No, the above -late- wish is not an error on my part but an indication of the slightly different way in which Christmas is celebrated here. While the majority of Japanese are Shintoists & Buddhists they have overwhelmingly adopted the Christmas tradition from the West, but with several local twists and sometimes bizarre alterations. The exact meaning of the holiday seems to elude most people here -something to do with Jesus & Santa Claus??- so scenes of crucified Santa's on Christmas trees for instance are not an uncommon sight! Billions of yen also get spent on presents, Christmas lights & decorations, turning the whole thing into a huge commercial circus. Then again, shopping sprees seem to characterise Christmas for heaps of Westerners as well these days so in that respect there's not that much difference really.
Christmas Eve in particular gets celebrated in a -for us- rather unusual way because it's Japan's number 1 date night, on which every self-respecting couple goes out for a fancy dinner and most singletons either try to snatch a last-minute date or discreetly hide at home. Being the culturally sensitive people we are -ahum- we of course joined the masses & had a three-hour meal at the amazing, unique New Zealand Travel Cafe in Roppongi. Vaughan had a Speights beer for the first time since he left home, we feasted on New Zealand cheese, Manuka honey, steak burgers & Kiwi cheese cake and went down our respective Christmas memory lanes. I was suffering from a huge cold at the time but despite that it was a pretty memorable night :-).
Of the Japanese who chose to stay home a large proportion probably feasted on a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, as this is promoted as a 'traditional' Christmas Eve meal here. Whichever marketing guy convinced Japan that Americans eat KFC on December 24 must have received a gigantic end-of-year bonus because people order the KFC special weeks beforehand! Talk about globalisation huh...
Vaughan & I spent this year's Christmas with just the two of us in a scaled-down manner but that didn't mean we couldn't have some mini-decorations or a few presents! So this is it: our spread for 25 December 2006; pretty impressive huh :-). He gave me the spinning globe & received a Lonely Planet in preparation of our trip next summer; it's obvious what occupies our minds at the moment...
4 comments:
Hey, kwens jou en Vaugn ook een gelukkige Kerst en tbeste voor 2007!!
Hm, ik ben erg curieus, van wies is dit commentaar?? Alvast merci voor de Nieuwjaarswensen, 't zelfde terug!
Ola, twas niet echt mijn bedoeling om anonymous te zijn tis met Pieter Lesage,
nog een vraagje wanneer neem je de transsiberische?
De leute daar!
Oh my, I sense an exciting trip coming up! If you do decide to do it, it takes a long time and a lot of effort to organize, so plan it long ahead. Please email me because I have some useful links to help out with booking tickets, getting your visas and other things. You'll have no choice but to go to Osaka to get your Russian visas, and that's expensive and time-consuming so don't use all your nenkyu too soon!
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