Shingo and he is not a big fan of hot stuff anyways. He is over there on the other side of the table trying to be polite and choking back some throat scarring chili. I told Kana to tell him to just leave it and I would not be offended. But I have to give him credit, he ate it all. Of course he had to drink a few beers to wash it down…but good job anyways.

Let that be a lesson to you kiddies…when cooking in foreign lands. Make sure to test out the spices FIRST before making your chili THERMO NUCLEAR!

Shingo and Chie and the Christmas Chili