メリークリスマス! (Merry Christmas)

Yes, Virginia, there is Christmas in Japan, but, no, Virginia, don't expect it to be anything like life back in Kansas.

The Japanese have come to adopt many features of Western society and adapt them to their own tastes. Included among those adoptions are Christmas, Valentines Day, fast food, pop/rock music and parents threatening to sue a school for scolding a misbehaving child (as has happened to a fellow JET's school).

Christmas is a relatively recent addition to Japanese pop-culture and, although decorations and Christmas music abound throughout the country in December, it is primarily a holiday for young couples and families with young children. Many children do believe in Santa, and gift exchange is generally limited to those who believe in Santa or have a 20 something year old girlfriend or boyfriend.

As for Christmas dinner, look no further than "Kentucky". Everybody who wants a traditional Christmas dinner in Japan makes a visit to "Kentucky" - "Kentucky" being what most people in this country call KFC. Somewhere in the translation of "Jingle Bells Batman Smells" Robin laid an egg - a big greasy, extra crispy egg, at that. People seem to think that chicken is the traditional American Christmas dinner, so those who wish to celebrate the season go out for chicken by the bucket full.

New Years is the big holiday here, and, unlike China, Japan has transitioned from the lunar calendar, so their New Year always falls on the same day. Next year will be the year of the rat on the Chinese zodiac (also the Japanese), so be kind to your rodents, amigos.


As for me, I'm going to be travelling in Osaka, Thailand, Cambodia and Nagoya, so I won't be writing much for a couple weeks. I will leave you with some seasonal felicitations from a weekend English seminar I helped run last week. High school students had to group together and develop small dramas based on the theme of Santa's reindeer being too sick to fly on Christmas Eve. Using the props provided, one young man developed a brilliant Christmas exultation:
"I'm black spiderman. I hate global warming!"

Merry Christmas, mina-san (everybody).
Happy New Year 良いお年を！

Afternoon Tea

Japan is not known for invention so much as it is known for innovation. Ramen comes from China, but cup ramen comes from Japan. Robotics developed in western science before Japan was a major contributor to the global economy, but today the country has more robots per capita than any other nation in the world. Tea Ceremony, Calligraphy, Martial Arts, Video Games, etc. The list could go on indefinitely it seems.

One of my biggest surprises in discovering Japanese innovations is the Japanese take on baked goods. The word for "bread" in Japanese is non-native ("pan"). It comes from Portuguese as Portugal was the first sustained European contact with the isolated island nation. This country has almost always had a rice-based agricultural system, so it would not seem likely that bakeries would be all too common here. Yet, they are.

Every day on my commute through the Fukui train station I pass Vie de France, a Japanese bakery wherein I frequently stopped for afternoon tea until I finally purchased a kettle for my own home tea-making purposes. When I was studying in Nagoya, I also frequently stopped by a train station bakery on my way home from school. What draws me to Japanese baking is, as already mentioned, innovation. Japanese bakers have taken the proud, long history of European bread making and, in a short period of time, adapted it to create own tradition. Green tea, poppy seed, pumpkin, sweet beans, black sesame and many other flavorings contribute to a style and taste that is uniquely Japanese.

They also produce many items on a seasonal basis. Pumpkin, for example, is very common in the autumn. At the moment they are featuring many sweet baked goods for Christmas (even though less than %1 of the population is Christian people still love to celebrate any holiday that includes cakes and presents).

some Christmas tree cakes at Vie de France

結構ヨカタ: just right, man, just right

So, I was in class giving some reading tests, when the bell rang for class to end and I turned and noticed something on the blackboard: Me! I added the peace sign, myself, but the rest is all student work. The Japanese says, "just right".
I think I look more personable in inverse colors, don't you?