Christmas in Kyoto

Has the holiday music completely driven you insane? Can you believe that there are people out there who actually like "Jingle Bells"? I'm disgusted too. And if you thought for some reason that I was safe out here, think again. Yes, even though the Christians in Japan represent, at most, 2% of the population (Thank you world factbook), you can still hear "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on every street corner. Yay commercialism. They're trying to hook the Asians as fast as they can. Honestly, Japanese people find it weird and because of the cultural overlap they're not sure what to do. Some buy presents for their kids, most don't. For the most part, people like it because it's festive. They don't know the words to most of the songs, so they simply feel like it's just holiday music. For some songs they have come up with their own words. That's really funny to hear. As for days off, the 25th is a normal working day. Everything is open. In fact the 23rd is way more exciting for people, as it's the emperor's birthday, most things are closed and there's usually lots of things happening. I honestly don't know because I wasn't in Japan for Christmas. I went to visit my brother in Taiwan (more on that later.)

Nonetheless, the city did put the effort for the holiday shopping season. It is considered the holiday season because most people take the week off before New Year's to prepare for the event. Yes, New Year's Eve and day and, for that matter, the week before and weekend after are huge in Japan. I don't mean people yelling in the streets or fireworks. It's more like a huge family event. On the New Year's weekend, the Japan transportation system usually peaks with people trying to get to their home town. The event comes closer to Christmas dinner then anything else. The tradition is that the homemakers do some form of spring cleaning all through December so that they enter the new year with a clean house. Many of my students have been complaining about how busy they are. In addition, they prepare a huge dinner that is eaten on New Year's Eve, with the family and then continued to be eaten for the entire weekend, I think. I guess it's to really enjoy yourselves and not be bogged down with cooking. The meal is called Osechi. It contains anything that would have been considered rare or difficult to make. Rare items are usually connected to luck. This is important to start the new year. I have no idea. It was explained to me but I don't think I can get it until I see it. The other tradition is to be eating Soba noodles at the moment the clock strikes midnight. The longer the noodle the better. It's suppose to symbolize long life.

My New Year's eve was not so simple and was not nearly as boring. I suppose this is the most popular time of the year for Japanese people to see their families. I couldn't get anyone to come out for the night to party as it was designated family night. Sort of reminds me of Christmas in Canada. Everyone was busy. Parties in general were pretty scarce.

In Osaka there was a little bit of extra lighting around the city hall. It was kind of weak and a lot less amazing then the advertisement promised. Maybe we came at the wrong time or something like that. I know that Kobe has some amazing light displays. I just didn't have it in me to go that extra hour out there to see it. Here is a picture I stole from someone else's blog just to give you an idea. I'm sure my picture would have looked very similar. No way to know.



On the shopping side of things, I found all kinds of fun things. Japanese traditional houses are very cold. The walls are made from paper so heating can be a real problem. We've been going through a whole new kind of hell with the heating here. I'll be sure to make a posting about it soon. But nonetheless, it gets cold in the house so people need their sexy frog bodysuit thing to keep them warm. I don't know why but it's funny. I'm sure it's warm too.

Everything from hot water bottles, socks, slippers, and pyjamas all have some form of twist to them from really hot and sexy to well.... just look at this pic on the side.

There is one thing that the Japanese have really figured out when it comes to Christmas and that's making it sexy. Yeah thats right. Because Japanese girls have long thin legs, the overall style here for women is to show them off. The closest thing we would get in Canada is maybe some sexy lingerie with a Christmassy feeling to it but here they have full outfits that really try to bring out the inner elf. Now I've seen girls wearing these outfits and I can tell you that somehow they pull it off.


The fact that it's not so cold here may make the difference. And as you can see there are a lot of styles to choose from.



Do you find this hot?




I'm usually the guy who seriously brings on the hate for Christmas but to tell you the truth this was the first year that something felt off. Maybe it was the lack of snow or familyness that usually goes along with Christmas even if you're not into the whole Santa Clause thing. The day came and went like any other day, and I couldn't help feeling that I missed it. I couldn't even Grinch on it with my Bah-humbugs because no one would understand what I was talking about.

One last funny story. I was leaving the gym and they asked me if I wanted to spin this lottery thing to possibly win a prize. I was in a rush and really didn't care that much, but I'm greedy too I said sure. Turns out I got the big prize of a Christmas Cake. Everyone was really happy for me but I was in such a rush my thoughts were more along the lines of "ok, I won, gimme so I can go". The guy explained where I needed to go and of course I didn't understand. A lady overheard the situation, labelled me a very lucky man and offered to show me where to go. When I got to the cake stand they were happy for me too and congratulated me and all that jazz and once again my thoughts were "gimme the damn cake". Turns out the cake was OK. But it was free.