Once in a while here at Noheji Senior High I actually get invited to join a JTE and help teach an English class. The class I get invited to more than any other is a special writing class with only 9 female students. Yesterday I was able to witness for the first time in 2 years the fruits of my labours as the students handed in their short story assignment. The task was to take a story they remember from childhood and tell the tale in English. I was really amazed by how good their writing was considering that most student produced English I've seen up until now doesn't go far beyond "Good morning" and "Fine thank you, and you?". Most of the stories involved boys named "Taro" hatching from various objects and fighting with demons. One story that peaked my interest was this cute story about a more familiar childhood icon, namely Santa Claus. I thought I had heard all the tales of Santa over the years and didn't expect to hear anything new of his adventures with Rudolph and his sweatshop of mini-indentured servants.



So with Chieko's help I did a little research and found out that this story is actually based upon a Japanese Christmas carrol called "あわてんぼうのサンタクロース" or "Hasty Santa Claus". I had no idea there even was such a thing as Japanese Christmas carrols. Chieko thought this was a Western song, but it turns out to have been written by a famous Japanese composer. Anyway, here are the Japanese lyrics for my bilingual readers. It doesn't look like this song has ever been translated into English as far as I can tell. Here's what the tune sounds like if anyone is interested in learning a new carrol for next year.